Eczema on face - any luck w diet?

[Mamabear12]

I’m curious if anyone solved their eczema by changing their diet. I suddenly developed eczema or rosacea on my face after having my baby and wondering if it’s something I’ve become intolerant to. It’s not been a year since having the baby so it’s time to start doing elimination diet. I’ve cut, wheat; dairy, chocolate (don’t eat sweets anyway), coffee and nuts. When I was younger I had acne and realised it was nuts, chocolate etc causing it. It took a couple years to figure out what was causing it. It’s so damn frustrating that 15 years later I’m not having to go through the same diet issues of trying to figure it out. I love food and just want to enjoy. I’m already slim....so it’s purely to figure out my skin issues. And it’s frustrating bc sometimes you can cut things out and has no effect. Or you start eating something that makes your skin react...

I think it was sugar for me, I had a bad flare up when I was pregnant and realised I was not only eating too much chocolate but also having a lot of fruit and fresh juice (pints of tropicana - damn cravings!). Health visitor pointed out the amount of sugar in fruit and the eczema went down after I stopped it.
Ive never really been able to figure out if its also hormonal as pregnancies and teenage years were the worst for my eczema.

I wish I knew what it were. I have a little fruit. But not much! And don’t want to cut too much out. I’m already starving as it is (as I’m used to having loads of dairy and bread, pasta etc!). It’s only been a couple days and I see no difference...so not sure if I’m even cutting the right thing.

How long did it take until your eczema improved when cutting sugar?

It was gradual, it slowly improved over about 3 weeks. When I was younger

Oops too soon! When I was younger I cut out dairy as that seemed to make it worse and now I don't really have a lot and my eczema is much better. Not sure if it is linked to dairy or age!

I know this isn't what you asked, but try dermol 500, it works wonders on mine.

Are you bfeeding? If so I'd maybe think it was related to hormone changes. If not, did this flare up start over winter? I often found mine to arrive over the winter periods and disappear some spring.

Yes, I’m still breastfeeding (14 months later! Lol). I thought perhaps it might be that too. But not sure. It’s so frustrating. I’m trying to wean her, but she isn’t keen on milk or formula...so it will probably be a few more months until I stop. She eats well though and only breastfeeds three times a day.

It developed a few weeks after birth. I wondered if it was the blood pressure medication I had to take for a few months. But I’ve been off for 9 months now and it’s worse then it was early on and seems to be spreading slowly....on my face from Forehead, cheeks, To now a bit on chin. And eyebrows.

I’m tempted to go on a fast to try and figure it out and introduce food back one at a time (but not until I’m done breastfeeding). However, w three kids not sure I could really manage that!!! I would be such a grouch I think.

DH eczema seems to flare up if he has anything particularly spicy or too much sugar.

He was treated with a steroid cream but that made it so much worse so avoid that.

Hope you get it sorted.

I'd maybe try and work it out post bfeeding as there are so many hormone changes in your body when you're pregnant/feeding that it's more than likely related to that than a diet change.

My LO didn't want to give up the boob either, he eventually had enough around 20 months.

I used to have really bad eczema on my hands. I tried everything & nothing seemed to help. Eventually I read an article about probiotics & specifically kefir being shown to help some people, so thought it was worth a try. I started eating a portion of kefir each day (just a random brand that I found in Tesco) & it cleared up completely about a month later.

I still don't know for sure that the kefir caused this but it was the only thing I had changed & I'd been struggling with this for about 2 years by that point.

Thanks so much everyone for the responses. I greatly appreciate the input.

@LifeIsBusy That was my initial plan, but not sure how long it will take and it is frustrating me. Plus I didn’t have it the first two times I breastfed my other two. But I do understand every pregnancy effects you differently, so it’s possible the after effects like breastfeeding hormones also might effect you differently w each one. I’m going to continue trying some diet things to see if it helps. But I won’t do anything too drastic until a month after stopping breastfeeding just in case it settles on its own.

@Bubble5123 that is amazing! How did you eat it? Do you still have it every day? I will try it! I have read it’s healthy and I think I tried to have it once and didn’t bc I didn’t like the taste. But now I’m desperate!