Allergies colic Reasons behind my baby's constant crying, uncontrollable eczema and reflux

[Babyboy0987]

When I had my baby I was over the moon. I was even more excited that my baby had latched on well and was feeding bueatifully.
When my baby turned 1 week, he started to develop nappy rash which would not go away with any nappy cream at all. 3 weeks later, he started crying and vomitting large feeds during the day. I was told this was normal and that he's got colic which is normal for babies to have.
When my baby turned 2 and half months he started to get an eczema patch on his cheek. Doctor just said keep applying aveeno. Very soon this patch got infected. So doctor gave my fluoxcicillin antibiotics. The patch cleared up. But few days later the eczema patch got infected again. This is when the real nightmare starts.
Before I know it baby whole body's got eczema patch and are infected. His scalp is also infected. After going to doctor and hospital back and forth nobody could understand what was happening with his skin and so i was reffered to dermatologist who gave me mometasone furoate which I applied on his body and scalp and his eczema would clear up but would return again in few days so had to keep using the steroid cream to control the eczema.
Why my baby was 6 and half months I decided to give him egg and 30 mins later he turned all red hives all over stomach and wheezing and coughing really bad. I took him to hospital where he was given piriton and told this was a allergic reaction.
Right now my child has been diagnosed with eggs milk soya sesame and nuts allergy and awaiting to tested for wheat allergy.

In my experience I have learned that GPs are good for nothing. They are absolutely useless. Have no clue about a baby's health. The reason why my child had horrific eczema, crying unsettled and really bad reflux is because I was breastfeeding and eating everything that he was allergic to.

When I took these allergens out of my diet, my baby's skin improved massively. He started to become more smiley and happy baby. But I would say that it took good 6 months for his body to fully get rid of these allergens.

I have written this post so that I can share my experience of having a baby with multiple allergies and what symptoms my baby suffered.

Symptoms my baby had

• reflux vomitting 3 -4 times a day. Also bring ming up food when weaning.
• unsettled and unhappy. Very whiny moody and miserable
• infected eczema on face scalp chest arms.
• troubled sleeping. Getting up upto 10-12 times in the night.
• nappy rash that would not get better no matter what cream I used
• recurrent ear infections

If your baby has some of these symptoms then it is possible that your child may have one or more allergies. As a parent you know your child best and you need to advocate for your child.

This post is for awareness purposes to help those parents who's babies maybe suffering with the symptoms listed above.

This resonates with me a lot OP, as I had a very similar experience.

Utterly useless GPs who didn't treat my baby's horrendous eczema, discounted allergies as a possibility, and gave us terrible and dangerous advice (for example, that we continue to give him foods he had an obvious allergic reactions/hives from).

He never had nappy rash, but I suppose signs will vary for every child. He did have terrible sleep, colic, vomiting, reflux etc.

He's anaphylactic to dairy, egg, nuts, sesame and seafood.

We went private at 6 months and got the epi pens he needed.

I wish I knew the advice that eczema should be treated aggressively in babies, to prevent allergies.

I also wish I had introduced the allergens early. For high risk babies (those with severe eczema, for example) this means regular exposure to foods like egg, nuts and sesame from 4 months of age, if ready. The NHS have info sheets on how to do this safely

We had another baby 3 years after DS. When she got little eczema patches I'd treat them with topical steroids right away (she only needed low dose as we got in early).
We exposed her to dairy (via formula) with a bottle a day from birth.
We also weaned with all of the allergens from 4 months.
Thankfully no allergies for her.

Of course, her story is anecdotal, but what we did is the current advice from allergists, and it was never mentioned to me for DS.

4.5 months when we started on the allergy path
She started with feeding aversions before 10 days it's in my notes of things to raise with the midwife. These turned out to be indicators of her reaction
Continuous spit ups that her GP started her on gaviscon and then low dose omperazole
Her silent reflux was missed and was worse than her spit ups and didn't respond to the low dose omperazole
She couldn't be out of my arms night or day. I was utterly touched out!
I couldn't even put her down to fill the kettle without her screaming never mind making a cup of tea.
She cried for 16-20h a day
I started a food diary and was mostly vegetarian at the time it was very clear that she was extra awful when I had soya meat replacements. She scored really poorly on her 4 month development assessment. As well as not being able to be put down she didn't smile and she didn't turn to sounds or voices.
She had her 4 month jabs that afternoon and had a very strong reaction to it and screamed for 3 days which got us Infront of a paediatrician. He wasn't worried about the vaccine response but identified her silent reflux and put her on the highest omperazole dose and reintroduced gaviscon. He said it was unlikely to be allergies but at this point it was worth investigating.

It turns out she has around 20 allergies and has particularly stubborn silent reflux. She is 4 now and hasn't outgrown either thankfully they are delayed allergies so we don't need to worry about scary reactions but it's a challenge nevertheless.

Symptoms we didn't know were symptoms - pooing 20+ times a day, green and mucusy poos. I was always asked if her poos were normal and not what they were like. They were always the same so normal for her. We could hear her refluxing and swallowing the reflux but this wasn't asked about either and could have identified her silent reflux earlier

She was about 15 months when we identified all of her allergens and her reflux goes in and out of being controlled by meds. She's now on a cocktail of omperazole, domperidone and gaviscon and has to be on the highest possible dose of omperazole to get the benefit which can be hard going

Futurefry and superscientist

I really sympathise with you and your children's allergies journies. Before having a baby I had absolutely no clue regarding allergies. I knew eczema and reflux were common in babies but I didn't know that together they were signs of allergy.
Even the health professionals such as GPS and health visitors had no idea. I remember the GP got fed up of seeing me every week for the same issue over and over again, in the end I asked her to refer me to dermatologist.

I really do think that health professionals need alot more training in terms of allergies so they know what to do when these symptoms present in a baby.

My child now also suffers from asthma. Every 2 months we end up staying a night in the hospital due to uncontrolled asthma. And he has to have a short course of steroids following discharge.

My child's weight gain is also very slow regardless of having a high protein diet. I'm also struggling to go back to work because of this.