Have you got a baby with allergies? My first, Miss J, has been an allergy bubs and it’s been a challenging journey. And I believe we have it easy compared to some other families.
Infant Acne
For a first time mum it’s often hard to know who to listen to, allergies or otherwise. My doula said something import to me in the days following birth. ‘Everyone is going to have an opinion on how you mother. Listen to your gut and do what’s right for you and your baby’. Oh how true this has turned out to be.
From about 2 weeks old, Miss J broke out in infant acne. It’s really tough to watch your gorgeous newborn having perfect gorgeous skin to teenage skin over a matter of days. You just want that perfect baby skin to re-appear, which it did/does eventually but it was challenging.
Anyone Say Colic?
Around six weeks old we found ourselves with a baby that would best be described as ‘colicky’. I don’t even know if I believe that ‘colic’ is really a thing. I know that I might get some backs up with that statement but colic seems a convenient title for “we don’t know what’s really wrong”.
Witching hour was really a thing. Soon the only way she would go to sleep was being bounced on a fit ball – by me and me alone.
My partner was the one who picked up that if I ate dairy it seemed to make her worse. How he cottoned on I’m still not really sure, but as I had not really had a huge affinity with dairy (apart from during pregnancy), it wasn’t a big deal to cut it out of my diet. We saw rapid improvements in her behaviour with this small change.
Skin Woes Continue
Around 3 months, once the acne had disappeared, eczema decided to pay a lingering visit to Miss J. While it’s clearly not dangerous, once again it’s unpleasant and at times can get infected. Infection means a round of antibiotics which we would to avoid.
When a child has eczema, then they are also at risk of also having allergies and eczema. No one can really tell me why, although you often get told “it’s genetic”.
Miss J’s cheeks and backs of her knees seemed to be the only areas that were a problem. A GP confirmed eczema and were told some fairly standard methods of keeping her skin moist and using steroids when need be. We elected to avoid steroids as much as possible.
New Rituals
So began our moisturising ritual. Every nappy change I would heavily moisturise her legs. We scaled back to 1 bath a week and would top and tail when required between baths. I believe due to this routine we were able to keep the eczema mostly at bay.
Doctors have said to me that diet has nothing to do with eczema. Really? I’ve witnessed the change to her skin when we added or removed things from her diet. Nothing else varied, so subjectively I can say that food does have an impact. I’ve heard plenty of other mums who will agree with this from their own experience.
Starting Solids
We chose to not begin solids until 6 months. It was a decision I felt quite torn about. There are so many different viewpoints about solids, in the same way that there are about a million different ideas on sleeping (which I’m still debating whether to share a blog post about or not). How do you start, what do you start with, when do you start? The choices are endless. Then of course if you make a mistake – for example not offering your child the allergens in the 4-7 month window – then you are likely causing them to have allergies. The decision really messed with my head. It was almost a case of my indecisiveness that actually delayed us until 6 months, and now that we are well past that I don’t regret it.
Testing Foods
Our child has ended up having multiple allergies and I don’t believe that we caused them by waiting to feed her solids. It may not be a popular view (which is kind of irrelevant) but I believe that her skin issues AND her food allergies are related and that her gut needs time to heal.
How did we discover the food allergies? Well we were following the thinking of testing key allergens to make sure that she didn’t have any allergies. We started with egg yolk and that seemed just fine after about 6 tastes.
Next we moved onto egg white. On the day that she actually ingested approximately 1/8 teaspoon of egg white, an hour or two later Miss J had a massive vomit in her cot. Then she vomited all over me. She had a milk feed and then brought that all back up again. Off to the hospital we went. After an hour or two at hospital we were told that she might have a UTI (we needed to collect an non contaminated wee sample to test for sure), she might have gastro or it might be an egg allergy, we can’t be sure. So go home and get the wee sample and go and see an allergist to be safe as well. Surprise surprise the wee sample never happened.
Allergy Testing
We were fortunate to be able to get a cancellation at an allergist fairly quickly. So at around 8 months Miss J went in for skin prick testing (SPT). Basically they prick the skin and put a small amount of the allergen into the hole and see what happens. If the skin comes up in a hive (a small raised lump) of more than a certain amount (3mm I believe) then it is considered an IgE allergy and there is a risk of anaphylaxis. Miss J came up positive to dairy, egg, peanuts, tree nuts and sesame. It’s a long list and doesn’t leave much in the choices of fat in her diet.
As she was only 8 months old, Miss J was still being breastfed. The allergist suggested that apart from tahini (which had definitely caused a reaction through my milk) that I could eat any of the allergens and it wouldn’t have an impact on my child. Meanwhile Miss J was not allowed to ingest any of these products for a year until we could re-test and see if she had ‘outgrown her allergies’. I have an issue with the term ‘outgrowing’ in regards to allergies. It is not a scientific answer for why a child suddenly doesn’t have something like an allergy or eczema. Again, I believe there is something more at work in the body that is not necessarily understood (yet) by medical science.
Vegans Who Eat Meat
We decided that I would steer clear of Miss J’s allergens at least as long as I was breastfeeding her. So both of us became vegans – who eat meat (sorry for any vegans that I offend with this statement). Although Miss J didn’t have an issue with wheat – in fact the Allergist recommended we include it in her diet – we definitely noticed a flare up of her eczema when it was regularly included in either her or my diet. So wheat was cut too.
At around 11 months old Miss J had a huge flare up of her eczema on her face, in particular her chin which got infected. So onto a round of antibiotics. The chin cleared up, and then the following week she got her a fever and was sick for the first time in her life. Nothing that any parent hasn’t been through, but going through it for the first time for all of us was a bit of a shock.
Weight Plateau
Around the same time, Miss J’s stopped putting on weight. The scales would go up a bit, and then back right off to where we were the previous month. She wasn’t losing weight as such, it’s just that the scales were not climbing. It is scary when your little infant is not gaining weight. They should be growing and staying plump and juicy like all the other babies. Without the fat in dairy and nuts, and also no eggs we were relying on olive oil, coconut oil, coconut cream and coconut yogurt to try and add some bulk. We had been warned against the risk of cross contamination with coconut products. Frankly we felt that we had to try and add more fat to her diet so we would take a feed and watch carefully approach. We also had a blood test done to be sure that we had crossed our t’s and dotted our i’s. And still no firm answers.
Allergies, Skin and Gut Healing
Miss J’s skin is currently the best it’s ever been. I don’t want to jump the gun but it’s amazing. She has a couple of rough patches as we head into winter. Her ankles flare up and get itchy every now and then. She also has dry cheeks at the moment. Apart from that her skin is great. And after months of fretting she finally weighs over 9 kgs! She is starting to feel heavy when we pick her up.
I believe that when the body is in crisis, it expends it’s energy on healing. So it can’t focus on gaining weight/growth to the same degree a healthy body can. My daughter’s gut (I believe her liver specifically) was working on healing. And probably is not quite out of the woods yet.
It will be interesting to see how her next round of allergy testing goes. I’m sure plenty of people say – yeah yeah they grow out of things like dairy and egg allergies, so it should be fine. I’m quietly hoping that she will also heal from the nut allergies. With a bit of luck – and some healing – I hope to be able to post that yes she has outgrown/healed from all her allergies. Fingers crossed.
For the source that I believe has the answers on eczema and gut health check this out. In the meantime we will continue to focus on healing, We hope to have bubs to full health very soon.
