Hi -
I know that the connection between dairy and eczema is quite well known now but there still seem to be a lot of people (even doctors, so my friend tells me) who still pooh-pooh the connection.
Just thought I would say that giving up milk really did make a difference to my skin and also to my son's when he was a baby. His eczema just disappeared when he stopped drinking cow's milk.

Oh, ok! I'll try that out. My daughter (now 5) has eczema on her scalp. Tried some different treatment with no luck. Anyway, other than that is there anything else like other very effective medication/cream, etc that you know of?

Hi Have you tried other sorts of milk and also maybe try a company called health house they might have something that you can use as well.

Thanks

Sandra

draggintheline, you can keep him out of the heat. Summer's coming so watch out for that. Moisturizing the affected areas and not wearing tight clothes will help as well. Also, for my kid, we're using elidel for his eczema and so far after a couple of weeks of use, it's slowly clearing his skin of it. Ask the doctor about it and it's also available on any pharmacy out there. Good luck in treating your kid's eczema and have a good one!

I have yet to treat a child with allergy, espcially eczema who didn't have some form of problem with dairy and/or wheat. In any case, I remove them to give the body chance to heal - most often, they can go back onto them after a couple of months in a moderated amount and be fine. See a nutritionist to do this preferably as most people miss a source of them and the problem will not go away unless all molecules are out of the system for at least 10 days. I wish I had a pound for every parent who has said to me that they have cut out all wheat and dairy, but they haven't actually as they are SO well hidden! Also, the nutritionist will help to repair the gut, skin barrier and immune system whilst they are off the problem foods. If you don't do this, they are unlikley to be able to tolerate it again later. Just a few thoughts about how we deal with it in clinical practice in case it helps...

Find a local good nutritionist at www.bant.org.uk.

Micki

If you try a company called the Honey Doctor they have shampoo that might help with the scalp,and they also have creams which do a great job as i have very mild eczema now but it does work,also the healthy house have things that you might find useful both will send direct to you.
Hope this helps
Sandra

No disrespect to the doctors but they don't seem to be able to offer anything other than cremes for eczema. I gave up all dairy years and years ago and it was certainly a good move for me. For all eczema suffers: give it a try and give it up. If you see a difference in your skin then maybe it would be a good ideal to stick to a dfairy free diet.

I did the same. I gave up all dairy (amongst other things) and my skin improved so much. However if I do eat dairy now I get a quite violent skin reaction. My cheeks, eye lids and face swell up, my eyes water and my face goes so red - like a burn on my cheeks and forehead. I am now seeing an allergy specialist (well I am awaiting a referall - watch this space) and his first thoughts are that complete avoidance can make the symptoms worse. The thinking now may be to reintroduce in really small quantities and build up to de-sensitise. I've read about the recent study curing nut allergy by careful monitored reintroduction. Does anyone know anything more about this? could it be used as a treatement for intolerance as well as serious allergies? PS. I'm not recommending anyone go out and try this. Be careful everyone.

I've never heard of 'reintroduction'. Personally i wouldn't try it just through fear alone and the fact that i don't actually miss eating dairy anyway. The fear of having a serious eczema outbreak is too much of a risk. In terms of eczema i reckon that it's got to be more than dairy that causes an outbreak, surely dairy on it's own can't cause eczema??

Hi Sawpeedo –
Have you tried the re-introduction that your doctor recommended?
I was reading a report about cow’s milk immunotherapy – or gradually re-introduction of the allergic food – on the FM site actually – see http://www.foodsmatter.com/dairy_all...notherapy.html
and it does seem a sensible idea. However they were doing it under very controlled conditions and initially only giving the patients, all children, TINY amounts of milk. However, it sounded as though it would a very dodgy procedure to carry out at home without any kind of medical supervision.
Their experiment was on children who were allergic to milk – not just who got eczema as a result of drinking milk – but your reactions sounds as though you are pretty allergic too!
Be good to know how you got on.