Go on asking, collecting stories, making connections with other mothers, and demanding answers. One of the ways that our society disempowers women is to separate us, each in our little homes without enough time to talk or to organise. Mumsnet has shown us we are so much more powerful, informed and disruptive when we get together.
We need to demand research for our babies, demand answers and demand treatment. Our society does masses of research on weapons, let’s demand that our taxes are spent on research to make our children’s lives bearable.
Women prop up society through a bedrock of unpaid and underpaid work. This is our society too and we must be the change we need. No-one else is going to do it for us.
Hi Millie, I love your books and articles, they helped me a lot in my pregnancy and since, so thank you. On this, I realise it may not be a popular response, but we live in an era that worships questionable vaccinations that are often driven by corrupt political interests and corporate profit rather than health. The ever rising number of childhood vaccinations provide constant overstimulation for a developing immune system that result in a whole range of long term health conditions. Allergies are an immune reaction afterall. I do not believe in the system that outright dismisses and ridicules reasonable calls for research and honesty around this and due to "conflict of interest" the truth is not likely to come to light.
Hi Mili. I do t know anything about allergies, sorry. I just wanted to say I concur completely with you on this lack of curiosity from (most) doctors. When I had breast cancer I did a lot of reasearch both on line and drawing on best practice in Denmark. I put together a protocol and supported my body in a number of ways. As I result I practically breezed through surgery, chemo and radiation. I bounced in the door for chemo every week while most other people dragged themselves in. Were the doctors interested in hearing about it ? No! The NHS is great but more people could be helped more effectively and cheaply with a bit more curiosity.
Couldn’t agree more Mette - my experience of the NHS as a midwife and a patient reflect this - as a midwife women welcomed information that gave them choices, responsibility, empowered them to try things for themselves - so I used to share the Brewer diet details with women with a history of pre eclampsia or high BP - it helped many but doctors couldn’t take on board anything that didn’t encompass ‘drugs’ - food couldn’t possibly have any influence or power… and yet… allergies… It’s the same attitude as mainstream medicine has about herbal medicines; not effective… but don’t take them with some medication as they may enhance or interfere with the drug - grapefruit is a case in point. You can’t have it both ways. Either herbs/food has effects or not. As a patient I was astounded when attending for bowel screening in my 40s (family history) I asked the Registrar about diet - he looked blankly at me and I swear shrugged his shoulders adding that I should eat healthy… Sorry I cannot offer anything but support for trying alternatives Milli - my best advice always is follow your intuition… but I think you do.
Thanks Lynn and Mette. It feels like diet is the best thing to try because it can't do any harm. The whole gut thing is fascinating and he is a lovely curious little person so I think he will be a keen participant! xx
Hi Milli, I also can’t really look at the photos of your son as it brings back the same overwhelming feelings of helplessness for me.
At the time, I blamed the rotavirus vaccine for changing his microbiome as his green nappies appeared then and didn’t go away until he was 8 months by which time his skin was a disaster and we were in that awful steroid cream cycle. I was similarly losing weight rapidly with such a restricted diet. We got the eczema under control after paying to see Adam Fox and we do “weekend therapy” where we apply the steroids twice a week now and that mostly keeps him under control.
He’s 5 now and he can tolerate dairy, soya and egg now. He mostly chooses not to eat them though and I can’t work out whether it’s preference or fear. I’m hoping that will become clearer as he gets older and hopefully broadens his fussy eating!
I would absolutely love to know if you find a solution. I have an 18 month old who is following in his big brother’s footsteps only this time I knew exactly what was going on so it has been a different experience. We’re currently trying a quarter of a milk biscuit and I can’t work out whether the flare up on his cheeks is the biscuit, the weather, his teeth or cold!
I should have said in the post about vaccines because with him, we didn't have any! The number of people who have told me that the whole thing was probably caused by vaccines - it we HAD had the vaccines it would have been awful to have to think that. But he didn't. I hope that helps you to know.
We are not anti vaccine by the way, I just could not contemplate introducing anything else to his little body when he looked like he did in those photos! And we've not had them since. Partly because I have lost faith in the medical authorities over it all really. x
Thanks Milli. I blamed the vaccines because it seemed too coincidental otherwise. Then my youngest got all the same symptoms anyway so I know the vaccines aren’t the underlying cause. I’d love to find a natural way to move away from the steroid cream. I’ve tried various lotions and potions (and homeopathy too!) but frustratingly it has been the steroid cream that works the best.
