Where to start on eliminating food types?

[SallyDom]

Hi everyone,

I am writing for advice on where to start with trying to cut out food groups to see if something is causing my little boy's excema, Zac is 5 and a half months old and has has excema since he was a few weeks old. It comes and goes on his body but his face has been fairly bad for a while and is really bad at the moment, bleeding a little and weeping.

Zac was exclusively bf until about 18 weeks when we introduced a bottle of formula for his df. He is also eating solids now, porridge for his breakfast, and then fruits and veg mixed with breatmilk for his other meals. I realise it is a little early for solids but he was really ready for them and my instinct told me it was right to feed him.

From reading around I gather that oats can contribute to excema so I guess his porridge should go, but I wasn't sure which food group I should eliminate first (from my diet as well as his), dairy, wheat, oats or something else?

I have just read the sticky about how long to eliminate each food for, I reckon I should not eat each one for 7 days, is that right?

Sorry if I'm asking silly questions, I acutally feel really daunted about eliminating foods, not sure why I guess it's not such a big deal but it feels it somehow.

TIA
Sally
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[Jimbob]

I would say that you need to eliminate a food for at least 2 weeks before you decide if it has made a difference or not. I would probably start with dairy as that is a very common eczema trigger in babies. It might be that it is more than one food that is triggering your son's eczema, I know that was the case with my son.

Kelly

[KittysMum]

I do sympathise as my lo has the same problem - her face, shoulders and anywhere she creases (!) are very red, bumpy and flaky. My HV has given me some emollient cream which works in that it calms the redness down, but I'd like to know if there's anyway to treat the eczema.

I've just cut out dairy in the hope that that might help, but read on the internet that other possibles are soy, fish, wheat, beef and peanuts. I'm sure I read about oats too somewhere (and I ate loads of porridge).

Wheat will be a toughie to eliminate... cereal and toast for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, bread sticks as snacks... Think I'll get to the health food shop tomorrow and try and pick up some alternatives - rye bread maybe?

[SallyDom]

Hi Kittysmum,

I saw a specialist on Thursday and he said he was sure that Zac's excema wasn't food related. I would obviously have done whatever it took to get his excema better but for the time being I'm not going to cut out any food types unless our current treatment doesn't work.

Good luck tho in your food elimination, I know you mean about wheat; I also eat loads of bread and was feeling really daunted about cutting it out.

Sal
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[Jimbob]

I hope the treatment works for your lo. I have to say though that all the dermatologists that my son saw said that his eczema was not related to food allergies. We then saw a paediatric consultant after visiting A&E at our local hospital he believed it was. That is when my son had his first RAST tests. When we got the results and eliminated all the foods he had tested positive to we started to see a great improvement. Then over time we were able to pinpoint more food allergies and enviromental allergies which has enabled us to keep his eczema under control. We only get a flare when he comes into contact with something that he is allergic to now. I hope the specialist you saw is right unlike the ones that we took James to.

Kelly