My 18 mth old has severe excema. An allergy test showed allergies to wheat, soy, eggs and peanut. Any advice?

We have taken him off wheat for 4 days now, but excema isn't getting any better. The test did not show any allergies to dairy- but when I give him dairy - his excema flares. Just curious if anyone has experienced this and has any advice. Also any advice with a wheat free diet....that's so hard!

Sometimes intolerances can cause the same reactions an allergy would. Almond milk or rice milk may be a good alternative since soy is an issue and you think dairy may be. Be careful to read ingredients when it comes to everything you buy because there are a lot of things you wouldn't think contain these ingredients that do. Yahoo has a really good group on special diets it called GFCF Kids. You can find a lot of info there. Try changing the soap you bathe him with & see if it makes a difference. California baby tea tree & lavender wash helped my sons eczema a good bit. Organic virgin coconut oil can be good also. My son has been through all of this so I completely understand what you're going through.

Look up special diets so you learn more. It is tough. If you careful now, hopefully some of these allergies will go away. It has happened. Learn as much on food allergies as you can. Good luck! It is so hard with a little one who doesn't understand the consequences of eating, etc.

Try goat's milk and see if that is any better. There are also oat, almond and rice based milks at the health food stores.

My son also has excema and I use soaps with aloe and no perfumes or dyes in laundry soap or soap I use on his body along with using aveeno moisturizing lotion or excema lotion by baby orajel either one of these works and I always put it all over his excema right after a bath. good luck and I hope this works for you.

You must stop feeding all the foods allergic to the baby atlest for some time, probably till the bay gets resistence. Even dairy can cause allergy. Mean while, the eczema should be treated with medicines besides stopping allergic foods.

Once the eczema is cleared ,allow the baby for some more months to to recoup the health. Then again you can start feeding one by one the foods which are allergic in small quantities so that the baby may become slowly immune to those products.

Regarding dairy products, you can change different dairy,
like cow milk, buffalow milk, powder milk of different brands like lactogen 1, lactogen 2 and milk maid etc.

All of this you have to do gradually,meticulously on trial and error method. Who is the best guardian to the child other than you? Even doctor cannot help in some matters better than you.

If all milk products are allergic to your baby, then you can give the more or less same nutrients of the milk in the form of supplment of multiviatamins and calcium syrups.

O.k?

Soy, egg and peanuts are all high protein, the same would be true for dairy products so I suggest you speak to the doctor about whether you should cut out the proteins and find alternatives - google low protein diets. There are lots of wheat free products available these days, even in the local supermarket so hopefully it won't be so hard for you!

Food allergy often turns out to be a blind alley. It is important to know how the testing was done. If it was carried out by a paediatrician as RAST blood tests it may have some validity. If however bits of hair were sent away to some lab who took money from you it is basically chicanery. Also if skin testing was used this is not valid either as the mechanism for contact allergy is different.

I have a few standard suggestions.

Here is a list of do's and don'ts that I hope you will find helpful.

Things not to do:-

Don't use biological powders
Don't use fabric softeners
Don't use soap or detergents to wash with
Don't use standard shower gels or bath additives

Things to do :-

Try Fairy Snow -the old fashioned powder
Use dryer balls
Use a soap free cleanser to wash hands etc.
Use a moisturising shower gel like Oilatum
Use a moisture bath additive like Aveeno
Use a good moisturiser like Aveeno
Use it very frequently, you can't over-moisturise!
Use antihistamines for itch, a non sedative one like loratidine in the morning and a sedative one such piriton at night.
You may need to use steroids creams/ointments for flare up areas. Use the mildest you can, and for the face never more than 1% hydrocortisone, for the shortest time possible.

Sorry if you knew all of that already :-(

have u tried homeopathy? i had exactly the same thing and it let to lods more problems later on in life becoz the doctor game me steriods to treat it. i have dairy intolerance too! and my excema flares up on my legs as well! a really good subsitute for milk is rice dream but i don't kow if u can give it to 18 month olds, look it up on the internet. you can also get rice dream with added calcium so you dont have to take supplements (or your child) hope this helped

I suggest seeing a dermatolgois while he is having a flare up and have the derm biopsy the rash to test for Dermatitis Herpetiformis (DH) is an important associated disorder or complication of celiac disease which is manifested in the form of a skin rash.
Celiac disease (CD) is a genetic disorder. In people with CD, eating certain types of protein, called gluten, sets off an autoimmune response that causes damage to the small intestine. This, in turn, causes the small intestine to lose its ability to absorb the nutrients found in food, leading to malnutrition and a variety of other complications.