Hi Milli. My son had allergies to milk and to egg from a baby. By about nine, when we went to the hospital for a test session he was growing out of it (I can’t remember exactly how they did it, but I think they started with a drip of milk on his skin, gave it time, then on his lip, then eventually he sipped a teaspoon worth without ill effect.) I was supposed to gradually increase, but he never really liked the taste. He still uses soya milk for cereal now in his late teens, but he can have ordinary dairy spread or butter, and moderate amounts of milk and yogurt in cooked food etc, and it makes our lives much easier! We never managed cheese - whether it was a real feeling or anxiety, he kept thinking he felt his throat swelling. I think it may just have been the claggy feeling dairy gives, but of course he wasn’t used to it. So yes, there is hope. I am not allergic to anything but my husband is allergic to nuts. I think he may have developed this sensitivity from having formula milk in his first two days before I got going with the breastfeeding and then didn’t use formula again, till five months later. I wonder whether that gap contributed.
Thanks! We had the last testing about a year ago and nothing had changed, he was not eligible for the gradual increase thing, his allergies are still too severe. So I'm worried it will either worsen or stay the same. I want to work out if there is anything we can do to improve it. There might not be - but I want to try! xx
my daughter (now 3) had a stack of food allergies... which we only realised age 5 months when I started to try food as she was only breastfed and she swelled up completely on half a teaspoon of egg. We then had all the tests done (peanuts, milk, egg, cashew, pistachio, sesame all came up). We did the peanut desensitisation privately at 9 months. But there was nothing the NHS could support on for the rest. So I downloaded all the research papers and desensitised her myself. She is still technically allergic to milk (prick test) but can drink a large glass with no issues. She can now lead a fairly normal life (as long as she eats a few peanut m&ms and choc covered cashews every few days which she rather likes!).
Netflix had a documentary called Rotten a few years ago, with an episode dedicated to the rise in food allergies. They featured some specialists (in the US) who helped treat kids and teens with severe food allergies. Maybe that can give you some further research ideas..
Hi Milli. My daughter, nearly 10yrs old, has a severe dairy allergy and, like your son, has spent her childhood to date feeling that she is missing out as she watches friends and peers consume dairy-laden foods everywhere we go. Her dream is to try dairy ice-cream one day or eat a regular bar of chocolate. We spend our lives reading ingredients labels and trying to find palatable dairy-free options so that our daughter can feel the same as everyone else. Every time she is away from us we worry about her coming into contact with dairy - her allergy dictates that she only has to touch something or someone where dairy has been, let alone consume it, to have a reaction.
It's hard and it's getting harder, the older she gets. Last year, following a couple of severe reactions we were issued EpiPens and managed to obtain a referral to Addenbrookes Allergy Clinic, Cambridge. During out appointment, we were told how allergies within the medical profession are 'not well understood' and little is really known about why they occur and why they might suddenly go away. We asked if there were any immunotherapy trials underway for dairy allergy but only peanut allergy trials were taking place. There was discussion about re-introducing dairy to our daughter's diet in microscopic amounts over a long period of time via the 'milk-ladder' but given the severity of her two recent reactions we were advised to wait until her next appointment (at the time a year away) before starting. So here we are, no further forward but with a little bit of hope ahead of her Allergy Clinic appointment next month.
I'm sorry to hear this it sounds like your daughter's allergy is stronger than my son's. I received so much info in response to this post and I'm going to try and dive into it all soon. The key point I keep hearing about is gut healing and diet / the microbiome. Have you looked into this? X
Hi Milli. My daughter, nearly 10yrs old, has a severe dairy allergy and, like your son, has spent her childhood to date feeling that she is missing out as she watches friends and peers consume dairy-laden foods everywhere we go. Her dream is to try dairy ice-cream one day or eat a regular bar of chocolate. We spend our lives reading ingredients labels and trying to find palatable dairy-free options so that our daughter can feel the same as everyone else. Every time she is away from us we worry about her coming into contact with dairy - her allergy dictates that she only has to touch something or someone where dairy has been, let alone consume it, to have a reaction.
