Breastfeeding and eczema!

[Gina1981]

DD who is 4 months has eczema. When I saw my doctor today he said that there wouldn't be anything in my BM making DD eczema flare up! Is this true??

It's particularly worst under her chin at the mo! Shes a happy 4mo who is thriving!! I'm a little confused any advice would be appreciated!

Is it just baby eczema? My DD has little patches that flare up from time to time but i am confident that she will grow out of it. I wouldn't worry about it.

Not sure about the breast feeding thing I breast fed my son and it was never mentioned to me and he had terrible eczema. I found a amazing goats milk cream, by elegance skincare used by my dr but not 'offically' and that worked in days

DS has eczema and I thought there must be something in our diet that was giving it to him. Cue weeks of me trying to find a magic cure. And lots of dairy free alternatives. In the end , for us, we just try to put a moisturizer on him twice a day.

UK Eczema Have the following to say about food and children.

Dietary changes can be quite helpful in babies and young children, where the emollients and topical steroids have failed to control the eczema.  Children under 5 are at the greatest risk of having their symptoms worsened by food allergies.  It is thought that in about 30% of children with eczema, food may be one of the causes, but a much smaller group than this (about 10%) will have food as their main or only trigger.  This means that only a small number of children will be helped by changes in their diet.  In other words, it is rarely diet alone that triggers eczema.

Thanks for the replies! Not sure if it's baby eczema or just eczema! Thought there was only one form. She has a cold at the mo which I think has made it worst but it's really sore under her chin! Doc said it's because there is a lot of skin to skin! It look very sore!!

my DS used to get sore under his chin, Sudocrem always did the job for us. I think he used to dribble a bit and it would be wet under there of we weren't careful. Are you sure that's not the cause?

I don't want to say something isn't eczema as I obviously haven't seen it and I'm also not a doctor! But similar to madaboutmadmen DD used to get a rash under her chin from milk/dribbles that cleared up in a day using caldesene powder. It's a medicated anti-fungal powder that's used for nappy rash usually. (I'm in Ireland so not sure if you have it in the UK)

It might help there anyway where skin is rubbing skin even for eczema? Worth checking with the Doc anyway. I use it instead of any creams for DD's bum at the hint of redness and she's never had a proper nappy rash, so I'm a convert. I also used it when DD was in a harness for her hips 24 hours a day. The physio warned a lot of babies get sores with the skin chafing and again we had no problems. (I don't work for them, I swear ;))

Hi Gina

DD was bf and used to get terrible eczema. It was so upsetting as it really affected her sleep and she used to scratch till she bled :(

But she's now 2.6 and still gets it but only in occasional patches which we keep well under control now.

I was also told diet has no effect on eczema but its utter bollocks! We found out when we started DD on solids that she has a severe cow's milk and egg allergy. I continued to breastfeed her till she was 2 but gave up milk and eggs myself and you wouldn't believe the difference to her eczema!

We used to put cetraben emolient on her every time we changed her nappy but now its just twice a day. And if she gets a really red flareup we used betnovate very sparingly. Doc says its much better to use a stronger steroid cream infrequently than a weak one all the time.

I've heard vacuuming every day and doing a rinse wash cycle can help (not had the energy to do the first one myself...)

Really hope this helps.

I'm sorry to hear that your lo is suffering from eczema. It is truely grim. Ds gets eczema, although his eczema started when I gave up breastfeeding. I think with emoilants its trial and error. For example I know lots of people including my GP who love doublebase, but my son hated it. Steriods are useful if you have a bad ezcema outbreak. My son's ezcema has got better as he has got older, although stress brings out an outbreak.

It might help to contact La Leche League as lot of people in La Leche League have children with allergies including eczema.

My dd's eczema definately flares up if I eat prawns.