More of an intolerance but can anyone help me wih this one? Think I might have found out what causes DDs skin problems

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I hadn't been shopping for a bit so for three days DD was without her usual breakfast of weetobix. She has had very bad excema on her cheeks since she was 3 months, she is under a paediatric dermatologist for it. Then early last year she developed psoriasis on her arms and leg. The dermatologist said she was keeping an open mind as to what was on her face, excema or psoriasis but treat that as excema for now. Anyway, I digress- her skin looked so much better after the three days and I realsied that just by coincidence she hadn't had pasta either so decided to try it yesterday and today her skin is terrible. So would this be wheat I should avoid? Gluten? Do people usually avoid both if they are avoiding one? Clueless! Any tips? I think I will cut it out for the next two weeks completely to see.

Out of interest tomatoes, strawberries and any red fruits seem to cause a flare up, wheat based snacks like quavers and baby crisps do it and baked beans are so bad that I always know if she has had ven a spoonful fro the state of her skin.

Tip for cooking wheatfree pasta - don't overcook!! It cooks v quickly so be careful, if you overcook it will stick together and turn gloopy - horrible!! I speak from experience!! Psoriasis and wheat/glutton intollerances very commonly go hand in hand.

Thanks for the links puss yes they are a bit chocolatey! The community nurse would freak! I am hoping really that it could just be the wheat because then she could keep going with the oatibix. Is that unlikely though?

Thanks BenFMsmum, I will make sure I don't over cook it. If you don't mind me asking, do you use wheatfree pasta because of psoriasis? I thought I had read that they are often related, much as dairy intolerances are to excema. Could be onto something here, oh I really hope I have found the answer.

I didn't start to use it because of the psoriasis but I do have it and it has helped. Be careful too with the oatibix - the flakes are fine but the mini biscuit type stuff has wheat in it!! There is a lot of wheatfree stuff around if you know where to look, it gets easier as you get used to shopping around!! Fingers crossed it will help your dd

oh no! it says wholegrain oats, would that mean its got wheat in? I got the ones that look just like normal sized weetabix? Was a bit of a battle to get her to eat them. Any other everyday type stuff I need to remember not to use? Its great that lots of foods have allergy advice on now, much easier.

It will say on the box if it has wheat in it, I think its the mini ones that have it in. Well, at least they did last time I checked!! If it only says wholegrain oats it will be fine. I find the flakes taste better imo. You may also find that she can eat a little wheat and not be as affected by it. I don't eat wheat (but can eat gluton) as it upsets my stomach (that's putting it mildly!!) but find that if I do have something with wheat in it eg sausages then I'm OK if I'm very careful for the next few days or so.

oh no sausages? She occasionally will eat them and its hell to get meat into her! good to hear that you are ok on small amounts though, I am like that with dairy. I can eat a bit of cheese but if I had ice cream or milkshake or something I'd be up all night with cramps and... worse I will do it then, thanks for all of your help, fingers crossed it helps!

You can get quite tasty wheatfree sausages from tesco's!! Sorry it seems that I am suggesting food stuffs that are worrying you more!! Wheat is unfortunately in a lot of things that you wouldn't even think of (did you know it is in a lot of coleslaw for example?!) but I think that if you cut out as much as you can for a while and see what difference it makes and then see just how much she can take before it really affects her. If you need good wheat and gluton free stuff in the future www.gf-diet.com is a good place to order from. They bake it fresh and although they don't have long use by dates you can freeze it. It can be expensive though so if your dd can get to a happy medium the better!!! Good luck!

Thank you and no, you aren't worrying me, taht is exactly the knid of info I am after. Great to her that tescos do wheatfree sausages and I will check out that website, thank you. I feel like it won't be as bad as I first thought and it is worth a fair go because if it helped Dds skin how great that would be!

Tesco's and Sainsbury's also do fish fingers. Sainsburys here do a very good line in frozen stuff ie pies and pizzas too. Sounds like she's got a great mum to help her!

Re. your gp: I think you'll find that generally they are reluctant to recommend avoidance of food types.

If you want to avoid a nutritionist, there's a great recipe book by Darina Allen.

And I've heard it's often what you crave which is the thing that's bad for you - but it might not be permanent.

Thanks BenFMsmum,its worth a try. Steroids every day don't even keep t at bay so I would be absolutely over the moon if I could get it under control.

Nontoxic yes they won't ever agree to avoid anything, the dermatoogist herself just said no need for that but then when I said that I have seen a huge difference since stopping tomatoes and other red things she just said that is interesting, its trial and error. So maybe it is impossible for them to recommend that sort of thing because it is too individual or something.

Will google Darina Allen thank you. I've heard that about craving food too. Hope its not true!

Not an expert but re: the tomatoe issue. DS's skin is irritated by fresh tomatoes, peppers etc. Apparently tomatoes and a bunch of other fruits are part of the deadly nightshade group of plants and commonly causes irritation.
Here's some info from a site

Tomato Allergy
If you have Tomato Allergy then you suffer from allergies Type 1 what is also called Contact Allergies. Since tomato and potato are related plants if you suffer from tomato allergies then the chances of you being allergic to potato is very good. A food allergy is triggered by a specific protein found in the tomato plant and why the body's immune system considers some food proteins harmful and others not is not fully understood by the scientific community.

