Eczema & Food Allergy Symptoms

When evaluating a child with eczema, your doctor will pick up on certain clues that raise the possibility of food being a problem.  As mentioned earlier, it is children with moderate to severe eczema that starts before 6 months of age that are most likely to have a food allergy.

Certain foods, such as tomatoes or citrus fruit can act as an irritant on eczematous skin. This may cause redness and itching but is not an allergy and can be avoided by simply rubbing a barrier cream around the mouth before eating.

It is important to remember that food allergy and diet often plays no role in eczema and whilst it is important to keep an open mind, it is never a good idea to restrict a child’s diet without good reason.  If removing a food from the diet does not seem to help and reintroducing it does not make things worse, then it is very unlikely to be a problem and should not be further restricted.

Moderate to severe eczema

• Eczema that first appeared at less than 6 months of age
• Family history of allergies eg asthma, eczema, hayfever
• Eczema does not respond as well as expected to treatment eg with steroid creams
• Gastrointestinal symptoms such as colic, reflux, diarrhoea or poor weight gain
• Worsening of eczema after meals including breastmilk (think about what you had eaten earlier and consider keeping a food diary to pick up any consistent patterns)
• Presence of one food allergy – if your child has an obvious allergy to one food, consider if another is also causing problems