Eczema and food allergies

[Onelittleone216]

My baby is 7 months old and has eczema. Since weaning we’ve found he has an egg allergy and have been referred to an allergy clinic. It’s likely 3 months at least before he’s seen!
The issue we’ve got is that his eczema will flare and we don’t know if it’s an indication of another food allergy. I’ve kept the main allergens out of his diet for the last 10 days, and his skin has flared up this afternoon/evening. He hasn’t eaten anything new today but did try tomato yesterday (roasted and made into a puree with sweet potato, so unlikely to be a contact rash from the acidic juice) and he also had a pouch for the first time (of food he’s had before). Should I be thinking he’s allergic to either of these items or is just an eczema flare not enough of a sign? He’s not had any other symptoms (unlike when he tried egg where he got an immediate face rash and a very severe flare up of eczema within 8 hours).
I feel so frustrated as I want him to try new things, and especially want him to try other allergens like wheat and dairy, and now we have to wait again for the eczema to recover before trying anything else.
Any parents of allergy/eczema babies out there please help!

Tomato always made me and DD flare up - eczema sufferers here. Seem to have grown out of that allergy now as adults but we neither of us eat raw tomatoes only cooked.

It's so frustrating seeing what potential allergens could be. DD had an unexplained rash last year and it turned out to be grass and mild cat fur allergy - Dr looked back on past testing results from years back.

Are you still breast feeding?

Tomato is well know trigger so could definitely be that

Do you have carpets ? They can be a trigger

It's super hard when the risk of allergy is out there - my little one has reactions to a lot of foods and the only real advice I can give is to go slowly with new foods so you can assess as you go.

We definitely found that reactions build on reactions so recovering first from one was really important.

Ask your GP for antihistamine if you want some help dampening reaction more quickly - it worked for us but you may not fancy it. Outside of that get some good creams (happy to recommend some)

You need to keep a food diary. Food allergies can react anywhere from immediate to 3 days depending on whether they are immediate or delayed allergies.

My daughter is allergic to all nightshades except potatoes so can't have tomatoes, aubergine, pepper, chilli or paprika

She has 20 allergies in total and is allergic to more vegetables than top14 allergens. They are just the most common allergies you can be allergic to absolutely anything.

I have a weird food intolerance which gives me non immune allergic reactions as the histamine in food causes my body to react in the same way as an allergen!

If you're breast feeding then baby could react through your milk. Eczema isn't just an allergic reaction.

Are there other symptoms? How are nappies?

I can recommend Dr Helens allergy. I pay monthly for support for my 2. https://drhelenallergy.co.uk/?fbclid=IwAR1rE2fymXGDWm566QYoLoNz18W-NZntTWqLqMjul5A05Bj-SjssHH5n-tU

To answer a few questions:
Still breastfeeding yes (a bit of formula here and there), not eating egg and barely eating dairy currently (the egg is deliberate for his allergy and dairy is because he’s not having dairy yet and I’ve been having the dairy free alternatives we’ve bought for him).
We have antihistamine medicine from the gp and have used it when he’s really uncomfortable with itching, hard to tell if it helps or not.
We have a mix of carpet and laminate, he’s rolled around on the carpet since he was very small so would be surprised if it’s that, although I guess it could be making it worse?! What’s the options with that other than to rip it out??
Am going to try changing his detergent (currently fairy non bio) just to see if it makes any difference, but again we’ve used it since he was born so not sure it will.
No other symptoms other than a bit congested but every baby (and mum) I know is congested due to winter colds/bugs/weather. His nappies are normal (chunkier solids one as opposed to milk ones, and not green or mucusy). No tummy pain, wheezing, vomiting. Aside from his skin bothering him he’s a happy smiley baby.

The three main allergens I would be keeping an eye on in both of your diets are dairy soya and eggs. About half of babies with a dairy allergy are also allergic to soya. My daughter is actually more sensitive to soya than she is to dairy and can't have meat from soya fed animals. Absolutely any amount can cause a reaction. When testing if I could get any amount of tomato in my diet my daughter reacted to a barely visible about of ketchup of a bacon sandwich I ate.

I would start a food diary and list everything that baby does. Doing this I found that some of my daughter's symptoms were a feeding aversions, needing to be held and paced not allowed to sit or perch at all and also being difficult to keep occupied. These occured with a few hours of me or her eating it but her loose stools and screaming showed up around 48h later.

I feel for you. My baby was very similar, ended up seeing a dermatologist weekly and on steroids for months as we couldn’t get it under control and it got to the point that he looked like he’d been burnt. We actually never worked out what was causing the reactions. Then one day it turned a corner. He still gets minor flares here and there but they are quickly controlled. He started showing symptoms at 6 months and now at 17 months is almost completely eczema free. The older he got the better he got, the reactions to food especially lessened over time. I’d definitely recommend looking at eczema friendly clothing - with built in sleeves if baby is scratching. Best of luck, I know how hard it can be!

Hi @Onelittleone216 did you ever find out the cause of this? My 8 month old is struggling with flare ups, he’s has cmpa and a egg allergy