Itchy (?), red face

[LittleCrush]

My six-month-old DS Goblin comes from a family riddled with asthma, hayfever, sensitive skin and such like, and seems to be following in our footsteps. He has had eczema from the word go and since we have begun BLW he has reacted to eggs, fromage frais, baby porridge made with water but containing milk (naughty mummy didn't read the label), and aubergines.

His face and hands go very red where the food has touched them and he comes out in a "nettle rash". It usually goes down within an hour without appearing to cause him much discomfort but this morning (the ill-fated baby porridge - damn that free voucher from Boots!) I think it must have been itchy as he was scratching himself, and because of this it took longer to go down.

The HV told me to wait a couple of months and then try him again with the offending foods. Fortunately she is pro-BLW and did it with her own daughter.

Goblin doesn't have bad nappies or any other symptoms after eating these foods so I'm guessing it's skin sensitivity rather than being caused by actually eating.

So I guess my questions are:

* would you agree it's more likely to be a skin sensitivity?
* do his symptoms sound fairly mild? (I have no idea how long this kind of reaction usually lasts)
* does you experience suggest he is likely to grow out of it (fingers crossed!)?
* is it OK to give him soya yoghurts, use oat/rice milk in cooking etc? (he guzzled a blueberry Alpro Soya yoghurt with no ill effects today). I am still BF-ing him,

Any other words of advice or encouragement would be very welcome too!

[bimbambaLINs]

I've not much experience of food allergies. My son always had a skin reaction to strawberries and spring onions when he first started, they too lasted less than an hour. He grew out of it pretty quickly. But we have no history of food allergies, other than my sister growing up with hives caused by the red food colouring in spaghetti hoops and baked beans! So I was always quite blasé about it. With your and your DHs history I'd be more cautious in case the skin sensitivty turned into something more.

I see no reason to with-hold the soya yoghurts, both mine eat the Alpro custardy ones. Hurrah for BLW'ing HVs though

[LittleCrush]

Indeed! She even had a stack of leaflets on BLW that she was handing out, the last time I had Goblin weighed. I was very impressed!

Fingers crossed that he will grow out of his sensitivities soon. In the meantime I am going to buy some fake cheese...

[MummaQ]

Hi there,
My boy is nearly 7 months. And a couple of weeks into BLW I thought I'd do eggy bread for lunch. He loved it. Then had a nap. And an afternoon of play, then bath time, then bam face red all up past his nose and full cheeks! eeeeek I thought! Now he'd had dribble ash for a whole, but this made me all the docs the next day.... 4 days later when they could fit him in.... It had gone back to dribble rash! Doc said it was eczema, he has other dry patches. Now my sister couldn't have milk til she was a year due to allergy, but other than that there's a history of eczema inmy husbands first two sons. He has also had orange and had a similar but much smaller reaction n face.

I think two things, one its a skin reaction, his face is sensitive because of the dribble rash. And two once he can get food in his mouth without getting it all over his face he might not have any reaction.

I also breastfeed, and read somewhere that a baby's intestines are "leaky" so that the immunity that is passed on from the breastmilk can get into their system easier. Once they get older they will be able to eat other foods as their intestines no longer "leak".

After the reaction to egg, I'm going to try him when he's closer to a year old. The same goes for milk and cheese etc just in case!

I'm not sure I've helped in anyway, rather just waffled on what's happened to me! But I hope it's helped a little.

[LittleCrush]

Oh yes, it's good to hear from others in the same boat. It sounds just like what we have here - Goblin also has pretty much permanent dribble rash (although it doesn't seem to bother him). It hadn't occurred to me that it might get better when he doesn't get his food all over his face, but it makes perfect sense! Fingers crossed that they do grow out of it in time! Good luck!

[Pics]

We had a red bumpy skin reaction to dairy when DD1 was 6 mths - which she grew out of. But we did get referred to paediatrician who said that the reaction on the skin could also take place in side the mouth and throat, so advised avoiding it. We also avoided soya til she was at least a yr on his advise, and introduced it half a teaspoon at a time as he said a very large number of babies with dairy allergy also are allergic to soya. As i was breastfeeding, there was no need for milk as such - and we gave porridge etc with rice milk as she got the milk she needed from bf.

[LittleCrush]

Goblin is now almost a year old (funny to see this post again!) and still reacts to dairy, although we have found this to be much less of a problem than we expected. Even the doctor and HV are not concerned - their advice is to try him every so often with a small amount and see what happens! The HV suggested we used soya products instead and Goblin has the Alpro Soya Junior +1 on his breakfast with no ill effects at all. I've grown to like a lot myself! We love coconut milk too, as well as coconut oil on toast (and cinnamon bagels, mmmm!) instead of butter. I barely think about it now. The main thing i try to bear in mind is making sure he eats enough "good" fats. Hopefully he will grow out of it but if not we know we can cope. Vegans manage, after all!

Edited to say: I still bf in the morning and before bed (and during the night as required!) so that's another reason for not being too concerned at this point.

[Pics]

Sorry - i didn;t check the date!