Infant eczema

One of the first signs of food allergy in Lukas, and in many infants, is eczema.

I remember taking Luke to his first Christmas with my family and the poor little guy had this red, red rash all over his face. [picture to come] He had it for months and we just couldn't get rid of it.

Our pediatrician at the time recommended different lotions, talked to us about the soaps we were using, and we were careful to use hypoallergenic products on him but nothing worked. Hydrocortisone eventually helped, but food sensitivities were not ever brought up as a possible cause.

The first inkling that the rash might be related to milk came during a particular week when I noticed Luke was crying a lot more than usual, especially in the afternoon. I changed his diaper, burped him, massaged him, played with him, everything I could think of. If I had thought of it, I probably would have done a few chants or maybe an interpretive dance, anything to make him feel better.

At the time we had just gotten internet access so I got online and did a seach for other causes of baby crying. Got all the normal information but also found a couple websites that mentioned that food sensitivies, especially to milk, can often be a cause of infant colic or crying. Lo and behold, there was also a note about milk allergies causing rashes.

I was breastfeeding at the time, and looked back on what I had been eating. Like most breastfeeding mothers, I was so hungry all the time I made ravenous wildebeasts look tame by comparison. I was eating ice cream, cheese, yogurt and drinking lots of milk. (And lots and lots of Davanni's hoagies. mmmmm hoagies...)

I decided to try not eating dairy for awhile to see if it would help. And...it worked!! His fussiness decreased markedly and in about a week, his rash cleared up.

I avoided eating most dairy products from then on, but to be honest, I cheated. As long as he didn't have a rash and didn't seem overly fussy, I'd let myself have that yummy cheese or dish of ice cream. And I didn't have a clue at the time that dairy is in so many foods. So Luke was still getting milk products, although not as much.

Through his baby, toddler and preschool years he had varying degrees of rashiness on his cheeks and hips, and that is still a sign that I look for if I suspect Luke's eaten something with milk.

In retrospect, I wish I had known more about how much milk allergy can affect a child. But then (and even now) many websites and pediatricians downplayed the possible role food allerges and sensitivities can have with children, treating it almost an afterthought. The pediatrician we were seeing at the time was lukewarm to the idea that Luke might have food allergies.

The silver lining is we avoided major milk products when he was a toddler. It could have been a LOT worse. And knowing about that sensitivity is what clued me in to the link between food allergies and his behavior issues 3 years later.

In a future post I want to talk about what I've learned about why we are allergic to milk. (For example, think of it: We are the only animal that drinks another animal's milk. Is it any wonder we have reactions to it?)

In the meantime, here's a link to a site that does a nice, common-sense job of listing symptoms of milk allergies in babies and what to do: http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/allergies/milk_allergy.html


"If you were to open up a baby's head -- and I am not suggsting for a moment that you should -- you would find nothing but an enormous drool gland." --Dave Barry