My understanding of the relationship between eczema and food allergies (I
have 1 eczematous child and try to keep current) is that children with eczema
often have concomittent food allergies.  However, it is not clear that the
relationship is causative.  Eliminaton diets often result in little success
in clearing up the eczema.

Remember, too, that the course of the disease is excacerbating/remitting,
which makes anecdotal reportsof "cures" problematic.

OTOH, I tell mothers of exclusively breastfed infants that eczema can
indicate a higher possibility of food allergies and intolerance, which
warrants a watchful and cautious approach when solids are introduced.

I certainly would NOT support cessation of breastfeeding just to treat
eczema.  And, since the mainstream medical thinking is to not recommend
eliminaton diets as a matter of course(often stressful and only
intermittently successful)how can a physician support the most radical
"elimination diet" of all? That is, eliminating breastmilk.

NAK in cloudy philadelphia

Karen Kavesh, speech-language pathologist and breastfeeding enthusiast

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html