The tomato plant is a member of the Deadly Nightshade family, which also includes the eggplant, tobacco, foxglove and potatoes. An allergy to tomato is rare and the worst parts of the plant for causing an allergic reaction seem to be the seeds, skin and juice. Some patients can ingest process tomato products such as tomato paste with little or not reaction, and yet, develop severe symptoms with fresh tomatoes

We usually buy Doves Farm Chocolate Stars or Mesa Sunrise.

Sorry posted before finished typing.

Those are breakfast cereals and the DC's love them.

DC2 had terrible excema and psoriasis. But with in a week of going GF it cleared up and his skin is lovely. He also had bloating of the stomach and his nappies were terrible, we had 3/4 dirty nappies a day and couldn't be potty trained. He is now has one lovely, solid movement a day and is nearly dry in the day.

Thanks mintcocaddict that makes sense because DD is ok ish with some things that have tomato then others it goes bright red, including the psoriasis on her elbows which hasnt even touched he food!But maybe that could actually be worse when the food contains wheat or gluten too.

MrsGokwan I will look into cereals. DD has very suddenly become fussy so I may have a job getting her to eat anything else so if the oatibix is gluten free will stick with that for now but definately look into some of the ones from the link for variety. Or even just see what sainsbuys and tescos do in thier free from stuff.

I have a feeling that eating at home will be ok, it will be when we are eating out but I often take a picnic for her so can just do that.

Also thinking back to what BenFmsmum said, its not like DDhas cealiacs disease or is actually allergic so if she had a little bit eery now and then its not the end of the world, it will be very interesting to see what happens. I will try to be quite strict with it to start with though just to get a good idea of how much difference it makes.

Oh! and on the cereals front although it doesn't say anything about GF on the box Rice Krispie type cereals are bad as well for my DC. Dietician said that it was ok to eat them but everything flared up again.

Oh ok that is good to know MrsGokWan, wonder what i was that made them have a flare up again? It has been really hard fr me to tell which foods were aggravating Dds skin and I didt know where to start so it may have been a stroke of luck that I didnt get to the supermarket for a few days!

by which I meant that I noticed how good her skin was looking and realised I hadnt had to use steroids on it for three days only epiderm, then thought now what is different and realised that she hadnt had weetabix or pasta. Right I am not making sense, time to get to bed. Thanks all for your help I have got some good ideas now.

It might be a good idea to ask your dermatologist if your daughter's suspected psoriasis could be dermatitis herpetiformis. This is a skin condition caused by a gluten intolerance and can be a sign of ceoliacs disease. My brother has both of these (although he no longer has the visible skin condition as he doesn't eat gluten) and we originally thought it was psoriasis.

I have had life long excema, and for 8 weeks have had to eat a dairy free diet (ds2 may have a dairy intolerance and I'm breastfeeding) my excema did not improve at all. I then also cut out gluten (again for ds2) and within 5 days my excema was so much better, the only thing it could have been was not eating gluten. So I am going off to see my GP armed with this information and will be mentioning it to ds2's consultant as well.

I think your idea to cut it out for 2 weeks is a good one, but you do have to be really careful reading food labels as others have mentioned. Once you've done this I would speak to your doctor about what results you found.

mrsgokwan I have only just seen your post from 23.13, so your DC had psoriasis too? How old? Its quite unuaual in children isn't it? Dd was 20 months when she was diagnosed. The patch on each cheek started at three m tough.

tutu I just found about the dermatitis thing on the website that Benfmsmum linked to. It didnt seem to fit because of the way it affects the skin. The dermatologist herself admitted that she is not 100% sure on what is causing the patch on each cheek (when its bad both cheeks are covered, its like one large raised sore bit with patterns in, bright red) but on her elbows and thighs it is classic psoriasis with silvery scales etc. But she often gets little blistery spots I am forever thinking she has got chicken pox. Pretty sure it is an allergy and it could be to do with certain wipes because often its in the nappy area althouh sometimes on her trunk and back too. Yes must find out when her next dermatology appointment is actally, we are dueone very soon and havent had a letter.

My brother said the dermatitis herpetiformis is incredibly ichy ( but then so is excema and psoriasis) he had a biopsy taken to confirm the diagnosis, but it wasn't until several months later that he had tests for ceoliacs. His dermatologist didn't suggest that, it was his diabetic consultant who reccomended that he be tested (he has everything my poor brother!)

My dd is like your brother bless her, she aso has a genetic condition which is similar to diabetes in that she is fine so long as her medication etc is managed well. Which is why its taken me so long to start properly trying to get to the bottom of this I think, lots to take on board. I am relieved to hear that your brothers dermatitis herpetiformis was itchy actaully because DD almost never appears bothered by her skin problems, it was one of the things that has always made me doubt it is excema, she doesn't seem to scratch at all, never has.

haven't read all the replies so might be repeating.

I would definitely go for wheat exclusion first - wheat intolerance is fairly common but poorly understood, as there often seems to be no medical reason for it. However, lots of people who exclude wheat from their diet find it benefits them in many ways (skin, bloating, headache, IBS, tiredness, brain fog etc.)

Oat gluten is sufficiently different from wheat gluten that even the coeliac websites say that it might be ok except in the severest cases. Barley and Rye are often problematic though (they also contain gluten and it is more similar to the wheat)

For an exclusion diet, you really need a minimum of 2 weeks exclusion before re-introducing and then do it very gently.

Have you noticed it with dairy at all? A friend of mine had eczema with dairy intolerance - when his mum took him off dairy, she said you could almost see the eczema clearing up - within 2 weeks it was gone.