It's hard and it's getting harder, the older she gets. Last year, following a couple of severe reactions we were issued EpiPens and managed to obtain a referral to Addenbrookes Allergy Clinic, Cambridge. During out appointment, we were told how allergies within the medical profession are 'not well understood' and little is really known about why they occur and why they might suddenly go away. We asked if there were any immunotherapy trials underway for dairy allergy but only peanut allergy trials were taking place. There was discussion about re-introducing dairy to our daughter's diet in microscopic amounts over a long period of time via the 'milk-ladder' but given the severity of her two recent reactions we were advised to wait until her next appointment (at the time a year away) before starting. So here we are, no further forward but with a little bit of hope ahead of her Allergy Clinic appointment next month.
Hi Milli, It is important to know more about your pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience with your son, as we now know that this is the critical time (a narrow window) where the microbiome is established and directly impacts our short and long-term health.
For example, (maternal and/or infant) exposures to antibiotics in pregnancy, labor, and during lactation can impact the infant microbiome. We also know that a Cesarean birth deprives the baby of receiving critical vaginal and gut microbes that are essential in "seeding and feeding" the infant microbiome. And in addition, if the baby is exclusively breastfed (and receives the essential and beneficial microbes and human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs, which are indigestible by the baby but rather food for the microbes so they can grow, multiply and colonize the gut) that are in human milk but not formula; whether the baby was able to have extended skin to skin contact and receive beneficial microbes from the parents skin, and whether it was a hospital birth where babies can pick up pathogenic microbes in the air and from everything/everyone they come into contact with or if it was a home birth/postpartum period where the microbes are less likely to be pathogenic and more likely to be beneficial - are all considerations.
We have a maternal heritage where we, as mothers, pass our microbes on to our children (and we received microbes from our mothers - going back - and going forwards - for generations).
This is a complex subject for a short post, but ultimately our early microbial exposures train our immune system and are directly associated with autoimmune health, metabolic health, neurologic health, endocrine health, etc.. all areas of health! And definitely can impact risk for allergies, asthma, and eczema.
If you are interested in learning more and speaking to a health specialist knowledgeable in this topic and microbiome restoration, I can put you in contact with some trusted experts in the field.
I can tell you the answers! No antibiotics - maternal or baby (until the ones I mentioned once the eczema appeared). Home birth. Water birth (have said in another comment that I do sometimes worry about the pool as we had the kind that you can fill and leave up, rather like a hot tub, and it had a treatment capsule in the water that I regret not thinking more about). Skin to skin after the birth and beyond. Exclusively breastfed (weaned at 4). Not vaccinated (still has never been vaccinated - I'm not anti vax but I lost faith in the system and did not want to introduce any more substances into his body when he looked like the photos I've shared in the piece). I'm up for speaking to anyone. Thanks for your comment xx
Such a difficult trial Milli! I remember you telling me about it when you visited Australia. I'm sorry to hear he still has so many restrictions still. My son, 18 now, also has eczema, although not as badly and from not as young and I think in fact caused by vaccines, is doing much better with not allergies and dairy intolerance after a couple of years on high meat and low carb and few veg. I suppose you could call it a variation on the carnivore diet. I feel he would improve more if he was strict for a period but he's not quite willing at the moment and I think happy enough with his progress, although if his skin flares up (he became probe to bad and once puberty came along, wonder if that's next for Albie), he goes strict for a couple of days and he improves greatly.
It's great Albie eats meat but it might be the fruit, veg and other carbs he's eating that are keeping the inflammation alive in him.
Unfortunately what this suggestion means is even more restriction, for a while at least, but if it leads to results he might be willing. It's surprising what it does for your health, even if you think you have no particular issues. Aches and pains disappear very quickly, greying of hair slows, eyesight improves. So perhaps a stint by you in solidarity might help him. He obviously would have to do the very strict version, fatty meat from ruminant animals only, plus salt and water.
I know this sounds extreme so don't take it from me, check out Dr Anthony Chaffee, Dr Ken Berry, Dr Shawn Baker, Dr Paul Mason, Dr Sean O'Mara (who also recommends fermented veg) and the other doctors who are curing a huge range of mental and physical illnesses this way, including lots of eczema.
final thought to add - The GAPs diet that is used to treat autism and other gut disbiosis starts with just meat and bone broth too. It has a staged approach to adding other foods.
My daughter had eczema as a baby (kind of bad sometimes, but nowhere near as bad as your little one!) and was allergic to dairy and soy. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the cause, and why rates have increased so much in recent years. Of course I didn't figure it out but I'll share things I learned/thought in hopes that one of them will be a piece of the puzzle that helps someone finally put it all together. Many of these are in the area of prevention rather than helpful after the fact so they don't help you directly but I think anything that helps us understand this is useful in general.
