Baby Rash After Barley And Wheat

[samie]

My 7 mth old recently started eating somethings with barley and wheat he started having a bad diaper rash. I stop giving him the product with wheat and barley. I plan on giving it another try in a week or two. I just wonder if it celiac or allergy. I am gonna keep him on rice and veggies/fruits baby food only for now.

[tarnalberry]

It's more likely a sensitivity to something difficult to digest with such a young digestive system. It's way too early to tell if it's even an allergy, or celiac. But you're doing the right thing - take it out for a while (you could even wait another month) and then try again.

You don't have to feed him any commercial baby foods - they taste pretty nasty anyway. You can skip rice cereal (it's vitamins in a form that just drive up his blood sugar with highly refined carbs) and can use a variety of soft/cooked fruits and veggies (even beans!). It's not all that much work (the only thing I've ever mashed/blended is beans, and it's because I make refried beans that way) and keeps them eating whole, unprocessed foods.

[ceph]

Hi Samie,

Like you, I'm mom to a baby who appears wheat/gluten sensitive.

My DD is 9.5mo and starting having wheat and grains at roughly 7.5-8mo. One hot day (at about 8-8.5mo) we were out on a walk and she developed a rash on her legs. I chocked it up to heat rash, but it didn't go away... and didn't go away... and started getting worse... So I pulled her off wheat for about 2.5 weeks and used a prescription cream for 10 of those days. It improved a bit, but didn't go away. I didn't go all-out on no gluten for her, and I was still eating wheat and gluten (she is breastfed).

So we put her back on wheat and were starting to try dairy, but after a few days, her rash got much worse.

Here we are, another week back into no wheat for her, and four days into no gluten at all for either of us. Her rash is clearing up rapidly. I can't say for sure yet that it's wheat/grains/gluten, but it seems likely. I don't know if she's celiac or some other form of intolerant, and I'm hoping she will outgrow it as her gut matures.

I'm going to keep us off it for about 6 weeks, long enough for it to clear both of our systems fairly thoroughly. Then reintroduce with the supervision of our naturopath.

In the meantime, she's eating lots of vegetables and fruits, a fair bit of rice and other non-gluten grains, and some meat, beans and dairy.

Like Tarnalberry said, it's easier and healthier (and easier to supervise the ingredients) if they just eat ordinary food instead of jarred baby food. My DD's favourites at 7 months were steamed broccoli (she'd hold it by the "handle" and munch the florets off), steamed asparagus (she'd suck the pith out, leaving the harder outer shell), strips of steak (suck out the meat-juice and throw the resulting piece of gray shoe-leather at the cats), hunks of watermelon, potato in basically any form but mashed, and a raw carrot stick rolled around in the mashed yolk of hard-boiled eggs (she couldn't eat the carrot, but she'd suck the egg yolk off of it and hold it up to be re-rolled). At that age, beans gave her terrible gas (though they don't any more) and she hadn't had dairy yet.

If you're breastfeeding, you may want to consider cutting down or eliminating gluten from your diet as well. It's harder for moms to go gluten-free than it is to just not give the baby grains!

Anyhow, I thought I'd share our story so that you know you're not alone.

Ceph

[StephanieL]

It's way too early to tell if it's even an allergy, or celiac.

Actually, it isn't too early to tell if it's an allergy. Kids can and often do have allergies from the very start.

I agree with taking it out for now. Retry after you have achieved "normal/baseline".

[tarnalberry]

Actually, it isn't too early to tell if it's an allergy. Kids can and often do have allergies from the very start.

I agree with taking it out for now. Retry after you have achieved "normal/baseline".

I should clarify - it's too early to TELL (determine) if it is an allergy, because she's got all of one data point. It certainly COULD be an allergy or celiac even at this age, but there's no way of KNOWING this based on nothing more than the information she has so far. Hence, she needs to do some "experimenting" to figure it out.

[Goobieville]

If your child is old enough to ingest the required amounts of gluten for a blood test then its not to early for celiac testing. My one son was tested at 10mo and it came positive. My other son who is 17mo will be tested in about 4 more weeks. My kids showed signs from about 3 months on. You can't rule out allergy this young but you can rule out celiac with proper testing...

[ravenwoodglass]

If your child is old enough to ingest the required amounts of gluten for a blood test then its not to early for celiac testing. My one son was tested at 10mo and it came positive. My other son who is 17mo will be tested in about 4 more weeks. My kids showed signs from about 3 months on. You can't rule out allergy this young but you can rule out celiac with proper testing...

Since false negatives in children are even higher than in adults you really can't firmly rule out celiac with testing.