Skin Rash Or Food Allergies?

[Guhlia]

Today I took Annika to the doctor. Poor little thing... She has two ear infections, two infected eyes, and diarrhea, as well as a horrible cold. On top of that, the doctor felt as though her rash was due to food allergies. Now, normally I trust my pediatrician, she is wonderful. For some reason though, I really feel as though her rash isn't due to allergies. I don't know why especially since allergies run in my family. She wants to pursue it once Annika is healthier, but I'm feeling hesitant. She's only had this rash twice. Once was after an extremely hot Christmas visit where she got so sweaty I had to strip her down. The other was after having a 101.5 degree fever. She said it wasn't characteristic of heat rash though. She said that rashes due to allergies can come and go and the heat thing was probably just a coincidence. What do you guys think? I really hate to put her through any kind of testing if its not necessary. My pediatrician really doesn't want me eliminating things from my diet without testing. I'm so torn. Geeze being a mom is hard sometimes. LOL

[Ursa Major]

Angie, eliminating things from your diet IS a form of testing! If Annika has a rash, and it goes away when you eliminate a food, that should be enough evidence that she can't tolerate it.

Do you eat/drink dairy? If yes, that could be the problem. Dairy is well known for causing ear infections and rashes in babies and toddlers (as well as everyone else). Many kids had one ear infection after another, and didn't ever have another one after dairy was eliminated.

[jerseyangel]

Hi Angie,

They can only test her for true allergies....she may have an intolerance, and it could very well be dairy.

I went through allergy skin testing and everything turned up negative, but my allergist/immunologist then put me on an elimination diet to determine which foods were causing my symptoms. Just as an example, when I cut out legumes and citrus, my eczema of 12 years went away and has not returned.

Yep--being mom does have it's moments!

[Glutenfreefamily]

It very easily could be a food allergy, my daughter gets rashes in warm areas on her body when she has gluten ( really bad) and a mild one from dairy.

Also Im not sure if its just the lighting on the picture or just that time it was taken but I see the rosy cheeks on Annika. My daughter had rosy cheeks and when we took away dairy it went away. I thought it was just rosy cheeks like me little did I know mine were an allergy too.

[gfgypsyqueen]

Allergy testing isn't that traumatic. You may find she has an allergy you never knew about. You may find out she is food allergy free. But my view is from the side of food allergic children. My daughter went into anaphylactic shock after one bite of nuts when she was 1.5 or 2. She had eaten nuts before without a problem. I had no idea what was going on or what to do. I would have liked to avoid that moment in my life and hers. There are no food allergies in my family history. We have environmental allergies. Second child has a rash that comes around only with dairy. She is gluten-free/CF and doing great. But when she gets that rash, I know she has gotten something bad and have to research to figure out what it was.

IMO, you like your pediatrician, follow her lead on this one. Go talk to the allergist and see what they say. Allergy testing is not typically done on the first visit.

Good luck