This is such a wonderful forum for all things educational/general parenting and hope there is someone on here who may be going through the same thing with their own child and/or themselves in regards to Atopy. Here is a link for those who are unsure of what it is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atopy. My daughter has had a nappy type looking rash on her vulva and buttocks for 2.5 months now and that is what I first thought it was. I did all the things the doctors had recommended and cream after cream, nothing had changed the appearance and certain spots have now become infected and after searching for many doctors for another opinion after each unsuccessful test/cream, one doctor confirmed that it was caused by something she ate due to having atopy i.e a food allergy.
He prescribed a stronger cream and specific bath/shower soap, since then the appearance has dramatically changed for the better but the spots are still there, just smaller in appearance, separating from each other and less red and bumpy. This doctor has said she is too young to be tested for allergies and still too young to show “stronger/real” signs of a food allergy and just gave me an allergy control medicine to give her and another cream for the spots which she is to start tomorrow.
Asthma and hayfever run in my side of the family but not on my husbands side. I have food/animal allergies as well as hay fever so I gathered it was genetic. I have read about the preventable measures regarding caution with high allergen foods, elimination etc but I have no idea on what she could have eaten that made her react that way. I noticed it happened not long after visiting my inlaws. It happened gradually, itching down there and then the spots were everywhere first starting on her body, looked like red pimples, disappeared then reappeared on her vulva and buttocks as bright red spots more like mosquito bites. The next time my daughter was with my inlaws, I noticed her cheeks were bright red and spotty as well as the side of her temple not long after having eaten something but they fed her so much of many different foods that I don’t know what triggered it.
They tend to over-feed her chocolate and sugary sweets, and many other things in large quantities in a short time frame, especially high allergen foods, a bit too much for my liking but that’s bound to happen when I am not around or turn around to do something, they quickly slip it in. She has never had this problem with me or my husband because I have always been careful due to her being high-risk and I never feed her too much of anything in a given time nor give her bad foods like chocolate and sweets. My doctor called them to tell them not to feed her, I hope they stop this time as they told me when my daughter was still a baby that if she was allergic to something, she’d have been allergic by now but that is not true. I think that is why they never listened to me when I told them to stop feeding her.
My doctor said to test her and make notes on a reaction but if she has a specific allergy, does that mean I have to eliminate products like soaps and creams and aromas and anything else of that particular irritant if I am lucky enough to catch out the culprit? Is anyone on here familiar with Atopy in children that could give me some advice on how to best control her diet since I am unaware of what food/s could be causing it and what environments are not best suited for her (triggers like cigarette smoke) because I think she has an allergy of something else besides from food? 2.5 months of not knowing is causing me much stress!
Sorry, I should mention that me nor my husband smoke. We live in an animal free environment due to my allergies and my daughter appears to have a regular runny stuffy nose, since late September and it’s Autumn now where I am, that is bothering her a lot and making her really irritable it’s coming and going lasting weeks at a time so I suspect an allergy : (. Windows are always closed, I am trying to wash all her things regularly and going to buy special pillows. My mother-in-law however smokes around my daughter and smokes like a chimney. My inlaws also own a lot of birds and guinea pigs and animal hair is everywhere in their house.They never wash their hands after handling a pet and their clothes are always covered in fur. I guess that environment will only trigger her symptoms? I see them a fair bit.
I wish your daughter health and I hope you find whats causing it and that you’ll be able to control it.
My inlaws have a dog, that they love just as much as they love their kids. It sleeps in the same bed as them, under the covers too sometimes. They dont smoke, but they dont wash their hands and they bring the dog to our house twice a week allowing the dog to walk on everything. Because I care for them, they’ve always been good to me I cant tell them I dont like the dog behaving the way he is allowed to (climbs on sofas, licks toys, etc). So everytime they come we lift everything off the floor and clean as best as we can after they leave. And I can see them pumping all sorts of sweets later on too.
Your case however is diffrent as it affects your daughter’s health and for that reason your partner should tell his parents everything the two of you have on your mind. Let them know you need their help in trying to fight this, end even thou it might not be the hairs from the pets, or the smoke until you know for sure you need to eliminate them as best as you can. I’m sure they love their nice enough to understand they need to do their best for her.
Good luck with everything.
I am going through a similar thing with my youngest dd. First I would like to say mydaughter is 11months and she is being testedfor food allergens because of suspected asthma.
This is what I would do.
1.Get a refferal to a good pediatrician or allergist. She can be tested for food allergys my daughter is havinga blood test done and she is 11months. Allergist also do tests for all sorts of allergens in a controlled environment so you do not hve to ‘wait and see’ when you give her a food
At two years of age they can diagnose her for asthma. I toohave a strong family history of Asthma. My husband we do not know about because he is adopted.
If she is in daycare you may need to remove her from that environment where she can get better at home with lotsof R+R.
You MIL muststop smoking around her and you will have to enlist your husband to make her stop or stop seeing her. Notto mention how disgusting that is. eww. But I do know how hard the MIL relationship is to navigate so good luck with this one.
Sweets and choccie have to stop. Dairy can be a big allergen or even if she has an intolerance it could still 'set her off" also dairy allergen has been suspected with .
Kimba, I know my daughter is not too young because I have read Australians and Americans talking about having their babies allergy tested and here is my daughter who is 2 years old and is “too young” in France to be tested. I will ask around and see if maybe it is just this particular doctor or all French doctors who consider her too young.
