Monday, August 10, 2009

He is Cured!


When Will was about 3 months old he started getting horrible rashy red dry skin patches all over his body. It started on his chest and moved to his back and arms and eventually got to his face and legs. His pediatrician kept telling us that it was from his cradle cap falling down and irritating his skin...well that seemed a little sketchy because we had the dry scalp under control and it really was not all that bad and eventually went away after a month or so. We tried everything we could think of to help his skin. It was diagnosed as atopic dermatitis (eczema) which is pretty common, but my father has had it very severely his whole life. We took Will to a dermatologist after trying everything we could possibly think of including every home remedy and lotion and detergent and what not. The dermatologist told me that he will have it off and on his whole life and there is nothing we can really do about it. Ahh! I was hesitant to go to this doctor in the first place thinking he would tell me something like that, but I knew that was not true and I was determined to find out what else we could do. My poor baby was itching himself like crazy all the time and I had to consistently have his body clothed so he wouldn't scratch himself up. He had lots of gashes from scratching and was constantly irritated unless I kept him busy. Here are a couple pictures to show you how bad it actually got.

 

In the mean time Will was getting weekly adjustments at the chiropractor and that seemed to be the only thing that would help relieve a little bit of irritation...and it helped immediately! But then after a few days it would come back get really irritated again. I was done with doctors appointments all the time trying to figure this out and did not want to put him on steroids to make it look better but not fix the cause. So for a long time we just kept getting him adjusted and it was the best thing that helped...until my chiropractor suggested that since Will is exclusively breastfed for me to stop eating dairy. So for 6 weeks straight I had nothing made with milk or dairy and his skin completely cleared up! We were totally amazed! It just took a few weeks to get out of my system, and when it did Will had beautiful healthy skin! I could hardly believe it. So just to test it out I gradually brought back dairy for a week and he flared up again. So we know for a fact what the cause is and I went off dairy completely. It is amazing how many foods are made with milk! That also means no ice cream! no cheese! no pizza! no yogurt! ahhh!...oh the things we do for the ones we love. :) It took 5 whole months to figure out what the cause was, but he has now been totally cleared up for almost 2 months! yay! So as long as I am breastfeeding I will not be eating dairy. It is a hard change considering how many calories I usually get from dairy products everyday. I have learned to like almond milk and soy products. It is definitely not the same, but worth it for a healthy babe. 


13 comments:

Kelli B said...

Steph that's insane. How did they know it was milk allergy? Did they test will for that?

I'm SO THANKFUL you found out the cause! I bet that's a huge relief for you guys. I'm so glad!

Lora said...

i'm so glad your baby is better. i am a breastfeeding mom, too. what you are doing for your little one is so important and amazing! keep it up! lora

STEPHANIE. said...

no, they didn't test him for anything, I just stopped eating dairy and it was obvious. It is pretty common for babies to grow out of it after their first year though, so we are hoping that is the case.

Lisa @ Life with 4! said...

my oldest son had the same thing.. not as bad as Will's. Ryan's was especially around his mouth and on his face.
He is almost 13 now and he did outgrow it. He still has fairly dry skin but nothing as bad as when he was a baby.
You're doing the right thing. YOur son is lucky to have you as Mommy!!!

Sara said...

Awesome! So glad he's better! Honestly, I'm REALLY surprised that no one offered that advice in the first place. That is always the first thing I tell moms to cut out is dairy...whenever anyone has eczema. It's SO common and yet no one makes the connection. Now that you're off of dairy...I would just stay off. Cow's milk is not meant to be consumed by humans (at least in my opinion...and many others!)...hence the reason for rashes, gassiness, irritability, etc. in 75% of the population. If you must have cheese, try raw goat's milk cheese...it digests differently. Here is a great site with lots of info: http://notmilk.com/

On another note...we're going to be in the IC area this summer for a photoshoot, etc. That's where you are, right?

STEPHANIE. said...

Thank you everyone for your wonderful comments!
Sara- My chiro actually mentioned it early on, but I must not have let it get out of my system long enough. I didn't realize it could take over 6 weeks!...and no we are actually in davenport, not iowa city.

Lisa said...

Wow, what a nightmare. The poor babe (and you). So glad you have it all figured out now.

Lisa :)

luke and pamela said...

wow, so glad you guys figured it out! what a hard/but of course happy sacrifice! glad he is doing better!

Andria said...

My dear friend and her breastfeeding babe are on the same journey. Her daughter is also allergic so they have both given up dairy for a time. Her daughter had the same red rash, skin reaction as your son. Glad things are getting better!

Jamie said...

You can't give up ice cream...it is just too delicious. My friend is lactose-intolerant and eats a special Breyer's ice cream that doesn't contain dairy. You should definitely try. Good thing you finally figured it out!!!

Jess said...

I know you mentioned this when we were there, but it's great to know that dairy is really the cause.

How have things been going for you? I'm finally back in OR and getting settled. HOpefully I can post an update soon!

gardenmama said...

Congratulations! That is wonderful! I understand what you went through, my oldest son went through a dairy allergy and had severe eczema when he was a baby up until age two or three... we switched over to rice milk, rice butter, rice ice cream rice everything the soy actually caused him the same allergy but the rice worked out perfect and it went away. He had no allergy since that young age : ) I hope the same for your little guy!

The Blaisdell Family said...

Hi, my name is Jaime. A friend of mine referred me to this post as I have had 3 out of 4 kids with skin issues. All 3 have had a different type of eczema, but my baby, in my opinion, has the worst kind. He's 10 months old, and has really bad eczema on both his cheeks...on his face:) It looks almost like he was burned, it gets crusty looking and kind of pussy too. We have tried everything out there too since in total we've had this issue in our home now for almost 7 years.

Camden's face seems to only get better, but not go away. I hate it! It showed up at about 4-5 months and has gotten bigger each month since. He stopped nursing (sad, sad,SAD day for me!!) when he was 7 months old and started dropping weight so we started formula. I would say it's gotten worst the last 2 months and I've thought about milk allergies, but have held back because it's only on his two cheeks. His dr. won't do any allergy testing because "he will grow out of it". My thought on that...why make the baby suffer and scratch his face almost off!??

I'm so sick of people's stupid comments too. The worst, when someone said, well he can just be a clown for halloween. Really?? I think that is mean!!

After reading this, I am going to go get him soy formula. It's worth a shot right?

Do you know what babies are suppose to do at 1 year when they are suppose to drink whole milk??? Soy doesn't have the same fat content for development I'm guessing??

Anyway, feel free to email if you want to too...

theblaisdells(at)hotmail(dot)com

Thanks for posting this!!!

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