# elimination diet to cure toddlers eczema



## deailedlace

hi there
I have a newly turned 1 year old dd that has had dry skin since birth and is suffering from eczema now evenmoreso during our dry winter season.

I am looking for input from folks that have tried out an elimination diet (im still bf'ing so I will also be giving an ed another go along with my dd) and I will also reply to this post in a couple months to let everyone know how this journey is going

some things I do to help so far :
totally eliminated dairy from dd s diet (about 95% from my diet) we do use goats milke and homemade almond milk
only use natural cold pressed virgin/ organic oils on both our skins (we dont use any products) castor oil and emu oil are the best for her eczema and vit e oil, almond oil and coconut oil are great too
bathe with lavendar essential oil and collidal oatmeal homemade, we dnt scrub but massage her skin with oil in the tub and about an hour after before bedtime, and sometimes again the next morning (especially her dry spots)

any other suggestions?


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## dmariev

Hi there! My DD (4.5yo) has also been dealing with this since birth. I found with ed that eggs were the worst for her. Unfortunately, no matter what I did, nothing 'cured' it. Coconut oil works best for her, and not too much fruit.

Hope you find what works for your dd!


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## coryjean727

There are a couple options for elimination diets. A TOTAL elimination diet or a partial one, kinda like what you are doing. A partial one would be to remove completely all the highly allergic foods from both of your diets. Gluten, Dairy (even goat), Eggs, Soy, Fish, Shellfish, Chocolate, Nuts, Peanuts, Corn... You have to very carefully check labels. Then wait till the symptoms disappear. Dairy can take a couple weeks to leave your system, and a couple weeks to leave hers after. (It took 2 weeks for us, for the worst of it) If symptoms dont go away. You have to move onto the total elimination diet. Anyway once she is clear of symptoms you add a food back once every 4 days. You will find out what it is if you are careful and pay attention. Its hard but well worth it.

I am nursing 2 girls with allergies. So that has me down gluten, cow dairy, eggs, peanuts, and tree nuts. I found all of this w/elimination diets.

Edit: It can be more than on thing. Here is some info on how to do a total elimination diet.

http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/feeding-eating/feeding-infants-toddlers/food-allergies/elimination-diet


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## fruitfulmomma

It would really just depend on what triggers she has. With my 5yo she started having problems right after birth so we went through several things - removing dairy made no difference for her so we added it back in. Through lots of help from the women on the allergy forums here I finally narrowed it down to salicylic acid - present in a ton of foods, latex-allergy with numerous cross-reactive like avocado and pineapple, and gluten. I stayed on that diet for three years while I nursed her and she herself as soon as she started solids. She is still mostly on it, I allow her occasional treats of the stuff that is medium in sals. But honestly after she was weaned the elimination seemed to stop working as well and her skin bad again. We are kinda in a lull right now where it isn't too bad if we keep her skin moist.

One thing you might consider *adding* is cod liver oil (or flax if you are veg). That helped my older daughter a lot.


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## foreverinbluejeans

My grandson suffered from eczema and we could have never guessed what he was allergic to without testing. Some of the most common things like milk he wasn't allergic to at all and he was allergic to more unusual things like chicken. It really doesn't make sense to do elimination diets for you or your child since there are so many possibilities. It could even be something that is not a food. I am very allergic to formaldehyde, it causes eczema or respiratory problems. There are many chemicals that release formaldehyde in everyday products that you could be using for your child, you, or around the home. Formaldehyde isn't even in routine allergy testing but they do have skin tests for it.


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## Taqah

My daughter had eczema -- it was not awful but her skin was terribly dry and she had red itchy patches inside her elbows and knees and sometimes would get hundreds of light red bumps on her torso that did not seem to bother her.

Before going to a full blown elimination diet I would try wheat or gluten. It seems to cause so many people eczema that I think its worth a try as it may solve the mystery-- that said you may have to do the real thing and should not that work go the allergy testing route. But I say take it a step at a time if you can and start easy.( Also, try eliminating the lavender for a while... not sure but I think I read its frequently a culprit in skin problems..)

She now only occasionally has dry skin. the solution was:

1. eliminate wheat -- not gluten necessarily for us but all wheat products.

2. big natural doses of probiotics (ie lots of yogurt and fermented foods)

3. use a mixture of jewel weed and plantain infused oil on her red patches or bumps see: http://livingafield.com/Ointment_Jewelweed.htm

4. and the more controversial one, I used tallow as moisturizer. see:

http://www.mommypotamus.com/tallow-for-skin-care/

The tallow and eliminating wheat has made all the difference


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## deailedlace

thank you so much everyone, this is extrememly helpful. I will keep everyone updated on our progress! for starters I am going to keep a journal and work on a few things in particular, give it some time and see whats night ...I am also going to try some of these suggestions . i am curious to know what the medical route for testing allergies is, I have not read much about that yet


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## fruitfulmomma

Quote:


> i am curious to know what the medical route for testing allergies is, I have not read much about that yet


I think there are different options. For my dd we had blood testing done. It came back as positive for the latex-allergy but nothing else because her issues are primarily intolerances/digestive issues rather than true allergies, so a lot of stuff like that is just observational.


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## foreverinbluejeans

Here is some info about testing

http://health.usnews.com/health-conditions/allergy-asthma-respiratory/atopic-dermatitis-or-eczema/tests

My grandson had skin testing done when he was about 18 months old. It didn't bother him much until he started reacting to things and it started itching on his back. He doesn't like his blood getting drawn and that is more difficult. His father remembers getting his blood taken as a child so it is hard for him when his son has to have his blood drawn.


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