This morning DD woke up with what looks like eczema on her legs, she has a patch on one knee, one on one foot and another on the side of her calf. She has a wee bit on her torso too. She is itching them like crazy. She has been clear of eczema for nearly 2 years.

We introduced a new food (potato) two days ago. She currently has a list of only 6 safe foods so we have had lots of fails along the way, but always with gut issues not with eczema.

In the past with DS I always found that when food triggered his eczema that it started on his face then spread to his body.

What do you think? Is it likely to be the potato? or should I be looking at other possible causes? Our GP is a bit clueless when it comes to allergies/eczema - so thought I would ask the online experts!

Hiya.

DS was really allergic to potato, although only a 1 on the RAST tests.
He could tolerate a mall amount of potato each week but if the does was to much then his skin broke out big time. We had no gut issues with potato.

So......... Although Im not trying to scare you or anything, just wanted to relay what happened in our household.

Hope it isnt the potato as its such a versitile food.

That sounds like an intolerance to me. You could test this by cutting potato out again, getting her skin cleared up and then reintroducing it. A friend of mine was just posting on Facebook today about how amazing hemp cream is for treating eczema. It's available in some health stores.

If potato is the only thing she's had that's 'new' to her diet though, then it is highly likely that it is the culprit. Food intolerances do not show up as quickly as allergies so it is common for it to take 2 days (sometimes longer) to see a reaction. Intolerances can manifest in all sorts of ways - eczema, gut problems, headaches, behaviour problems, sleep issues, etc.

DD1 used to react to certain foods (usually those high in salicylates) when she was little and she'd get rashes around her mouth and a fiery red nappy area. DD2 got the fiery red bottom but her eczema always appeared mainly on her lower back, sometimes further up her back and occasionally on her arms. She didn't usually get it on her face. She's just turned 6 and is still intolerant of cheese (and maybe dairy products in general). If she eats small amounts of cheese or yoghurt for more than a day or two in a row, she gets eczema across her lower back and patches on other parts of her body too. I think she might still get the fiery red looking bottom too. Meanwhile DD1 gets an ear infection if she's been eating cheese and yoghurt.

It definitely pays not to expect siblings to exhibit the same reaction even if they have similar allergies or intolerances.

Sue Dengate (Australian author of Fed Up With Additives and The Failsafe Cookbook) has a website that is quite good for information about intolerances. I hope this link works: http://fedup.com.au/factsheets/support-factsheets/introduction-to-food-intolerance

with getting the issue sorted and the eczema cleared.

Yes, it could be the potato. DS1 was allergic to potato, it showed up on patch testing. Once we eliminated potato from his diet his ezcema was minimal/manageable.

As katnik said, take it out of her diet, I would suggest for 3 weeks, see if her skin clears up and then reintroduce it and see what happens to her skin.

Good luck, hope that helps a bit.

hey there,
my ds also not good with potato. they are from the nightshade family (very poisonous when raw as you know) others from that family include tomatoes and eggplant which are not supposed to be good for people with allergies/ autoimmune type diseases. but could try introducing kumara instead as unlike potato which is actually a tuber, kumara is a true root vegetable and actually has alot more nutrition in it anyway. so altho potato might seem like a bit of a loss for now i wouldnt feel too upset by not including that in your dd's diet. ds seems to tolerate the golden kumara best (as 3boys has also suggested before)
good luck with it and let us know how you get on
also just thinking that you said normally her reactions are gut based - maybe her immune system is maturing a bit and hence the change in response? who knows.

Yeah absolutely just to agree with the other ladies I can eat potato ok, but boy oh boy does my excema go bizzerk when I touch it raw, that and tomatoes. I just cut up some tomatoes tonight for the dinner & now I have nice red raw cracked fingers! blardy excema!

Thanks everyone.

It looks like the potato is now affecting her EE too. She has been very unhappy the last few days and up crying for hours at night.

We were really hoping that potato would be a pass as potato flour would be really useful. At the moment we only have one flour - Quinoa, which is of limited use on its own. Having failed rice, corn and millet we are starting to run out of options!

Kumara is already one of her safe foods.

Looby loo - did you have much success with the patch testing? We are seeing Rohan next week about a referal for SPTing - I'm a bit concerned it might not be worth the cost, but we are starting to get desperate here. 8 months of food trials have only given her 6 foods!

Yes, patch testing was worth it for us, especially in identifying foods that weren't showing up (or tested for) in RAST and SPT tests. But it is expensive and not very pleasant for a child (DS1 was 2 1/2 I think when he had it done). However, he was a much happier healthier child once we got the test results and eliminated the potato from his diet.

just wondering have you tried coconut? ds didnt tolerate nuts but we tried him with some coconut oil (as its not supposed to be a true nut) and the oil is just fat and has no protein so theoretically shouldnt cause any reaction then could eventually try coconut flour which we do alot of baking with. ds also no good with wheat, soy, corn, most grains altho after 1 yr we have introd back in some rice and it seems to be going ok. im not sure whether tapioca is from a root veg or not? but that could be a useful starch/ flour for baking? HTH it must be so hard and having another fail must be exhausting and so gut wrenching

Thanks guys

LL - I'm glad to hear that skin patch testing gave you some answers. DD is a similar age - so looks like we will have some fun times ahead!

MM - coconut milk was a definate fail here She can tolerate very small amounts of coconut oil (which is her only oil) But I don't like our chances with coconut flour. Tapioca is on our list to try, but this process is so slow. Only 1 new food every 2 weeks when she is well. So everytime she sneaks food or reacts to something environmentally we loose another fortnight.

Here's hoping that skin patch testing will give us some guidance about what foods are more likely to be tolerated.

Hi mum2alex
Have you tried buckwheat? in grains and/or flour?
For the moment, its the only grain my daughter tolerates. She failed like you: rice, potato, millet, wheat etc...
We had her tested for delayed food allergies refereed by Rohan, and yes, it was worth the price and the inconvenient. Lots of food we didnt thought showed up positive and others the opposite. And now with this knowledge, she is so much better and happier. And I can try a new food once every 2 weeks, same as you.
xx