Food allergies seem to be quite a controversial subject when it comes to eczema triggers. Health practitioners are taught that food does not contribute to eczema flare-ups and that eczema cannot be cured, only managed - hence the standard prescriptions for steroid creams.
My personal experience, however, taught me otherwise. Since then I have helped many other parents to heal their child's eczema via identifying and dealing with food allergies and sensitivities.
When I think about the digestive tract I often imagine its walls as our inner skin. Therefore if our outer skin can develop allergies when it comes into contact with an allergen, then it stands to reason that our inner skin can also develop allergies based on similar mechanism.
I have often quoted that eczema is an inner conditon and that genuine healing comes from within. When food is ingested, it comes into contact with the walls of the digestive tract. So if the baby is allergic / sensitive to a particular food component (esp. protein) the body will try to eliminate it by producting extra mucus or diarrhoea. If such body reactions go unnoticed and the ingestion of the particular allergen continues it may lead to inflammation and eventually to a leaky gut. Once the integrity of the gut wall becomes compromised, more and more allergies may develop.
Because of everyone's individual make-up, it is possible to be allergic / intolerant to just about any food. This is because every food is composed of natural chemicals that our immune system may react to (e.g. salicylates, amines, tannins, caffeine, etc).
Identifying a food allergy / intolerance could be quite a challenging and time-consuming task. Fortunately there is a group of foods that make up about 90% of the most common allergens:
- milk (dairy)
- peanuts
- eggs (mainly egg whites)
- wheat
- seafood & fish
- soy
- nuts
- citrus fruits (mainly oranges)
- strawberries
- night shade family vegetables
(tomatoes, aubergines, bell peppers,
chillies, potatoes)
- chocolate
How to test your baby's allergies
There are numerous ways of testing what your baby is allergic to via both conventional and alternative approach. All methods have their pros and cons however I have summarized the most popular methods below:
The Skin Prick Testand the Blood Test (also known as RAST) are the conventional allergy tests that are used to test immediate allergic reactions (IgE mediated food allergy). Unfortunately, the blood test can be very expensive since the blood has to be sent to a specialized immunology laboratory to obtain results. Therefore the most commonly used diagnostic test in food and pollen allergy is the skin prick test.
Skin prick testing is a precise way of identifying food allergens in babies and small children. As children grow older this method becomes less reliable. The test is usually done for the main suspects such as dairy, gluten, eggs, soy, nuts and fish. Skin prick testing is also useful in detecting environmental allergens such as house dust mites, tree and grass pollens, animal dander, etc. The test can be performed at any age. If done properly, the test is simple and painless. The earlier the test is done the better since once the food trigger has been taken out of the baby's (and the breastfeeding mother's) diet, the easier it is for the body to go about healing.
The downside of this method is that it detects only immediate food allergies (involving the immune system) and will not pick up on any food sensitivities. Unfortunately skin prick testing is neither accurate for identifying intolerances to fruits and vegetables because your baby will most likely react to the naturally occurring chemicals in those foods instead of the food proteins.
Skin prick testing can give you a good head start however it is not foolproof. I therefore advocate the elimination diet since it is the most accurate way of finding out if your baby is allergic / intolerant to one (or more) of the above listed foods. All you need to do is to eliminate all of those foods from your baby's diet for a period of 3 weeks and see if their symptoms improve (if the mum is breastfeeding, she will have to follow the same). You should keep in mind that it may take up to 20 days for a food protein residue to leave your baby's system entirely - this is vital for the skin healing process to begin.
Avoidance of the offending foods for a longer period of time often resolves the problem however sometimes you will have to explore alternative methods of treatment if new sensitivities start to develop. My baby's dairy allergy has been helped with a therapy that works on the energetic level correcting the underlying disturbance and clearing energetic blockages. It helps calm down the overactive immune system by desensitizing it against allergens. What's more, not only does it treat allergies but it also helps with better assimilation of nutrients. I have learnt that people can be allergic to just about anything even vitamins and minerals. So no amount of supplementation will make their condition any better. This effective method restores the patient's energy flow resulting in permanent relief and improved health.
Another big clue when tracking down food allergies (esp. to dairy) is the colour and consistency of your baby's stool. If it is green with mucus and some streaks of blood in it, it usually indicates that your baby's intestinal lining is irritated due to a food allergy / intolerance. Because your baby's digestive system is still developing, your baby may find it difficult to digest some food proteins (especially from cow's milk that accounts for most of food allergies in babies). There could be other factors that affect the colour of your baby's stool such as viral infection, foremilk/hindmilk imbalance, etc. If however specks of blood appear in the stool, food allergy / intolerance is the biggest suspect (in breastfed babies, the blood may also come from their mum's cracked nipples or as a reaction to something mum ate). Because of its highest allergenic potential, dairy is generally the best place to start. You need to remove ALL traces of dairy from your diet (not just the obvious ones such as milk, yogurt, cheese or ice-cream but also anything containing whey, lactose, casein, etc. It is imperative that you familiarize yourself with reading labels for hidden milk ingredients.
Once you have identified what foods your baby can tolerate without exhibiting any symptoms, try to rotate those foods so that your child is offered a varied diet. This is also the best preventative method against developing allergies later in life. Also remember that food allergies / intolerances are dose related. It may happen that your child can tolerate a small cup of yoghurt but if they consume any more dairy that day, it will cause their skin to flare up and your child may end up scratching uncontrollably.
To conclude, it is essential that we feed our babies organic natural food whilst paying attention to any adverse reactions. In my opinion food allergies / sensitivities play a major role when it comes to baby eczema so it is vital to identify those problematic foods and remove them from your baby's diet for as long as required. The results will speak for themselves since when the skin will no longer be irritated from the inside, it will be afforded the opportunity to heal.
This is just a small excerpt from my book Heal Your Baby's Eczema. If you want to learn how to safely proceed in trying to pinpoint and eliminate your baby's allergies please visit www.simplyeczemafree.com.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/allergies-articles/cure-baby-eczema- naturally-the-allergy-connection-3492034.html About the Author
Lucie Nunez, DHNP author of www.simplyeczemafree.com | 