2. Desensitation therapy seems to be the only thing that works to cure them
3. My daughter was born with low blood sugar and had to have formula immediately after birth - could this be a cause? My non-allergic child was exclusively breastfed and didn't have dairy until she had solid foods. (However, this would seem to go against #1, and it's obviously anecdotal)
4. Data shows that allergies are more common in urban areas than rural, and in wealthier families. Is there some ingredient in products more likely to be used by these groups of people that is a contributing factor? A food additive, medication, cleaning product ingredient?
5. I have seen interesting research around the possibility of acetaminophen being a possible cause (I think you call it paracetamol in the UK). This would explain the rise in food allergies in recent generations since we stopped giving kids aspirin and used acetaminophen instead.
6. Could maternal age have something to do with it? This would also help explain the rise in cases in recent generations.
Side note - my daughter fortunately mostly outgrew the allergies by age 2. We were lucky her symptoms weren't too bad (mostly hives on her skin) so we weren't super careful about avoiding all traces of those foods and maybe that actually helped. She's 16 now and no longer has to restrict her diet, although she will occasionally get a few little hives after eating certain foods or if a cat gets right in her face. I hope your little guy is able to outgrow some of this too! I'm also really glad to hear some evidence that it's not vaccines. My daughter was vaccinated but it really did seem like her symptoms showed up prior to that so I didn't think that was it.
I absolutely love your approach to this. Have no helpful comments but have shared it onto my birth group to see if any of those already with kids have any feedback.
Hi there, we are also a very happy Dr Aron family. My son has/had peanut and nut allergies. We have gone through a desensitisation programme in privately with Dr Adam Fox in London. They also offer programmes for egg and milk desensitisation. https://www.allergylondon.com/treatments/milk-allergy-desensitisation/
We've found the process really straightforward and happy to share any experiences.
Go on asking, collecting stories, making connections with other mothers, and demanding answers. One of the ways that our society disempowers women is to separate us, each in our little homes without enough time to talk or to organise. Mumsnet has shown us we are so much more powerful, informed and disruptive when we get together.
We need to demand research for our babies, demand answers and demand treatment. Our society does masses of research on weapons, let’s demand that our taxes are spent on research to make our children’s lives bearable.
Women prop up society through a bedrock of unpaid and underpaid work. This is our society too and we must be the change we need. No-one else is going to do it for us.
Amen! x
Hi Millie, I love your books and articles, they helped me a lot in my pregnancy and since, so thank you. On this, I realise it may not be a popular response, but we live in an era that worships questionable vaccinations that are often driven by corrupt political interests and corporate profit rather than health. The ever rising number of childhood vaccinations provide constant overstimulation for a developing immune system that result in a whole range of long term health conditions. Allergies are an immune reaction afterall. I do not believe in the system that outright dismisses and ridicules reasonable calls for research and honesty around this and due to "conflict of interest" the truth is not likely to come to light.
Thanks, he never had a single vaccine so I know it wasn't that in this case. x
Hi Mili. I do t know anything about allergies, sorry. I just wanted to say I concur completely with you on this lack of curiosity from (most) doctors. When I had breast cancer I did a lot of reasearch both on line and drawing on best practice in Denmark. I put together a protocol and supported my body in a number of ways. As I result I practically breezed through surgery, chemo and radiation. I bounced in the door for chemo every week while most other people dragged themselves in. Were the doctors interested in hearing about it ? No! The NHS is great but more people could be helped more effectively and cheaply with a bit more curiosity.
Couldn’t agree more Mette - my experience of the NHS as a midwife and a patient reflect this - as a midwife women welcomed information that gave them choices, responsibility, empowered them to try things for themselves - so I used to share the Brewer diet details with women with a history of pre eclampsia or high BP - it helped many but doctors couldn’t take on board anything that didn’t encompass ‘drugs’ - food couldn’t possibly have any influence or power… and yet… allergies… It’s the same attitude as mainstream medicine has about herbal medicines; not effective… but don’t take them with some medication as they may enhance or interfere with the drug - grapefruit is a case in point. You can’t have it both ways. Either herbs/food has effects or not. As a patient I was astounded when attending for bowel screening in my 40s (family history) I asked the Registrar about diet - he looked blankly at me and I swear shrugged his shoulders adding that I should eat healthy… Sorry I cannot offer anything but support for trying alternatives Milli - my best advice always is follow your intuition… but I think you do.
