Author Topic: I need adivice as I'm new to food allergies  (Read 5304 times)

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Offline Grants

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I need adivice as I'm new to food allergies
« on: April 19, 2011, 07:37:42 am »
Hi ladies,

DS is 19 months and has developed eczema about 2 months ago. The eczema is on a few areas of his body and it doesn’t get any better. The GP has seen him twice about this. At first I requested a powerful moisturiser. So I got Epaderm. The Epaderm didn’t work and the eczema got infected. So GP gave him a course of antibiotics and hydrocortisone cream to use on the infected area (fold of left arm) until it gets better. The course of antibiotics finished a month ago. I have tried stopping the hydrocortisone as I don’t really like him using it. But when I stop using it seems to come back again.TBH even the hydrocortisone doesn’t manage to make it look normal at all. 

I’m going to look into take him to a homeopath but in the meanwhile I would like to do a test, withdrawing dairy from his diet for awhile to see if it makes a difference?( he was sick after drinking his milk last night and this morning so that’s why I think dairy might be the culprit? ).

How do I go about this? Do you think he is too young for soy milk? Is soy milk actually a healthy option? Is there any alternative that I can use? Perhaps coconut milk or rice milk? I’m not sure about the whole thing as I have never had any experience with food allergies before? Do you think he might be allergic to other things such as oats?(he loves oat cakes).


Thanks for reading
xxx 

Offline koe2moe

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Re: I need adivice as I'm new to food allergies
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2011, 08:17:04 am »
hey!  You know what I would suggest :P  and I won't say it.  Try it so it won't become a long term allergy for M!  If you would take him to homeopath who can't cure and still cost you.. might as well give it a go!  Remove it when it's still new!  I have something to share with you... i'll PM you.  xx



Offline anna*

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Re: I need adivice as I'm new to food allergies
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2011, 09:28:57 am »
It may be an allergy to SLS detergents rather than to a food substance, especially if it is in the folds of his arms/legs rather than all over.





Offline Grants

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Re: I need adivice as I'm new to food allergies
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2011, 14:09:44 pm »
koe, I PMed you back. x

Hi Anna! :)
I don't know really. We do use a non bio washing liquid. It is starting to appear everywhere. It is on his hands, wrists, belly, chest, area around the mouth.(the chest and mouth ones are only starting now, but the mouth area one comes and goes). I gathered that DS has a very sensitive skin as when he plays with sand, glue or play dough at nursery the eczema on his hands and wrists gets much worse???? 

Offline anna*

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Re: I need adivice as I'm new to food allergies
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2011, 15:01:45 pm »
Short version:
SLSs are in all laundry detergents (including non-bio), all washing up detergents, all bath products (including 'sensitive' and 'baby' products) and all body products (yes, including Epaderm). SLS are a well known skin irritant, and lots of people attribute the rise in the numbers of eczema cases with the rise in use of SLSs.

Stan used to have horrible eczema which regularly cracked and got infected. We went SLS free about 18 months ago and ever since his skin has been 98% clear. I VERY rarely have to use hydrocortisone cream - once every six months or so, if that.

It's very easy to check if it may be an SLS problem, but you need to prep a bit. First you need some Dr Bronner soap (most health food shops have it). Dr Bronner is a 'pure' soap, it has no SLS in. Then you need a new, unopened tin of Vaseline. And a roll of kitchen towels.

Wash your hands with the Dr Bronner soap, (don't dry them), then wash one of your LOs arms or legs under running water (not in a sink or bathtub as they will have SLS residue on) again with the Dr Bronner soap. Dry the arm or leg with paper towels (not with a bath or hand towel as they will have SLS residue on from your laundry powder). The apply a thin coat of Vaseline (to form a barrier to SLS from clothes/carpets etc). If after 30-60 mins you can see an improvement in the skin on the washed arm/leg, you'll know that the SLSs could be a problem and can look at cutting them out.





Offline Grants

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Re: I need adivice as I'm new to food allergies
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2011, 15:34:57 pm »
Wow Anna! I will def try that. Do you think I can find this soap in holland & Barret? What about in big supermarkets? So what do you do with Stan now ? How do you wash his clothes, bath him etc?

Offline anna*

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Re: I need adivice as I'm new to food allergies
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2011, 16:15:55 pm »
Haven't seen in it H&B only at smaller independents - you can get it on Amazon though
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bronners-Castile-Unscented-Baby-Mild-Liquid/dp/B000O55I9O/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1303229198&sr=8-5
It's expensive but it lasts FOREVER, you would use less than a tsp to wash a kid from top to toe!

So, I am basically lazy and didn't want to change up everything in our lives, so I started out by going SLS free for laundry and bath/body stuff. It turns out, that was enough to totally clear Stan's skin. Some parents have to find solutions for dishwashing/house cleaning etc, so I'm lucky we didn't have to do that.

For laundry I use Pure Liquid Soap Flakes by Dripak. They're pretty economical, get laundry clean. There's no 'clean smell' but if you miss that you can add a shake of essential oil to the detergent tray. You need to wash things quite a few times to get the SLS out - I did all Stan's laundry and bedding about 5 times (don't need to let it dry between cycles), and now I just use that for all of our laundry. Now that his skin is totally settled I can do the OCCASIONAL wash with a 'regular' powder if I have a heavy stained load etc. Also, now that his skin is settled he can sleep overnight at his granny's (she uses regular powder) without it flaring his skin.

