I have been dairy free for about 4 months now. I cut dairy and beans out of my diet when my little man was about a month old and became very fussy and my good sleeper wouldn't sleep as long and took forever to get to sleep. Thankfully my mom was here with me and would help with him so I could get some rest. My mom was the one who suggested I cut out all dairy and beans and sure enough within a few days he was back to being my happy and good sleeping baby.
While my mom was still here we tried reading beans to my diet and that night he was up until 4 in I the morning screaming. Again, thankfully my mom was here and around midnight I went to sleep so I would be able to get some rest between nursing him. After that terrible experience I was in no hurry to try and add dairy back to my diet!
Well about 2 weeks ago I felt that I was up to adding it back in because I missed cheese! I started eating some dairy and he seemed fine. He wasn't fussy and he was still sleeping like normal. A few days later he started getting a diaper rash. I put coconut oil on it and it didn't go away. After a few days I put him in some disposables (yuck!) with desitin. It would get a little better and than come back. About a week later it got really bad! I thought maybe it was his cloth (I had been switching him between cloth and disposables during this rash, normally we just use cloth) because around the same time I started dairy I switched his diaper detergent. I switched back to the Purex Free and Clear I normally use. The rash didn't go away so I decided to bleach them. Nothing. I was starting to think I should take him in and get it looked and (I was starting to think maybe it was yeast?) get prescription. At this point his poor little bum was so red, dry and patchy and bumpy.
Later that night after deciding I was going to take him to see if they thought it was yeast, I was talking with my mom about it. And then it dawned on me. I started eating dairy just a few days before he got this rash! I looked it up and it said dairy can cause eczema and that another sign could be an increased amount of spit up. He had been spitting up more than normal but I just thought that was due to teething. I looked at him again and his "rash" had started spreading up to his tummy and sides.
This was not a normal diaper rash and after doing some research I read a story of a lady who's little one experienced the same thing, eczema due to dairy. I immediately cut out all dairy again and 3 (4?) days later his eczema "rash" is gone! I noticed a change for the better the next day actually. I also gave him a coconut oil bath and that helped his little dry "rash" too.
I felt so bad that it took me over a week of trying to get rid of his rash before I realized that it was the dairy causing it! The spitting up also. He has only spit up 1 time today instead of the 3+ times a day like he was! I was talking with my husband the other night and told him about the dairy causing him an eczema "rash". My husband mentioned that when our little man was little he was always getting rashes! That got me thinking and he was right! Around the time I cut out dairy originally he stopped getting bad rashes.
Although I do miss dairy sometimes (especially cheese) it's actually not as bad as I thought. Thankfully I can still eat butter and hidden dairy but every once in awhile I do miss it. But breastfeeding my little man is very important to me and I hope he grows out of this allergy more for himself than for me. I can handle not eating dairy but I want my son to be able to enjoy all foods without getting rashes etc.
If you have a little one that has Eczema or an unknown diaper rash try cutting out dairy to see if it gets better. It's worth a shot! :)
~MissC
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