Unknown baby allergy

[Bacon1985]

Hi, I am just after some advice for some people who may have been in a similar position.

My son (9 months) came out in a rash when he was about 6 months old, it looked abit like measles but he is fully vaccinated. After going back and forth to the doctors they said it was eczema. This increasingly got worse and he would bleed behind his ears, neck and knees. We found some cream that seemed to work abit better then the others. During this time he also has had a skin infection and x2 ear infections.

On one of the visits to thr doctor I asked if it may be an allergy as it happened at a similar time to weaning and the doctors said it was very unlikely. Before he weaned we thought he may have silent reflux as he was very gassy and had green slimy poos. As I am still breastfeeding I came off dairy to double check if it was this and his skin seemed to improve. I did this for 4 weeks and when I went back on dairy his skin got worse again, so I have come off dairy again. However even though his skin is better then it was he still has skin flare ups and I think he may have an allergy to something else.

When I last went to the Dr's they said it was eczema and there was nothing more they could do. Does this experience sound similar to anybody else's? If so should I try an allergy free diet where I exclude the more known allergens? Can you go and request allergy tests through your GP? And if you can does anybody have experience of how long they waited?

Thankyou for any advice. I am feel abit helpless as I dont know how to help my son who is obviously very itchy and not happy.

If th GP is adamant that it's eczema and whatever they have prescribed isn't controlling it, then I'd go back and ask them to refer you to a dermatologist. As I understand it eczema isn't a straight 'allergy' but can have one or more triggers. It's more easily controlled using medication than by trying to isolate and eliminate the triggers - although obviously if something is a clear trigger then removing it should help. My daughter had severe eczema as a baby and we did take her off dairy and there was some improvement (she also had gastric symptoms) but ultimately it didn't completely fix her skin. When we finally saw the dermatologist and got the right prescription (GP can't prescribe all possible treatments, especially for babies) her skin was basically healed within three months and has been well controlled ever since. She can now tolerate dairy without any problems.

@newrubylane thankyou for the reply. I think i am driving myself mad trying to identify triggers and then test to see if it is a trigger! Good advise about going back to Dr's and asking for referral to dermatology, I think this might be the next step. The Dr did mention the dermatologist before but said he wasn't sure he could refer someone so young so think I will go back and query this.

Have a think about also cutting soya out of your diet as it’s very close to cows milk protein. I only had to cut soya milk/yoghurts. I could eat it in bread etc. egg was also a culprit for us. To get a diagnosis from a gp I had to do a stress test. It’s probably not recommended but I was at my wits end with them not believing me. I gave him half a teaspoon of yoghurt and he flared up in a huge rash after about 20 mins. That finally got them to believe me (he was 8.5months) it took until just after 2 to get them to allergy test by which time he’d passed step 1 of the milk ladder so was improving. They wouldn’t test him for egg because he’d never had it direct so if you’re asking for a referral make sure you’ve actually tried them eating it