Friday, May 28, 2010

Infantile Acne and Dairy Allergy

Living Dairy-Free for my Girlie

When my baby girl was 4 weeks old, I started noticing all kinds of bumps on her face. They seemed to get worse each day and I knew it probably had something to do with what I was eating. I took her to the doctor for an RSV recheck and also asked about the bumps on her skin. I expected to hear that what I saw was eczema, but the pediatrician told me that it was actually infantile acne. She told me it would last from four to six months. I was also told that I could but some hydro cortisone cream on her skin to treat it, but why do that to a baby for a cosmetic problem. I was skeptical, but accepted this fate.
However, when we went to play group the following week, I mentioned her skin to the moms there and many of them said that their babies had the same thing and it took a while to go away. One mom told me that her babies had it and it went away when she went off of dairy. She told me that she went off of dairy for 6 months and their skin completely cleared up and their ear infections improved as well.
This seemed like an impossible task for me, but knowing that this skin reaction was actually a food allergy motivated me to do it for my girl. I didn't want to cause her a permanent allergy by consuming something that she was allergic to. I don't know why doctors don't tell breastfeeding moms this, but I sure wish they would. I'm sure a lot more moms would gladly give up dairy for their babies.
We're at 4 and a half months now and as long as I stay away from dairy, my girl has no bumps. I have consumed minimal amounts of dairy every 3 weeks or so just to see if she continues to have a reaction and immediately the bumps appear.
What I have learned is that most babies have difficulty processing cow's milk until 6 months of age. Some show this inability to break down cow's milk in their skin, others in irritability, and I'm sure others show it in other ways. To me this makes a lot of sense why so many children are developing dairy allergies. If they cannot tolerate it and we continue to give it to them before they can break it down, can we be causing permanent allergies? In my opinion the answer is yes. What a problem would be for milk based formulas..

1 comment:

  1. Yes, that would be a problem for milk-based formulas, wouldn't it? Another problem is the reverse: did you know the milk-based formulas also contain soy?? Soy is not only one of the most highly allergenic substances on the planet, but according to our doctor that does our allergy elimination, it can cause a "cascade" of allergies--causing the person eating it to be allergic to the foods eaten with the soy (unless the soy has been fermented, like in real tofu or natto). Isn't that great? When our son was allergic to soy, I couldn't find a formula for him. I finally just switched him to raw organic pastured cow's milk at 10 months because the soy in his formula kept bothering him! Glad we have a nice dairy accessible to us, for sure.

    Crazy world, no?

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