Hi Joan, My 15-month old daughter has been suffering from a rash around her mouth ever since she started solids. We have seen an immunologist as my daughter also has a fish allergy (hives and vomiting after ingestion, positive on RAST test and skin prick test). The immunologist wasn’t too concerned about the rash and thinks it is eczema. He thinks dairy might be contributing and said to still include dairy but limit. We are using cortisone, moisturisers and barrier creams and the rash may subside but flares up again. I realise there could be many things contributing to the eczema and want to try and find the trigger rather than continuously treating the symptoms. I notice you have written articles on diet and eczema.
https://foodintolerancepro.com/category/eczema/eczema-and-diet/ Can you please recommend one of your books that would help me in treating my daughter eczema ? Also would you recommend my immunologist do any other tests (he only did a skin pick test for fish and no others )
Dear Hetty, Immunologists are frustrating as they mostly do not attend to anything that is not clearly allergy, especially as they often see severe symptoms. Maybe they don’t realize that they give parents whose children’s symptoms are not severe the impression that they are somehow selfish wanting other symptoms attended to. Thirty years ago allergists did not believe parents who said their children had delayed reactions, yet now delayed allergy is accepted. We can hope that the same will happen for food chemical sensitivity, some day! Yes, you can be assertive in requesting other allergy tests. Fortunately, some allergists who find no positive allergy tests refer patients to dietitians for diet investigation, with support from my books. Remember that negative allergy tests show you do not need to exclude that food at all. Positive tests are a starting point for exclusion, but they do not tell you all you need in a long-term way. But reducing milk is not the best place to start with a rash around the mouth, nor for eczema.
You can get Are You Food Sensitive? from this site, and work your way through the diet investigation process. The diet minimising additives, salicylates, amines and MSG is the place to start. You can read the chapter on the Family Sensitivity History and talk to your Mum about your side of the family, and your mother-in-law about the paternal side. Do check on problems anyone had in infancy. They are often forgotten as the child “grew out of them”. And check on fussiness in anyone. That tells you about foods that are voluntarily reduced but not thought of as important when that information may tell you something. Someone not liking strong spice or citrus are examples. The book has all the detail you need to manage the investigation over time. This includes guidelines on how to reduce milk to avoid complete exclusion if that is what you want. Since I have a special interest in eczema, there are hints there not mentioned in other places.
You could also read about any fussiness or pickiness on https://foodintolerancepro.com/babies-food-gourmets-cant-talk/ so you feel supported in believing there is something different about your baby.
In the long term you will also find Tolerating Troublesome Foods useful as it has different detail on how to gradually test reintroduction of over 300 foods, and all the info on how and why reactions can differ at different times. Remember you can also get my books to read from Amazon Kindle for $5.50 each. You have the right story for a diet trial to be successful. I support you! Joan
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