Do natural products on babies create allergies later?

[Passthefleece]

Saw a video on social media yesterday where it said babies who have oats and or nut oil products to treat dry skin and eczema end up developing allergies to those foods. Is there any truth in this?

Worried as 14 week old has eczema on cheeks, neck and top of chest from possible CMPA and I’ve been using Aveeno Baby and coconut oil to moisturise. Would feel awful if I create these allergies for DS! GP offered to prescribe a “greasy” ointment but I refused at the time as didn’t want more chemicals on his skin but now thinking I should take it.

Yes, it’s new evidence that applying food based products onto newborn skin causes skin issues sick as eczema. Apparently this is as these products should first be ingested as part of weaning. A paediatrician called Dr Niamh Lynch on Instagram has more info on this including links to the research paper. So all brands like Aveeno and Childs farm etc are a no go.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9393761/

https://leadingsteps.com.au/leading-steps-news/infant-skin-care-advice

Thank you! I will look Dr Niamh Lynch up. So glad I asked!

Is it new knowledge? Dd is 11 and when we were seen at the allergy clinic when she was a baby they asked whether she had eczema when she was tiny, as this increases the risk of exposure via skin prior to them being exposed via the gut. Dd with food allergies had eczema from a tiny baby where as my other dd without food allergies only had eczema after about six months old.

If you are breastfeeding then eat lots of nuts etc. and they will be exposed to allergens that way.

There are so many things to think about as a Mum aren’t there!

I'm not an expert in this, but I do suspect that my DD's peanut allergy was caused by my peanut butter habit when I was breastfeeding. She had eczema and was very likely sensitised through her skin. Obviously I wasn't aware of that at the time!

However, afaik, coconut isn't actually a nut. Also a lot of the nut oils used in cosmetics don't contain the proteins that people are allergic to and so are safe for those with allergies - I presume that means they won't cause allergies either. How you know which ones though I'm not sure!

Eczema can be so painful and can be very hard to treat once it gets bad, so please don't hold off on the moisturisers.

Lastly, "chemicals" is a bit of a nonsense term - water is a chemical, everything is a chemical. So if you're ever reading something and it starts talking about XYZ being "full of chemicals" without being more specific than that (i.e. which chemical and why it's bad) you can take that as a pretty good signal that the article is a load of bollocks and just close it. Similarly anything that equates natural with good and unnatural with bad.

It isn’t about nuts it’s any food products going on babies skin can lead to allergies or skin issues. Not necessarily as a baby either. So Aveeno is all oats based etc and this also shouldn’t be put on babies skin.

none of those products are now recommended until after babies have had foods via weaning.

I don’t know what the alternative is! Maybe silcocks base?

What did you use for your DD’s eczema when she was tiny?

My friend discovered her son's oat allergy using alveeno on his eczema.
My daughter has food allergies and I was told not to use any creams with food ingredients in until she had eaten them directly as it could trigger an allergy to it.
She had a coconut allergy already identified so we avoided coconut based creams when she was a baby. Weaning identified her allergies as delayed allergies and have found she is fine with coconut in shampoos etc we just had to make sure she didn't try to eat them when younger

It’s an absolute minefield! As I don’t like the idea of putting paraffin on newborn skin either which is in basically every medical type moisturiser! I’ve stripped back on them all and we are just sticking with Weleda White mallow for the minute. I used this on my now 4 year old too and had no issues with almond, coconut or sesame allergies but we’re obviously only one case!

It’s a theory but you’ll drive yourself mad. We used Aveeno and don’t have any oat allergy. I also used coconut moisturiser on myself and no coconut allergy. Similarly, she will almost definitely have had wheat / dairy on her skin and is fine with those.

She does have peanut, egg and lentil allergies. I don’t even eat lentils so she was almost definitely not exposed to these through her skin.

Eczema makes them more sensitive to allergens, but it’s really a luck of the draw as to what shows up. Just avoid food based moisturisers until well into weaning so you don’t cause mum guilt down the line