The offending protein, gluten, is found in wheat, barley, rye, and to a lesser extent, oats (WBRO). Related proteins are found in triticale, spelt, kamut. Refer to grains and flours Glossary for a more extensive list of both safe and offending grains.

That auto immune respones can be gastrointestinal in symptoms, in skin reactions, called Dermatitis Herpetiformis (DH). Often it is easier for ppl with CD to have DH bc the dermatologist can just biopsy the skin rash and if it tests positive for DH then the person ABSOLUTELY has CD. You dont say how or when the allergy tests were done. Skin testing has a high rate of incorrect results. I strongly suggest the test for CD. But the child MUST be consuming gluten at the time of the test so DO NOT do this without your doctors supervision. Since they have tested positive at wheat as an allergen, visit your pediatrician, ask to do the CD skin biopsy and do it under a doc's care. The child must have a breakout to biopsy and if it is CD related, they'll need to be eating gluten to cause the breakout--thus do this all under a doc's care bc if it is NOT CD and IS a true allergy you can cause anaphyaltic shock! Seek medical help, asking for the info I"ve provided! Best of luck. Amy

I also have severe eczema and am allergic to wheat, soy, eggs and peanut. Dairy makes my eczema much worse, I cannot have milk, cheese etc, I cut these foods out of my diet and have found that my eczema is getting better.

Hi, I have been there myself, what you need is a product that reboots your immune system. After having been in a similar situation, I tried SensiStop, a homoeopathic drug, litteraly on a few drops every day for 3 months and you stand a good chance of getting rid of the problem. Look it up on goggle, sensistop. It did wonders for me!

Wow what a good answer from Dr Frank. Take his advice.
You may find cutting the childs nails really short helpful though if the itching is bad enough he will learn to scratch the skin with a towel or sheet.
Avoid washing the child with any soaps unnecessary-water with emulsifying ointment is enough. If the skin really flares up and the child is miserable this may be due to infection of the excema and he may need antibiotics.

Check at your local library. There are recipe books for diets that you need to exclude things from. Some of them might work with your son.

Go to www.aafa.org since it is a foundation for allergies and asthma. I have severe allergies to about everything and I also have asthma. I refer to them alot and ask questions and they have some very helpful information. Amazon.com has some very neat cookbooks for people or family with allergies to learn to cook healthy allergen free meals. Also www.bobsredmill.com has different kinds of flours and so on that is wheat free. I have a wheat allergy and this is where I get alot of my stuff. You are right it is hard but it can be done. Since your child is so young read the ingredient labels very closely.

i used to have excema on my elbows and that would flare every now and again -- best thing to to keep a chart of when he has a good day and it doesnot get any worse and if it flares find the food which is causing it --- and avoid it - i used germalene obn mine and i have not had it for years but once you have had it it could come back -- go to a dietician and they will help you to work out a diet of good foods for you -- good luck.

Did you have this test done by the doctor/hospital, your baby is to young for me to give you advice as I am not qualified, I would only advise you to take him to the doctor A.S.A.P.
There are different kinds of Eczema, your baby needs to see Dermatologist , who can tell you what kind of eczema he has and how to treat it,
If you listen to a lot of people you will tell you this & that you could do a lot of harm to your baby, ask your health visitor to get you help,
I'm so sorry I cannot help you but I feel you should take him to the doctors as he is so young, he is probaly in a little pain as this will itch him,

Take him off all these things and see if it helps, it wont change overnight it will take a few weeks, but apart from the eczema I would be more concerned that he is allergic to these things because of anaphalactic shock syndrome. My daughter has these allergies and if in contact with eggs it could kill her, I may add she is a teenager.

Please, do your best to eliminate all foods that your son reacts to. If you do this now, he will have a chance at outgrowing his allergy. Some good wheat substitutes are: rice, corn, and amaranth products. You can either buy these flours and bake your own breads or you can buy products made with the replacement flours at stores like Whole Foods or other organic/natural retailers.

I *highly* recommend reading Understanding and Managing Your Child's Food Allergies by Scott Sicherer. The author is an allergist at Mount Sinai and his book is very insightful.

a wheat free diet is not all that bad but the bread does not taste that good. My daughter is on a gluten free diet and is also diabetic so has a very strict diet! If you need to chat to someone you are welcome to e mail me. I have lots of excellant sites that do gluten free food. Also a few sites that do dairy free!! Hope your son will be ok. My daughter was 2 when she was diagnosed and is coming up to 5 soon.

don't let him eat those then