The doctor has not been very helpful in how to best control the situation but simply said “limit the amount of high allergen foods and watch how she reacts” but this does not make sense to me. My daughter is too young to be tested because she won’t show “real signs” of a food allergy yet I am expected to look out for a reaction (which is a sign)??? Evidently my daughter is not to young to show signs, otherwise I wouldn’t have to be watching out. I am considering serving 1 high allergen food at a time and giving it a few days like one would normally have to do when first introducing solids.
She is in daycare but my partner does not want her taken out but I will speak with the daycare provider when I go to pick her up soon. I don’t like sending my sick child to daycare.
I had only recently noticed that my husband was giving her a lot of dairy, and tsk tsk chocolate filled products as well, at a given time, he has been just as guilty but I told him to stop before the doctor told us about having Atopy and he listened. For a very long time she had been constipated and always had a lot of straining that led to tearing, I noticed that since I had my husband cut back on giving the dairy intake, her constipation has gone. Her poos are softer, very little straining and there hasn’t been any blood. Would this have been caused by taking in too much or from an intolerance? What signs was your daughter showing that considered you to believe she must have an allergy or intolerance?
Dalis, my ILs feel the same about their beloved pets and even if they limit the exposure, they will never wash their hands, which is also extremely important, regardless. I said something about the smoking from the start of my daughters first day born since we first lived together in a very small house. I do know that she smoked throughout all 3 of her pregnancies and doesn’t consider passive smoking as dangerous. I don’t know if she thinks that way as none of her children were born addicted to nicotine or because all 3 of her children don’t have health problems related to her smoking but I hate seeing parents who smoke in front of babies and even children.
I rarely gave my dd chocolate but since has stopped because it really is just not good. She only knows about sweets because of mainly my SIL. I didn’t mind small a amount of chocolate on a special occasion, and only given by me but my SIL is 21 and quite overweight because she has a lot of problems with food, especially chocolate and cakes. I didn’t think that was being a good role model for my dd since she is overweight due to her problems with overeating bad foods and she is always giving my dd large amounts of chocolate or sweet food every time we see her. I hope this will have her stop.
Is there a particularly good website that would be helpful? Maybe high allergen foods differ in each Country.
Sorry for my rambling on but you guys seem better than any doctor.
My dd showed signs of a dairy allergy as she could not tolerate any formula she would vomit or have diarrhoea or if it was something with dairy in it such as a biscuit her nose would start running immediately when it was ingested. I tried her on so many formulas thinking it was just reflux then I put her on soy and the vomitting and diarrhoea stopped (although the wheezing hadn’t). I then took her to my General Practioner about her wheezing, we tried an inhaler but she still was not controlled on that so I took her back and asked to see an allergist but he reffered me to a pediatrician (who by the way is wonderful) and he is having her tested for nut, egg and dairy allergens through blood test.I am also having her immunity tested because she can not get over colds and has a persistant cough.
I have been to the dr’s so many times this week its not funny.
It was on his recommendtions that we pull her out of daycare and give her lots of R+R to helpher get over it.
Signs of an allergy are hives, hayfever like symptons after eating something, Finding it hard to breathe. Itchy and the most serious is when the throat closes over and the person can die from not being able to breathe.
Intolerance is vomitting/diarrohea after eating, without hives or any of the above symptons
I think it is time to switch dr’s or go into battle with this one probably better you switch or see if you can pop across to England for a day and see a dr there.
If she is in daycare How many days and can you reduce it if it your hubby does not want her taken out?
Dairy can cause many symptons to present themselves but a lack of fibre in your diet is a big cause of constipation.
Soory one more thing. If her atopy is confined to her nappy region it might be thrush and it may need to be treated with an oral treatment and a cream. My eldest dd got thrush and it did not clear up with just cream alone we used a combination of an oral drug called Nilstat (which you can buy over the counter here in Australia) 4 times a day and a thrush treatment cream. Cleared her nappy rash up beautifully.
I hope everything turns out alright for your little one. It must be a frustrating at times.
I haven’t seen any signs signalling a possible allergy, perhaps this is because I have been avoiding the most highest allergen foods on a regular basis or slowly over time she’s starting to become allergic to the ones I was giving often enough. Today her daycare said she started coughing and had a runny nose when eating a banana (high allergen food on the French list) but said they didn’t think it was an allergic reaction. I don’t give banana often.
The doctor call the ILs to tell them to stop feeding her, especially chocolates and sweets (because they weren’t listening to me when I told them to stop with the junk food) as he said chocolate is the worst for constipation and said that was probably triggering it because they would never say no to when my dd would keep asking for more chocolate. I had been trying hard to watch and prevent them from feeding her.
DD always seems sick too, longer than a week and always seems sick in the mornings and in the evening/night with a runny nose and persistent cough but good in the day which is happening on/off. There hasn’t been any drastic changes to weather it been about the same temp for past few weeks. The doctor said she seems to have a weaker than normal immune system.
The doctor on the 1st appt said it was caused by something she ate and said the spots is caused by mycosis (candida fungal infection). He said that when she did a pee or poo it became an infection and prescribed a stronger cream + soap to what the other doctors prescribed. On the second visit after seeing the spots had faded but were still present, I mentioned my daughters symptoms and my family history of hayfever, asthma and I asked again, what caused the spots and he said Atopy, so I assume what he meant the first time was she ate something she could be allergic to. I will ask about an oral treatment.
Thank you so much kimba15 for helping me understand more about the symptoms especially.