9 Month Old - Horrible Rashes

[jaimek]

Hello. I am a FTM of a beautiful 9 month old baby boy. Ever since he was born he has had horrible excema/rashes. We saw a pediatric allergist who did some tests and found out that he is allergic to pet dander. So, we sadly got rid of our dog (of 9 years) and had the house professionally steamed cleaned, as well as got new furniture and had the air ducts cleaned. Our son plays on a blanket on the floor as much as possible. Unfortunately, he is still continually getting rashes all over his body. I took him back to the allergist recently and they did a test for wheat and dogs (to see if anything had changed since he has been eating gluten). The test came back positive for dogs but negative for wheat/barley. My question is, does anyone know if this test is accurate for celiac? They put some liquid dots on my son's arms and then waited 10 minutes to see a reaction. There was no scratching or anything like that. I am just at a loss cause my poor son is constantly covered in rashes and I don't know what to do anymore. Your help is appreciated.

[Ursa Major]

The problem with an allergy test for celiac disease is that it isn't an allergy, and won't show up on those kind of tests. It is an immune reaction.

Excema is always a sign of allergies/intolerances, most of the time from food. The most common problem foods are gluten foods and dairy (even if just through breast milk). Soy is also often a culprit, and nightshade foods could be a problem as well. Really, anything could be it!

I would start out with removing gluten and dairy to see if it makes a difference. You could have the celiac disease blood tests done, but they are very unreliable in children under the age of six, but especially in babies (and they aren't too reliable in adults, either).

If you choose to do the tests, don't remove gluten until after the tests are done, as otherwise you would be guaranteed false negative results, even if they would have been positive otherwise.

[gfgypsyqueen]

My daughter started having problems at 9mths too. How is your child doing on the growth charts? Still going upward or at least maintaining in the height and weight percentages? Keep an eye on these.

For my daughter we knew almost immedately that she couldn't tolerate any dairy. It took until her second bday to realize she can't handle trace levels of dairy. It took another 6 mths to figure out shellfish and gluten were problems too. She had the chronic insanely itchy rash that responded to NOTHING! Take away the gluten and dairy and no more rash! BTW she went from 90% for height and 75% or so for weight at 6 mths to 3% for weight and 7-10% for height by the time the drs would consider celiacs or allergies - and they still insisted she was just petite!

Keep a food and rash log. See if the rash is getting any better or worse after a certain food, drink, bath, playtime, etc.

Just for giggles, if you craved anything or ate excessive amounts of anything while pregnant or nursing, eliminate that item and see what happens. (Both of my kids are allergic to what I craved. I have no idea how or why, but it is weird!)

Switch to homemade wipes. Use olive oil for lotion on his skin, if you need it. Works really well after bath time )

The allergy skin prick test your son had will detech an allergy to wheat, which is different than celiacs. Is there a possibility the rash is DH? You can have the rash biopsied to see if it is something other than the normal exzema, but you will have to ask for it to be processed to check for DH.

Check EnteroLabs for a stool test to check for Celiacs. Least invasive.

[AndreaB]

My son broke out with eczema after his 2 month vac's. Those triggered the start of his food intolerances as well as making his situation with metals worse.

I don't know where you're at or if you are comfortable with alternative treatments but what we've found to be the most accurate is the ASYRA test. We did ELISA on the rest on the family (not youngest) but it didn't come up with everything. ASYRA tests your energy frequencies. Everything has a certain frequency it's supposed to be at.

My practitioner then does muscle testing (this particular one is called ART) to test for supplements that the child/person can take.

This testing has been accurate for my family.

In the meantime cut out gluten, dairy and soy. Switch to natural laundry detergent (something like 7th generation), natural cleansers.

I know it's so aggravating to deal with this, but help is out there. You can pm me if you'd like more info about what we've done.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Vaccines are a frequent cause of all kind of autoimmune problems, including rashes. One of my sons had a medically documented severe rash reaction to his 4 month vaccines.

I am not anti-vaccine--but there is no reason on God's green earth why we have to follow the recommended schedule, and many of the vaccines are totally unnecessary. For example, unless your 9-month-old is a drug addict or sexually active, he doesn't need to be vaccinated against Hepatitis B.

I would suggest holding off on vaccines until you get to the bottom of what is causing the rash, and then I would only let him have one vaccine at a time. There is NO long-term research on the safety of multiple vaccines.Last time I checked, the flu shot and the chicken pox shot still had thimerosal, which is definitely something to avoid.

[jaimek]

Thank you all for your help! My son has his 9-month checkup next week so I'll see where he is as far and height and weight go. I emailed my Gastro doctor and he said there are blood tests that can be done to determine if my son carries the gene. If he doesn't, then the chances of developing Celiac are slim to none. If he does, then we will most likely have to wait until he is a little older to test for sure if he has the disease (as the tests at this young age are not accurate). It is just so frustrating to see my little man with a rash all the time and nothing seems to help. Wish I had answers, but everything is up in the air. The rash does not seem to bother him, as he is a very happy baby. I will keep you all posted on the outcome of his appt. Thanks again for your help!

[MammaW]

My 11 month old had a horrendous rash starting about 5 months. (he also has periodic fevers that cannot be explained) First it looked like an amoxicillin allergy, determined it wasn't...kept coming....at one point his poor body looked like someone dipped him in hot water and then painted dots all over him. Saw allergiest and rheumatologist and they tested him for things like rheumatoid arthritis (tests not specific to that exactly, but could point you in that direction) eventually he came back allergic to rice and peanuts...both which I was eating in abundance and nursing. Took about a month for his rash to clear up after I gave up those foods, but he still has some lingering eczema looking stuff on occassion. No one ever mentioned gluten to me, I have been trying to narrow things down on my own. He has horrible gas and nasty, frequent poop all the time, so I am trying gluten free for now. Keep going with elimination of different foods if you can, eventually you will come across the trigger. Good luck and keep us posted!