Rash and food allergies?

[Anonymous]

Hi-

I have not been on this forum for a few months. My almost 8 mos old Brian has reflux but it has been under control the past few months with Prevacid and Carafate. He has been on Good Start formula since his first week as a supplement to breastfeeding and we switched over to 100% formula around 2 mos of age. We introduced solids around 5 mos of age and started with rice cereal, the stage 1 fruits and veggies. At 6 mos, we added oatmeal and some additional fruit and veggie combos. At 7 months, he developed a pretty bad rash around his mouth that wouldn’t go away. It is not there when he wakes up in the morning but it starts to appear during the day and gradually gets worse. At first, we thought it was from his pacifier so we gradually weaned him off that but he still had the rash. Then I thought it might be pears since it always seemed to get worse when he ate pears so I stopped pears but still the rash. I’ve also stopped oatmeal and sweet potatoes but no change. The past few weeks, he has also been wheezing and come down with a double ear infection. He is always congested now. The pedi says it’s just the time of year and chalks up his rash to the cold weather. But it gets very red with little bumps and blotches all around his mouth and on his chin but nowhere else. He has also become increasingly irritable and he hasn’t gained weight in about a month (he is 75th% for weight so I’m not overly concerned right now but I will be if this keeps up). I made an appt with a pedi allergist but it is over a month away. Does this sound like a food allergy? Any thoughts for tests I should ask the allergist to run? I know allergy testing can be unreliable in babies this young. Any suggestions for how to treat the rash in the meantime? I’ve been applying vaseline to it several times a day and putting a little hydrocortisone on it at night. Thanks for any input or advice! Kelly

[Anonymous]

I don’t know a lot about food allergies (vs milk allergies ;-)) but when Alana eats tomato she gets a red rash around her mouth and chin and goes bright read in the cheeks. Its is very hard to get rid of. I was reccomended to use a milk hydrocortisone cream by the dr and that did the trick (i did have to apply it a couple of times a day and be really sure I kept doing it until it had totally disappeared).

[Anonymous]

Is he drooling allot during the day? Could it just be that his skin gets irritated from saliva? Just a thought… doesn’t really sound like an allergy to me, but it could be.

[Anonymous]

This is tough for me b/c we’ve been battling a rash that sounds just like that around landens waistline where his diaper fastens. His pedi seems to think it could be food allergy since we’ve changed every brand of diaper and wipes known to man. It will clear up with an Rx cream and return as soon as he eats the next day. I can never figure out what the culprit is!! We may do allergy testing at age 1 (in about 7-8 weeks) to help clear some of this up. I’m just not sure what kind of testing is most accurate.

Sorry I am not much help. I just sympathize.

[Anonymous]

That sounds a lot like what Ben had on his face about this time last year. I, too, thought it was food related, but the only thing he was eating at the time was oatmeal. (maybe try cutting that just to be sure??) Anyway, what I THINK was going on was that he was having a hard time, reflux wise and the acidic drool and dry air was too much for his skin to handle. Like you said, it was better in the morning, but would get worse as the day continued. It never really cleared up totally until the weather changed and his reflux started to settle down.

I tried everything I could think of to treat it, so I think what you are doing is just fine.

Ben’s reflux did peak again around 7 months, so maybe that’s what is going on.

I’ll try to find a picture of it and post that.

Bensmama2008-01-05 14:07:05

[Anonymous]

Ok, hopefully this works!

[Anonymous]

Well, I tried to make is smaller, but it wouldn’t let me. But I guess you can see the rash well now!

[hellbennt]

any chance it’s soy? is there soy in the oatmeal? hmm…

oh wait, you said you stopped the oatmeal…

what is he eating? maybe look at the ingredients? could it be corn syrup?

not sure what else to suggest?

[Anonymous]

I tried to post a picture of Kaelyn’s initial allergy rash, but I can’t figure it out. I don’t really have a great picture anyway, so I’m giving up.

To answer your question…our initial sign of allergy with Kaelyn was a rash on her face. Initially her ped blamed it on drool from teething, then it was winter dryness, then it was “just eczema”. Over time the rash gradually spread onto her trunk and legs (and diaper area). It was really hard to classify because it kept moving (which was one of the peds reasons for saying just eczema). By the time we finally got testing done, it had become almost like boils all over her body. However, it took several months to get to that point. I can’t remember exactly when the rash started, maybe somewhere between 4 and 6 months, and she wasn’t tested until 16 months. It really got worse when we stopped Nutramigen and switched to whole milk.

I finally got frustrated and talked to my allergist at my checkup. He suggested that I ask the ped to run a RAST blood test and see if anything showed up. Fortunately, the ped agreed and the tests came back with a positive for milk and wheat. He then referred us to the allergist who did skin prick testing that showed the apple and peach allergies.

Both types of testing are not entirely accurate at such a young age, but they definitely can help. RAST tests tend towards false negatives and skin testing tends toward false positives. We were overly sensitive to allergy issues with Alexandra, so I kept her on Kaelyn’s diet when we first introduced solids. She had RAST testing done at 9 months and it showed a milk allergy. We did further allergy testing around 14 months (I think) and she had outgrown her milk allergy and didn’t show any other allergies. So, I definitely think testing is worth it. That turned out to be a lot longer than I intended – sorry!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies! Here is a picture of Brian’s rash. To me, it looks more like allergy than weather related but I’m curious what others think. Thanks again! Kellyhttp://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd59/kell_mom/IMG_2742.jpg

[Anonymous]

Sounds like food allergy or intolerance to me. I’ve been doing A LOT of reading on this issue lately since we’ve discovered our 2 years old is allergic or intolerant to so many foods. Food intolerances often produce symptoms not typically associated with allergies – like a chronic runny or stuffy nose, ear infections, asthma, rashes, eczema, etc. For a number of these symptoms to be present together, I would really suspect a food intolerance.

[Anonymous]

That rash reminds me of Kaelyn’s at that age. It seems a bit extreme for just winter weather.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, everyone! We’ve eliminated several foods from Brian’s diet and I’ve also been slathering Vaseline around his mouth several times a day and his rash is gone for now but he is still wheezy. We see the pedi allergist on Jan 29th so I will post an update when I have news. Our pedi GI saw the pic and thinks it could be food allergies. She said since he is less than a year old that the allergist will prob only do the RAST test and not the skin test but we’ll see.

[Anonymous]

Oh that’s good news – I would actually recommend a RAST test over the skin test. It is often more reliable in little ones. I hope you get some answers from the ped allergist!

[Author]

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