Breastfeeding and eczema

[NoviceKnitter]

Hi there,

DD is 5 months and has developed eczema on her face. She's fully breastfed. We have a cat and a history of dry sensitve skin in the family but no allergies. I think it's been triggered by the cold weather, but the HV said

1. That it may help to cut out dairy from my diet

and

1. That it would very probably get worse when we start weaning and that I should breastfeed as long as possible. (I was planning to do this anyway and we are starting solids on Xmas Day when she will be 6 months.

Apologies for duplicate post on allergies thread but I wanted to see if you breastfeeding experts had any thoughts or advice about all this. I am of course happy to give up dairy if it will make a difference, but as it will be a pretty tall order would like to know my stuff first.

Any thoughts or advice very welcome.

Many thanks.

cant see what dairy will do as my dh has coeliacs and i thought cutting gluten would help bt our bf counselloer says all that is in breast milk is hormones so i dont know how that help??? maybe im wrong

also what are you bathing baby in coz prodcts do not help

but im sure you know that lol

Thanks Fio Fio. I'll give it a go, and take calcium supps I guess? Or eat a hell of a lot of watercress!

Yes, she's been on plain water since birth and a lot of olive oil basting as she's quite dry skinned anyway. And gets a bath once a week if she's lucky! Having gone down the aqueous cream route yet but have now got some Cetraben from the HV. So far have been on the hippy route - caledula oil etc - but looks like it's time to go with the HV and doc.

Re Xmas Day we are SO excited about her first Christmas parsnips!

Are you in a hard water area? All my dcs have been affected to one degree or another by hard water, developing eczema on their faces as a result. Whenever we visited areas with sofrter water, the difference wqas dramatic.

Dd was particularly bad, and the best thing I found for her was never to let plain water touch her face, nor any cleansers. So instead of using babywipes after a meal out, or water at home, I would wipe her face with bland cream on a soft damp cloth. At bathrtime I used plain water with oats, no bubbles, no soap except for hairwashing every week or two, and bland moisturiser after any exposiure to water. Also use as few moisturisers as possible, though yuou may need to rotate every so often.

Oats are fantastic for skin troubles. Put a handful of porridge oats in the toe of an old pair of tights, knot securely and throuw into the bath. Swish and squidge it in ythe water - the gunk that comes out is wonderfully soothing.

With the dairy thing, is there a way of testing DD for dairy intolerance or is it just a case of trying and seeing? I've heard such mixed things...

BTW try either cutting out dairy or washing her differently. if you do them both at the same time, you won't know which has the effect. Of course you may end up having to do both together!

Hi PrettyCandles,

Yes we're in London so v hard water - was wondering about that. Tried the oats last week in a muslin. Got most of the oats down the loo afterwards then washed the muslin - now all our clothes covered in stiff porridge - but will persist with the oats - wonder if one of those built in water softener things would help. I get very dry knuckles if i wash my hands too often and i think it is the water.

Use the tights and bin them. I keep laddered tights in a box in the bathroom, else buy cheapos from supermarket. Have you tried Aveeno creams? Very good.

My 5 and half month old DD also has eczema (also EBF). When did yours develop it? Mine started when she was about 2 months old, and I have been told by three different doctors (One of whom is DD's godmother) that when it starts this early, it has nothing to do with your diet or any allergies. It is just one of those things that some babies get and it will go in time (in fact, the earlier it starts, the more likely it is to clear up within a year).

We have been very distressed by it (much more so than DD), especially as it is mostly on her face. She has just been prescribed a course of antibiotics, and we are using a mix of hydrocortisone cream and E45 cream (just usig the hydrocortisone for a week). We have used lots of diifferent creams, including Doublebase and aqueous cream. i think you just have to keep trying different ones as recommended by your doctor.

I would also agree with the cold weather, but if the alternative is keeping her locked up inside, I'm going to put up with the eczema! She's also teething, so dribbling a lot which doesn't help. You could try giving up dairy, but to be honest, from everything I've been told, you'd be wasting your time and any results you may see are likely to just be a coincidence. The doctor we saw yesterday (who was recommded as having a special interest in rashes) said that it was an old wives' tale that infantile eczema is caused by allergies (but of course no HV would be spreading advice based on old wives's tales, would they ).

Good luck with it.

Sorry (I'm stalking you from other thread!) but I disagree with yummymam's doctors. My dd developed excema after her jabs at 6 or 8 weeks, and it is all to do with her diet.
If you think it is diet, and you don't want to try giving up dairy yourself (which I totally understand) try getting a referral to consultant and the hospital will do allergy testing. It will be a battle to get it though probably - but its brilliant when you get the results, as it all becomes clear. (as does the excema). I've found that one of the best ways of getting referrals is to tell them how much its affecting your life, and dcs life, and that you can't cope.

DS developed eczema on his face when he was quite young as well. It looked awful & sometimes it kept him up at night when he scratched it ...I had no idea what caused it but found no cream made it better so just tried to keep him from scratching it too much. In the end it cleared up all by itself maybe 6 months or so later....I never thought about a diet connection, although always wondered about the formula he was given at one day old & if that has compromised his virgin gut. I actually thought that it might have been caused by his teething as as soon as he had finished getting most of his front teeth it started to subside. He is now 3.4 years & has absolutely no sign of eczema at all.

Hi and thanks for your posts.

YummyMam - it's only just kicked off in the last couple of weeks. She's always had quite dry skin but easily moisturised with olive oil. She also had cradle cap till recently - the eczema seems to have replaced that.

Santagitta - I did wonder if there was a connection with her jabs as it developed after her second lot - but with these things you can plague yourself with wondering and I suppose it's just as likely to be coincidence.

Terramum - a friend mentioned a possible link with teething today. DD is teething (tho no actually teeth yet but lots of gnawing and dribbling) - her eczema is not in the path of her dribbles but the friend mentioned a possible enzyme/immune link.

Hopefully it'll clear up as lots of cases do - would just be nice not to have to plaster her with steroid cream if I can help it...

PS: Santagitta - loving the festive name!

DS's wasn't anywhere his dribbles either - it was on his cheeks...looking back at his photos of xmas that year (when he got his firth tooth at 5 months old) he looks like he had been slapped on both cheeks - they were really really red . Then about a month later he started scratching them...

I gave up dairy as dd was milk intolerant, and cows milk protein does pass into breastmilk. You will only need to keep it up for 2-3 weeks (takes up to 2 weeks to clear from system) to see if it makes a difference.

Agree that it may well be just the weather, but you won't know unless you try.

Get yourself some rice milk with added calcium instead.

Sounds familiar - someone asked me if she'd fallen over today!

Oh thanks CantSleighWontSleigh - if I give it a go now that means if it doesn't work I can still go for it with the stilton at Christmas... (just about)

Good luck with it. I hated giving up dairy, even for my lovely DD! (lol at the 'fallen over' comment. People used to say "yuk, what's wrong with her?" Once at the HV clinic, everyone moved away from us and I heard them asking HV if it was right that baby with a bad rash was allowed in the clinic. We got sent away - "well babies only"

Just found this re probiotics when weaning

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2057829.stm

And this

uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKKRA17935420070611

can i also pipe up and say my ds has excema from 8 weeks old - following his first injections. his was seriously bad...weeping/bleeding etc.. he was covered from head to toe in it all over his face and everything. he looked like he had been scalded it was that bad...But we went to see a homeopath AND a cranial osteopath and OMG the difference in him now. his skin is smooth and silky like a baby should be, he sleeps better and is rarely unwell.
both the homeopath and the osteopath helped him loads>

I would totally recommend it

what did the ostepath do?