Breastfeeding my 2nd child was second nature to me. I had already gone through the phase of “Eat. Breastfeed. Repeat.” with my oldest. My breastfeeding game-face was on! Latching on and milk production at this point was a walk in the park. I know that the first month of having a baby is difficult, this however, was on another level. I could tell something wasn’t right, my 2nd one was always irritable, especially through the night. She would sleep for hours during the day as any newborn would, and stay up for hours at night. This wouldn’t have been an issue if I didn’t have a toddler running around during the day longing for my attention. Doctors suggested that she might be colicky, I looked up colic babies that was not it. She wasn’t crying through the night as colicky babies did, she just had a tough time staying asleep and she would wake herself up by scratching her face like a dog with flees. Her skin was exceptionally drier and she had more “baby acne” (according to doctors) than my oldest did at that age. The doctors suggested probiotic drops to help her sleep. That did wonders for my 2nd one at night time. We started giving her a cocktail shot of gripe water/probiotics drop every night. Looking back at that moment I know now why the probiotics helped. Many researchers believe that Eczema is an immune response caused by inflammatory agents in your gut especially in infants and children.[1]
As weeks went by she started showing signs of severe skin irritation. Some days there would be a flareup out of the blue (so we thought). At a random appointment to discuss her skin issue, I came across a brochure at the doctor’s office that talked about skin irritations like eczema & psoriasis. I could relate to everything that was on that brochure. The doctors still stuck to their word saying it was “baby acne”. Not knowing much about eczema then, I blindly believed what the doctors said. The doctors suggested we change our creams, ointments, body wash, and detergent. We saw a difference in her skin and we thought things were getting better. After several appointments and 3 doctors later, all of us concluded that it was eczema. That was a sign of relief, because now we knew what was wrong.
One day I was feeding her on one side and as I switched her to the other side I noticed large red bumps on the side of her face away from me which appeared out of nowhere. I realized at that point that we were missing something, could this be a food allergy? Back to the doctor we went who now suggested that my 2nd one might be sensitive to milk and eggs since that’s common in kids with eczema. Research has shown an increase level of correlation between Atopic Dermatitis and food allergies. If the onset of eczema is early and severity is high the likelihood of developing an allergy is higher.1 I decided to eliminate milk & eggs from my diet. Every time she broke-out I felt like a failure as it’s my fault for feeding her contaminated breastmilk. As I started keeping a diary of what I ate and when she broke out I started making a connection with nuts. We then went back to the allergist, Low & behold, she was allergic to the whole world. Her allergy test came back positive for milk, eggs, tree-nuts, and peanuts. The allergist suggested that I switch her to formula. Being the stubborn mom that I am and believing that breast is best, I was hopeful that she would get better if I just stop eating these triggers. Fast forward a month, my 2nd one was still miserable and I still felt like a failure. My pediatrician who was a big breast advocate now told me to stop breastfeeding at 4 months.
Two months later, here I am with a dried-out breast and waiting for my “Lived Happily Ever After” moment and realizing that her skin irritation was not only associated with my dietary triggers but was also associated with environmental triggers. Every time anyone around her ate nuts & eggs and touched her, she would breakout with severe skin irritation. Most recent research shows that supplementing your diet with probiotics and fish oil during pregnancy and breastfeeding may reduce the risk of food related allergies in the baby.[2]
Breast indeed is best, but it is not worth beating yourself over with. I wish someone with similar experience was around to tell me its ok to not breastfeed. We are in this world to raise strong, kind, and independent individual who 20 years from now will not care whether they were formula feed or breastfeed. If I knew then what I know now about eczema, I would do this very differently. I share this with the world in the hopes that someone out there can benefit from this information. If you have a child with eczema and associated food allergies that you wish to breastfeed, I would eliminate the triggers from your diet and from around your house entirely along with adding the needed supplements as prophylaxis. However, if you have made the decision of formula feeding your child? You-do-you mama, no one has the right to judge you but god.
[1] Katta, R., & Schlichte, M. (2014). Diet and Dermatitis: Food Triggers. The Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology, 7(3), 30–36.
[2] Garcia-Larsen, V., Ierodiakonou, D., Jarrold, K., Cunha, S., Chivinge, J., Robinson, Z., … Boyle, R. J. (2018). Diet during pregnancy and infancy and risk of allergic or autoimmune disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS Medicine, 15(2), e1002507. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002507
This is really a awesome site, i could use it and was helpful. Believe me this gave me a seventh sense how to deal with the allergies, really thank full to you and your research.
Glad to be helpful!
Very good information Michelle. I wish I had such resources when I had my children.
Thank you! With eczema and allergy at rise i wish to provide more information.