Dear Rachel,

This sounds very similar to my experience with my eldest daughter (now 13) - my heart goes out to her - it is quite distressing to see your child suffer like this. 

Nora had a lot of caries too - this may be due to her toddler snack foods (home prepared) often containing sultanas (raisins) and honey along with frequent nursing. We found a wonderful pediatric dentist who cared for her caries without trauma and she has no caries in her permanent teeth. I heard Larry Kotlow speak in London a few weeks ago and he spoke of upper lip ties being a cause of caries when they occur in the upper teeth only.

Nora's sleep improved radically when I realised that heat was damaging to her skin and I put a lighter blanket on her and found some very comfortable loose fitting, organic cotton pyjamas, with the seams sewn outwards and non-removable feet and mittens. She would even wear these in the cooler summer months as bare skin seemed to cause her more problems in the night than being covered. At the height of summer, when it was too hot for long pyjamas, one parent would sleep next to her in the coolest room in the house, and rub her skin gently with a rough face cloth - to stop her scratching with her fingernails - until she went back to sleep. We kept those face cloths on hand all of the time and she learnt to use them when she was itchy - this avoided her skin getting scratched and inflamed. 

Creams seemed to make her skin hotter, so I stopped experimenting with them. We used a Weleda clandula baby wash in her bathwater which was not irritating. A friend, whose baby had oozing skin on his cheeks, used calendula tincture diluted with water and would dab some on throughout the day which apparently helped clear that up. We never tried antibiotics specifically for the inflammation, but wish we had as it appeared that they had a positive effect -  Nora had meningitis at age 1 1/2 and her skin cleared up entirely during her hospital stay when she was on an antibiotic drip - returning at the end of her hospital stay (but was never as bad again, eventually clearing at age 2, the itch persisted until age 3). I also noticed that when she had antibiotics for chest infections (she also has asthma) her skin appeared to improve.

A baby with eczema and food allergies is highly stressful - every flare-up of skin might make the mother feel that she is responsible due to something she ate. She might need encouragement to look after herself and may need psychological support - breastfeeding on a restricted or elimination diet is hard (once you take out dairy, eggs, and nuts, there aren't many snack foods or comfort foods, restaurants and cafés frequently do not have allergens listed, and social occasions can be more stressful than fun) - especially if anyone is critical of her breastfeeding. . 

If it is any reassurance, Nora's skin cleared (except for minor patches), her milk teeth caries were treated without trauma, she eventually began sleeping through the night, and is now 13, her skin and teeth are fine, and her allergies are known (dairy, eggs, nuts and sesame seeds). She has learnt to read food labels accurately and eats out and orders her own food fairly confidently (working on that :) ). 

You can give my contact details to the mother if you think it might help,


Alice Farrow
Rome, Italy
www.cleftlipandpalatebreastfeeding.com
www.languageofinclusion.com
'Want to be an IBCLC?' https://www.facebook.com/groups/wanttobeanibclc/?ref=br_tf

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