For baths, I try to encourage him to have a shower and just use a tiny bit of Dr Bronners to wash him. DH and I still use SLS products for our showers, so if he wants a bath I use a tiny bit of Dr Bronners on a flannel to rinse out the tub (to get rid of residue), and he has a plain bath, no bubbles. Dr Bronners is fine for the hair too, although tbh I usually just rinse it, he really doesn't need shampoo and his hair never looks greasy/dirty. Again, now that his skin is totally calm he can have the occasional (once every couple of weeks or so) bath with a few mild bubbles in and it doesn't flare up. That is a treat though, he knows it makes his skin sore and itchy if we do it too often.

For after bath/shower, we used unrefined virgin shea butter (also can get on Amazon). It doesn't smell good and is kind of a PITA to use as it is so solid but it is fabulous (AND no SLSs). You could try olive oil or sweet almond oil, coconut oil... I'd really avoid the specialist skin creams though, at least until his skin is totally settled. Again (there's a pattern here), now that Stan's skin is clear, I can sometimes skip the moisturising altogether, or we can once in a while use a 'regular' skin cream (E45 or Oilatum or whatever) without it causing a flare.

Wow, epic post! Hope something here is helpful!





Offline Buntybear

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Re: I need adivice as I'm new to food allergies
« Reply #7 on: April 19, 2011, 18:49:23 pm »
Loads of great info Anna  :D I might try that soap, we just use water in the bath and every couple of weeks DH will wash Olly's hair with Johnson's  :o. We use Eco balls for washing clothes etc.

Re dairy - personally I would think it strange for him to develop a milk allergy at 17 months. Not sure what other people think about this though. You could try taking dairy out if you want. My dietician wants to get us on soy milk as it is high in protein. We are on oat milk now though as we aren't 100% about soy yet. You could use any of the milks you mention but make sure he gets enough calcium, fats and protein from other sources.

Oats are an unlikely allergen I think.

Offline Grants

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Re: I need adivice as I'm new to food allergies
« Reply #8 on: April 20, 2011, 06:52:00 am »
Anna, it is all very very helpful! :-) I haven't used the hydrocortisone for 2 days now it is infected again. I'm fed up with it so I will def buy the soap and do the test. I will let you know how we get on. How long would you say it took Stan to get better once you started using the soap and washing powder ? Buntybear, I wouldn't say allergy but perhaps an intolerance to dairy ? He has too much dairy as he loves it. So I think cutting a bit of the milk intake might help ??? I have read a few times that eczema can be linked  to dairy and Laura(babybarr) mentioned that her brother develops eczema if he has too much dairy. I don't really like the idea of soy milk either. So perhaps I will use coconut milk as it has more fat in it. What do you think ???   

Offline anna*

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Re: I need adivice as I'm new to food allergies
« Reply #9 on: April 20, 2011, 07:21:27 am »
His skin was noticeably and significantly better very quickly - within a week I would say of getting all his bedlinen/towels clear of those nasty irritants. I can't begin to tell you the difference. Right now he's got about 3 x 10p piece size patches of eczema and this is the 'worst' his skin has been for a year, probably because I've got complacent and less vigilant about SLS. But I can definitely live with this!

When we we trying to clear his eczema but before discovering SLSs, we did eliminate dairy but it didn't make any difference at all. But of course your experience may differ! :D





Offline anna*

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Re: I need adivice as I'm new to food allergies
« Reply #10 on: April 20, 2011, 09:10:02 am »
I just got an email from a friend with a kid the same age has Stan saying thanks for the SLS advice her daughter's skin is MUCH MUCH better after two weeks going SLS free.





Offline LifeGiver

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Re: I need adivice as I'm new to food allergies
« Reply #11 on: April 20, 2011, 09:18:22 am »
Anna! thanks a million for the information!
I'm on the same battle with my 7mo DD... and I'm not at home so I don't have a GP to call to...
I'm gonna run allergy tests on her today. The doctor here in Italy said it is indeed very early but it may give us a light! I'm trying soy milk, shifting between the normal formula and the soy one but I think it's too early too say something (started yesterday), but I really might try the soap test!

All her bad flare ups started when we travelled, but I can't isolate the problem since we had to change formula brand, soap brand, and here in italy even the water is different! (I mean for bath, for the bottles I filter and boil!)

Thanks so much for the info, anna, and best luck with you coming LO :)
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Re: I need adivice as I'm new to food allergies
« Reply #12 on: April 20, 2011, 11:22:36 am »
SO interesting Anna! Thanks for the great info.

Grants - I'd probably try one route first rather than both at same time. So you know what is causing the problem? And normally I'd probably say go the SLS route first given what Anna has said. BUT given all of your LOs sleeping problems, etc I do suspect food intolerances with him and dairy is a good first step. I'm MUCH more in favor of coconut milk (or coconut milk mixed with rice milk even) than soy milk TBH.

I owe you a PM back - will get on that - been crazy here with Passover and DD of school this week!
Karen: Proud Mama to Marisa (8-11-05) and Matthew (6-5-09) and happily married to my best friend and love of my life since 10-13-01

Offline Grants

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Re: I need adivice as I'm new to food allergies
« Reply #13 on: April 20, 2011, 19:21:21 pm »
Anna, improvement in only 2 weeks it is amazing! :-) Karen, I think we are cross posting here. Lol I should have checked your PM first. I posted on the sleeping thread instead. Lol. So yes trying one route first makes sense but I have already tried the milk tonight. I gave him half of coconut and half of rice milk. Is this right? I couldn't do the SLS route first because I have to order it from Amazon and it will take awhile to arrive with the easter holidays etc. I'm a bit desperate as his eczema is infected again so I started the milk first. X     

Offline koe2moe

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Re: I need adivice as I'm new to food allergies
« Reply #14 on: April 20, 2011, 19:26:54 pm »
Grants and M. (LifeGiver).  I hope that you find out what causes it soon so that you can start managing it.  hugsss xx