Expert: ruth kraft - 12/16/2009

Question
Can an allergy to my breastmilk start when my daughter is 6 months old?
I had not changed my diet and she had only had a few red spots on her body when we took her to the doctor. One or two resembled descriptions for ringworm, and the others tended to be where her clothes would get wet from spilling milk when she held the bottle (her neck and sometimes legs).
When we changed her soap from Johnson's to Aveeno and started her on rice cereal and then green beans, her skin started to get much redder and it covered more areas.  The pediatrician's advice was to keep feeding green beans and rice cereal, but change my diet, cutting out eggs, milk, nuts, apples, and corn.  She didn't have me cut out soy or wheat.
The rash didn't improve once the steroid she prescribed left her system, and the Zyrtec she is on doesn't seem to help at all. We even changed from green beans to sweet potatoes in case it was them, but still her rash is awful. We used All Free & Clear detergent and have since switched to Dreft, but nothing has improved.

Before I cut out more from my diet, is it even possible for her allergy to be from my milk this late in the game?

Desperate for a solution to my little girl's itching,
Shanna

Answer
I have never seen an allergy come up so late , usually there is some indication before hand. Although I cannot be sure, my guess would be that it started after you started with solids. If there was no problem before that, then it makes no sense to me that the problem wouldnt have been there before hand. Not impossible but more unlikely. So, I would suggest taking out the rice cereal as that has very little nutrition. In fact, if your daughter will let you, I would suggest going a couple weeks giving her NO solid food and seeing if it doesnt clear up. go back to the start point again. let her nurse as often as she wants. Then start in with the green veggies. I would also not give packaged food and see if fresh food helps also. She could be allergic to something in the packaging of the foods. Before you go and make drastic changes to your diet, try a few more practical things first. Hopefully from a clean slate. If you can't go back to only exclusivly breastfeeding then stick ONLY with fresh veggies... one per week and see what happens. No rice cereal for a few weeks, then once you start that back in, you can try Barly or oatmeal. It has more value than rice cereal which has no real nutritional value at all.

Good luck!