Milk allergy and eczema question (long)

Littledeer84 · May 2011

Hi Ladies - I hope this question has not been asked too much, I scrolled through the first page and did not see anything similar...

DD is almost 6 months. Since about 3 months she has had some eczema patches crop up, including a large patch on her scalp. The pedi told us to to treat with over the counter hydrocortisone, and that seems to clear up the eczema patches. But the problem is she just seems itchy - she scratches her head and ears all the time, when she is naked she will scratch her belly. We put mittens on her at night so she wont scratch herself too much. The areas she scratches do not always have visible eczema.

I just recently read that eczema is sometimes associated with milk allergy (I feel dumb for not know this before), and am wondering if this could be my little girl's problem. She is formula fed (Enfamil Gentlease). I just cant tell if her scratching is because she is itchy, or if it is just her learning to use her hands. She will do that exact same scratching motion repeatedly on other surfaces too, such as her crib mattress, our couch, etc. But sometimes she will scratch till she bleeds, and I just cant imagine that is normal.

Any advice is appreciated - I am going to speak with the pedi about it next week at her 6 month check up. I just feel dumb for not realizing sooner that she might have a potential allergy causing all this scratching.

Miller238 · May 2011

It definitely can't hurt to get tested. My daughter scratched so bad. In fact, that is how we found out she needed glasses. She scratched her eyelids until they bled all of the time. That landed us at the eye doc because I was afraid she was damaging her eyes. Turned out she has horrible eye sight. The scratching always comes back when allergens are present. Definitely worth asking about and getting tested in my opinion.

AshasaurusRex · May 2011

Both my son and my daughter have a milk allergy. We had DS tested when he was just about one year old, DD hasn't been tested yet, but she displays all the same symptoms. They both have eczema if they have dairy (DD hasn't had dairy yet since we're BFing, but when I have dairy her eczema flares up), and if they even just touch it they break out into hives. For them it's the milk protein they're allergic to, not the lactose. If I cook something with dairy in it, the heat seems to break it down enough so that DS doesn't react too badly, so things like pancakes and casserole with a little cheese on top are okay.

nancyandnate · May 2011

DS's skin was a mess by 3 months and they kept telling us to treat as cradle cap. That didn't work. At 4 months, a derm gave us steroids for eczema, talked to pedi about allergies and eliminated dairy from my diet (BFing at the time.) Eliminating dairy made the biggest difference. He still has eczema...but he's also allergic to peanuts and dogs, which we have one. We've done a lot to minimize the dog dander from the house. When we had to switch to formula, he did well on Alimentum. It may be worth trying that, although it is a lot more spendy.

As far as treating his eczema, we've had a lot of success lately with using coconut oil on him. It works better than the steroids for us.

GL!

sophie888 · May 2011

The eczema is what tipped us off to a food allergy. At 4 months he was COVERED head to toe with eczema. He would scratch so bad it looked like we locked him in a room with a wolverine. Our pedi wanted to rule out food allergy, so he tested a stool sample and found blood in his poop. That sent us to the allergist.
Once we eliminated his allergins, his eczema cleared up within a few months.

TPOX · May 2011

Eczema was also the indicator for DS' food sensitivities (dairy, soy, nuts). I cut those out of my diet (he is EBF), and his skin cleared up in 2 weeks. He did that scratching motion on everything, too!

Littledeer84 · May 2011

Thank you for sharing your experiences! We will definatley be talking to our pedi about it - I just want her to be comfortable!

KingRay09 · May 2011

My dd does the same thing. We've actually had the same experience as most of the pp's. I took dd to a pediatric allergist and had the skin test done when she was about 7 mos old. The skin test didn't show a milk allergy at all. The allergist advised us to change her formula to Alimentum anyway because he said 1) sometimes the skin test will give false negative results (meaning you may actually be allergic to something that the skin test results say otherwise) 2) at the time we had tried several different steroid creams and nothing was working which indicated that dd had to be ingesting something she was allergic to, at that time the only thing she had consistently was formula. At the time dd was drinking Similac Sensitive. Once we changed to the Alimentum her eczema flare ups and the constant itching decreased significantly. Also, our pedi advised us to give dd benadryl before bed when we notice she is very itchy this also works pretty well for us. Good Luck!

novlove11 · May 2011

I don't know if this is the case with your child or not ( only pediatrician could say). But I had severe eczema ( patches that would crop up for seemingly no reasons & take forever to go away), for years. And found out when I was 21 that I was allergic to gluten & dairy. Now whenever I get anything with gluten or dairy whatsoever, the eczema shows up, when I don't, I don't have the eczema. Hope this helps!

magdusia · May 2011

I would definitely ask your doctor about an allergy test or perhaps switching her to a safer formula that has no traces of cows milk/soy in it. Your doc may want to first try different formulas and then do a blood test when she's one. I definitely would not introduce cows milk until she gets tested at 1.

My son had terrible eczema from birth (i BF him but i had dairy/eggs..) There were times where my son had blisters on his body and every doctor and dermatologist told me to use hydrocortisone and while the redness and blisters did go away, he was still scratching. The gloves did not help. he had to have tight socks on his hands b/c he would just somehow get the mittens off. For 6 months every doctor told me to use creams until he went into an ana reaction and we all finally came to a conclusion that he's reacting to his milk (my diet). I feel so dumb for not realizing it! and so angry for every doctor dismissing it and just giving me creams to cover it up. I must have used 5 tubes of hydrocortisone from 2 months old to 8 months old.

it really bothers me to hear doctors keep telling everyone to use creams to cover it up. Yes, we need the creams in case they do have a reaction so that it soothes the itching, but sometimes we can illuminate or change the childs diet for a cure, instead of adding creams to cover it up. good luck!

11kacey · May 2011

Thanks for this post. I have lots of environmental allergies (grass, molds, trees, animals) and when I was younger had an issue with dairy, although I am not sure if I was lactose intolerant or truly had an allergy to dairy.

My allergist has suggested that I bf to help maybe prevent (?)/reduce allergies in my soon to be baby... I will definitely be on the look out for severe dry skin and will probably eliminate dairy and soy from my diet if I notice any issues.. just as a precaution.

Thanks again because I am not sure I would have assumed itchy/dry skin was an allergy, after all, I have severely dry, sensitive skin too.

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