Help - 7 month old suddenly developed eczema where do I start now?

[lizardqueenie]

Wondering if anyone can help- though I am going to make a drs appointment this week.

DD is nearly 7 months old and has been doing very well with weaning, happy with finger foods as well as purees. However all of a sudden she has developed eczema on her tummy, chest, back & legs :( I had it a bit as a kid and also a bit when I was pregnant.

I can't see that there is anything particular that has triggered this reaction in DD. She was formula fed and is still have the majority of her milk. We have tried cows milk, eggs only once and yoghurts as well as the usual fruits & veg and now some protein.

I feel worried that I have been a bit gun-ho with the weaning and now I am not really sure what has caused this reaction but looking back I cant pinpoint that it was anything new in her diet. She has however this week had a bad cold and a high temperature so i was wondering if that could have caused this rash, particularly as she was getting quite warm.

really grateful for advice as I feel like a really shit mum. :(

Firstly, you are NOT a shit mum.
Please don't blame yourself, you have done nothing wrong.

It does sound like the most likely cause is something she has eaten, especially as you have just introduced things like cows milk and eggs.

The best thing you can do now, other than taking her to the doctor for a referal and allergy tests, is to cut her diet right back to the basics.
Take out everything except the most basic fruits and vegetables.
Hopefully after a few days her system will clear of the allergen and her condition will calm down.

You can then start re-introducing things.
Give her new foods, one at a time and always in the morning.
In doing this reactions are most likely to appear during waking hours.
Also, you will easily be able to identify the culprit.

Did you give her egg white?
Egg white is very likely to trigger a reaction in young children and is not recommended for children under one year old.
Egg yolk on the other hand is far less likely to trigger a reaction.
I would not recommend giving her egg white yet, but you could try a reintroduction of egg yolk in time.

Have you given her cow's milk to drink?
Again, that is not really recommended at this age.
Cow's milk in cooking, yogurt, cheese etc are less likely to cause a reaction.

Don't feel bad. This can be dealt with and is not your fault.
Good luck.

Hey RuthChan

Right took a deep breath and now I feel a bit calmer about it all. Thanks for your post & reassurance.

The Dr this morning seems to think that it was quite likely that DD would get is as I have had it and these things seem to run in families. He has advised not cutting stuff out of her diet but continuing on as we were.
I think I am going to be more careful with the food- espeically the possible trigger ones. No havent given her any cows milk to drink, just in cooking & a couple of fromage frais. Have given her eggs once when I started doing blw but not really sure how much of it went in her mouth! My gut instinct is something around milk.

It sounds strange but is it possible that different milk products could have different reactions? Ie, shes ok with fromage frais but not with actual cows milk or is that just daft?

In the meantime he's given me a load of cream (non-steriod) to grease her up with as her skin was a bit dry and he wondered if it could have been aggravated by swimming.

Glad to hear things are getting back on track.

I think this is another area in which to follow your instinct.
Although the doc said not to cut things out of her diet, if there is something you think is effecting her, it might be best not to give it.

Did he not suggest getting her tested for allergies? If I were you, I think I might like to have a test by an allergist just to know for sure what to avoid.

With regards to milk, no I don't think it's daft to think that different milk products affect people in different ways. As far as I know, the proteins in milk are what causes the reactions in people. Proteins are altered by different processes, eg being heated. Therefore it seems logical that milk products in which the proteins have been altered might have a different effect from others.

It's good that he gave you some cream.
Water is very important when it comes to eczema.
Now that it has come out, you might not want to bathe her everyday and you might want to consider getting a water filter for your bath if you live in a hard water area.

No he didn't say anything about testing. Will see how it goes, I've also thought she's been a bit run down- bad cold with her first fever & I know when I got run down that's when my ezcema would flare up.

We must live in a v hard water area- greater London- I'm forever de-scaling that bloody kettle!

Hasn't heard about water softeners for the bath- I'll google. He also gave me some oilatum to put in the bath. She's as slippery as an eel & tucked up in bed now so we'll see how it goes.
Really appreciate your advice :) x

With regards to water, my DH gets eczema, as does my DD.
DH's used to be HORRENDOUS, truly truly awful. It covered his entire body from the neck down (thank heaven his face was clear) and even taking a shower with plain water was really painful. He spent half his life smothering himself in creams of all sorts.
To solve the shower problem we bought a filter for the bathroom. (I'm afraid we bought it in Japan so I can't recommend the make for you, but they are available in Europe too.) The filtered water was far less painful and far less drying.

In the end we cleared it up entirely with Evening Primrose Oil. Once he started taking that he found that it disappeared completely in a matter of weeks and he has managed to control every flare up since.
It's just a shame that our little ones are too young to take it.

Oh dear your poor DH :( Really glad he found something to help him but I think with a lot of things like eczema its trial& error until you fond what works for you. Hmm evening primrose- might give that a bash for myself.

I think that's exactly it.
Eczema is caused by different triggers in different people and is cured by different treatments for different people.
Evening Primrose Oil worked like a dream for DH, but it doesn't work for everyone. I can recommend trying it though!