HELP - Baby skin

[HollyJ96]

Any advice welcome

Some context.. (My poor baby who is nearly 5 months is really suffering with his skin to the point he's constantly digging at his skin he's always got socks over his hands.)
Baby was exclusively breastfed with no real skin issues using Aveeno baby bath and body products pooing regularly and fine got poorly started giving the odd bottle of Kendamil formula. My supply had dropped and wasn't meeting his needs so was introducing more formula he loved his milk but then his skin starting becoming rough it felt like sand paper all over the docs prescribed Zerobase but didn't make a difference was then prescribed Dermol 500 this didn't help the patches just seemed to spread. His skin was weeping in his skin folds had mucus in poo having explosive poos after every feed went back to the doctors and was then put an Aptamil pepti 1 for suspected milk allergy and given Cetraben cream he has been on it now for over two weeks he seems more content in himself but only having poos every couple of days they are swamp green in colour and explosive. He is also quite sicky as the milk is very thin. His skin on the other hand doesn't seem to be improving we have been only bathing once a week with just E45 bath oil.

Any advice would be appreciated, do we think it is a milk allergy? Doctor is due to review him soon. Should he continue on the prescribed milk?

Sounds like it could be CMPA?

Please make sure you show your doctor these photos and ask to be referred to an paediatric allergy specialist and also paediatric dermatologist. Is there any special allergy formula they can prescribe? Can you afford to go private?

My friend's baby had a similar issue and it turns out he had an egg and nut allergy and also hayfever.

also, if you haven't already switch to non bio detergent and put baby in cotton clothes only.

Good luck OP 💐

Thank you for the reply xx

I use just non bio and a little bit of fairy softener I cream around 4 times a day I just feel so down he wouldn't be suffering with these problems if I carried on breastfeeding 😭 it's starting to effect his sleep I wish I could afford to go private will try get GP app next week to if possible to be referred xx

This is what the GP said he's been on prescribed formula for over 2 weeks and no real improvements xx

What formula? It looks like you need neocate.

That is an allergy.

Stop using fabric softner, fairy is not good for people with ultra sensitive skin.

He would still have the dairy allergy if he was breastfed because if your diet contains milk he will get it through your milk. It takes 6 weeks to get milk out of your system and a further 6 for it to come out your babies system.

My dd has a dairy allergy and was put on prescription formula. I had to stop feeding because her skin looked just like your lo skin.

He is no longer breast fed whilst breast feeding he had no skin issues it was only when I started to introduce formula the skin was a problem. He is now fully prescribed milk Aptamil pepti 1 for over 2 weeks and no change to skin

oh OP, please don't be hard on yourself. All the allergy babies I knew were breastfed and it took a while to figure out what the allergy was.

I wouldn't wait for a doctor review, I would go and get an urgent GP appointment on Monday if you can and ask for specific allergy formula and for a referral especially if baby's sleep is impacted.

Gosh you poor thing and poor baby. I don't have any advice about CMPA but I do have a child with severe food allergies, and the latest research shows that children with ezcema are at higher risk of developing allergies if they first encounter a food through the skin, rather than the gut. For this reason I'd avoid putting anything on his skin with food products or derivatives in eg coconut oil, nut oils, aveeno (oat) etc.

@HollyJ96 he needs neocate. Go to your GP for a prescription for it while you wait for the dietician unless you can go private. I was around £200 for an appointment for dd but she was seen very quickly.

Are you able to go private and stick it on a credit card? Not something I’d usually advise if you can’t afford something but I think this is one of those situations that credit is very useful for.

Hopefully you and baby can get some relief soon.

You need to be on hypo allergenic milks for at least 6 weeks to see an improvement. As baby could tolerate you eating dairy and breastfeeding, the pepti may be ok as you would have hydrolysed some milk proteins yourself that would come through your breast milk if that makes sense? For us sadly that wasn’t the case, even though baby could tolerate me eating dairy, pepti did not suit him, but worth thinking about.

There are some really good CMPA Facebook groups who can give you more detailed advice. If it were me, regardless of what I have just said above, I would return to the GP to ask for an amino acid formula as your child really looks to be in pain with their skin :(

also wanted to say that the amino acid formula milks smell (and presumably taste) terrible!! Our allergist recommended adding vanilla essence or nesquik (yes really!!) and then slowly tapering those off to get them to drink it.

good luck - poor baby and poor you! So tricky.