Cutting out dairy and eggs for eczema

[FiFTM]

Hi all, just looking for a bit of advice for anyone with experience in this area! My 3.5 yo has eczema which never totally clears. We use moisturizer, bath additive and when appropriate steroid cream all prescribed by the GP, but it never is totally gone. My sister in law is very open to alternative and complementary therapies and suggested kinesiology. I'm more of a sceptic and tend to prefer western medicine but I said I'd give it a go. The practitioner tested him and said he has a Candida infection that needs to be cleared in his gut and that I should also stop eggs and dairy for a while to see if that improves it as he seems to be intolerant. I've heard lots about dairy causing a problem but then so many studies say that food hasn't been shown to cause it... I just don't want to eliminate and restrict his diet unnecessarily! Has anyone had any positive results with eliminating these and improving eczema, or would even reducing the amount help?

Many thanks!

My 7.5 month old has eczema. I gave up dairy for a month as I am breastfeeding but it made no difference. Here is what we did for 3 weeks on advice from doctor.

• daily bath with additive
• epaderm moisturiser onto wet / damp skin all over
• wait ten mins
• prescribed steroid cream on affected areas

Really worked!

Then when we'd completed the 3 weeks we gradually cut the baths down to 2 times a week (still using additive). Now we do:

• daily top and tail then epaderm on affected areas (twice if not bath day)
• e45 itch relief if she itches it (but can't use more than twice a day)
• e45 eczema repair when it looks red
• after her bath epaderm all over
• we also have new prescribed stuff but haven't had to use it yet.

It does look like we bought half of boots but it works for us. Good luck.

Another key thing is never rub skin dry with a towel after bath time as this can make things worse. Always dab gently.

My DC both have allergies. Both have issues with dairy and egg. DD's eczema was still raging with dairy free and it went on for a year, no creams helped. I cut out egg and it was gone in a week. It was remarkable and we weren't eating much egg (one blob of mayo twice a week usually)

When DD was a baby she had eczema on a few joints... it was very red and sore

We had private medical cover so saw a dermatologist privately.... since the NHS would not refer her or take little interest apart from prescribe a low dose steroid cream which we were told to use sparingly.

However the private derm told us to use the steroid cream for 2 weeks. First week twice a day, second week once a day. Apparently only using the steroids sparingly means it never gets rid off the full infection...

We followed the advice of the dermatologist re use of the steroid cream, put on her a dairy free diet and egg free as she was actually allergic to egg and the eczema cleared up and has never returned (fingers crossed) and she's now 7.
We slowly introduced dairy again once she was about 18 months old.

Some people have relief on egg / dairy free diet, other like me, get relief by avoiding sugar, citrus fruits and alcohol. Assume the last one is not a problem 🙄 But I need to cut those out entirely for it to work, no half measures.

Going dairy free transformed my child’s skin.
We could see an improvement in his eczema by the third day when it was visibly less angry.
It totally eliminated it in weeks. The gp asked me how we’d done it and said he’d never heard of it!
By uni age he gradually introduced dairy (pizza and garlic bread) and found he was fine. He can eat anything now.

Eczema can be a symptom of a dairy allergy, it's worth a try. Try total elimination for 6 weeks and see if the symptoms clear up then gradually reintroduce to see what the tolerance is.

Yes years ago when my DSis had eczema on her face a friend of the family suggested cutting out dairy and within a month her face was clear.

One of my sons had absolutely awful eczema as a baby/toddler but his dermatologist was adamant that diet isn't a factor so we didn't exclude anything. Then he developed bowel problems including blood in his faeces and the paediatrician told us to eliminate dairy. That fixed the bloody stools within a week or two, and by a month his skin was almost completely clear and by 6 weeks we'd gone from his eczema completely dominating our lives, to just putting a bit of emollient on at bedtime. The dermatologist still maintained that this was a coincidence, but I don't think so!
I don't think you have anything to lose by giving it a try for a few weeks. There is no guarantee of course, but it's not going to do any harm and it might help.