Regarding mother who wrote:

 I do not belong. Our son had
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severe infantile eczema as a baby (6 years ago) which was a nightmare, but
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started to subside by age 1 year.  We have never been sure of the cause,
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although we have some ideas.  But we do have lots of experience with
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eczema.  Although he is extremely allergic to dairy it was not from that.
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I had eliminated even trace amounts of dairy from my diet by the time he
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was 2 weeks old and he didn't get the eczema until 4 months old.  He was
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solely breastfed until age 6 months.


Having had one very allergic child (milk, soy, nuts, grains, and more) and now
a new baby, I thought I would share something about baby allergies that I
believe is supported in the literature.  The child's immune system it seems
is not mature enough (ie. levels of IgE and other immunoglobulins high enough) to
produce an independent reaction of the level that would show up as eczema until
the baby is around 3 months old.  So, if the baby starts to show signs of
eczema (usually on face, neck) arond this age, it COULD be from something you
have been eating all along, not necessarily something new.  My second baby just
recently (4 1/2 months) starting showing eczema inside her outer ear, behind
her ear and a little on her cheek within 12 hours of my having any dairy-
tainted anything.  This was probably true with my first but we did not know
enough to connect.

I am planning to exclusively breastfeed this one until at least 9 months to
avoid the possibility of her becoming allergic to everything like her brother.

This experience may not be what others have experienced.  I know the babies that
seem to react gastrointestinally seem to experience vomiting at an earlier
age than the eczema babies show eczema.

If anyone is interested, the pediatric allergist Hugh Sampson has several
articles on the different types of reactions in almost intelligible language.
If you search for his name on MEDLINE on the Internet, you will find them.

Anyone else with children and allergy induced eczema, please feel free to
write.  Right now, we are trying to deal with eczema on eyelids/under eyes.
Hope this is not too unrelated-- the condition does often start from dairy
exposure it seems.

Susan.