Eczema and food allergy
Many babies with moderate or severe eczema will also have a food allergy. This does not mean that the food is the cause of the eczema. Avoiding the food is important to reduce the risk of the child having an allergic reaction.
It is important to feed your baby the common allergy causing foods that your baby is not allergic to. This will help to reduce the risk of them developing other food allergies.
Using enough moisturising and cortisone creams or ointments is the main way to treat eczema. In a very small number of young babies with severe eczema, avoiding certain foods may help improve their skin.
Removing foods to help manage eczema should always be done under the supervision of a clinical immunology/allergy specialist, alongside an allergy dietitian. An elimination diet is used to identify problem foods and if the skin improves, foods are introduced one at a time to see if it causes the eczema to flare. If there is no improvement in two weeks on the elimination diet, this means that food is unlikely to be a trigger for the eczema.
Testing for food allergies with skin tests or blood tests is not usually helpful in identifying if the food makes the eczema worse.
Allergy test results should be ordered and reviewed by a clinical immunology/allergy specialist to avoid removing foods from the baby’s diet unnecessarily.
The risks and benefits of removing the food from a baby’s diet to help manage eczema should always be discussed with a doctor before removing foods.
Removing foods from a baby’s diet without using suitable substitutes can cause malnutrition and poor growth. If a baby is eating a food without signs of an allergic reaction, removing this food could cause them to develop a food allergy when the food is given again.