Thanks Lynn and Mette. It feels like diet is the best thing to try because it can't do any harm. The whole gut thing is fascinating and he is a lovely curious little person so I think he will be a keen participant! xx
Hi Milli, I also can’t really look at the photos of your son as it brings back the same overwhelming feelings of helplessness for me.
At the time, I blamed the rotavirus vaccine for changing his microbiome as his green nappies appeared then and didn’t go away until he was 8 months by which time his skin was a disaster and we were in that awful steroid cream cycle. I was similarly losing weight rapidly with such a restricted diet. We got the eczema under control after paying to see Adam Fox and we do “weekend therapy” where we apply the steroids twice a week now and that mostly keeps him under control.
He’s 5 now and he can tolerate dairy, soya and egg now. He mostly chooses not to eat them though and I can’t work out whether it’s preference or fear. I’m hoping that will become clearer as he gets older and hopefully broadens his fussy eating!
I would absolutely love to know if you find a solution. I have an 18 month old who is following in his big brother’s footsteps only this time I knew exactly what was going on so it has been a different experience. We’re currently trying a quarter of a milk biscuit and I can’t work out whether the flare up on his cheeks is the biscuit, the weather, his teeth or cold!
I should have said in the post about vaccines because with him, we didn't have any! The number of people who have told me that the whole thing was probably caused by vaccines - it we HAD had the vaccines it would have been awful to have to think that. But he didn't. I hope that helps you to know.
We are not anti vaccine by the way, I just could not contemplate introducing anything else to his little body when he looked like he did in those photos! And we've not had them since. Partly because I have lost faith in the medical authorities over it all really. x
Thanks Milli. I blamed the vaccines because it seemed too coincidental otherwise. Then my youngest got all the same symptoms anyway so I know the vaccines aren’t the underlying cause. I’d love to find a natural way to move away from the steroid cream. I’ve tried various lotions and potions (and homeopathy too!) but frustratingly it has been the steroid cream that works the best.
Thanks for reigniting my thoughts on it all!
Have you tried Dr Aron?
We haven’t. I assumed his treatment was also going to be steroid based. I’ll go looking for the Facebook group, thanks.
Hi Milli. My son had allergies to milk and to egg from a baby. By about nine, when we went to the hospital for a test session he was growing out of it (I can’t remember exactly how they did it, but I think they started with a drip of milk on his skin, gave it time, then on his lip, then eventually he sipped a teaspoon worth without ill effect.) I was supposed to gradually increase, but he never really liked the taste. He still uses soya milk for cereal now in his late teens, but he can have ordinary dairy spread or butter, and moderate amounts of milk and yogurt in cooked food etc, and it makes our lives much easier! We never managed cheese - whether it was a real feeling or anxiety, he kept thinking he felt his throat swelling. I think it may just have been the claggy feeling dairy gives, but of course he wasn’t used to it. So yes, there is hope. I am not allergic to anything but my husband is allergic to nuts. I think he may have developed this sensitivity from having formula milk in his first two days before I got going with the breastfeeding and then didn’t use formula again, till five months later. I wonder whether that gap contributed.
Thanks! We had the last testing about a year ago and nothing had changed, he was not eligible for the gradual increase thing, his allergies are still too severe. So I'm worried it will either worsen or stay the same. I want to work out if there is anything we can do to improve it. There might not be - but I want to try! xx
my daughter (now 3) had a stack of food allergies... which we only realised age 5 months when I started to try food as she was only breastfed and she swelled up completely on half a teaspoon of egg. We then had all the tests done (peanuts, milk, egg, cashew, pistachio, sesame all came up). We did the peanut desensitisation privately at 9 months. But there was nothing the NHS could support on for the rest. So I downloaded all the research papers and desensitised her myself. She is still technically allergic to milk (prick test) but can drink a large glass with no issues. She can now lead a fairly normal life (as long as she eats a few peanut m&ms and choc covered cashews every few days which she rather likes!).
I'd love a link to any good papers? Thank you Sophie x
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/all.15212
this is the cashew study - you can download the methods and tables free under "supplementary materials"
Thank you! X
Netflix had a documentary called Rotten a few years ago, with an episode dedicated to the rise in food allergies. They featured some specialists (in the US) who helped treat kids and teens with severe food allergies. Maybe that can give you some further research ideas..
https://www.spokin.com/food-allergies-featured-on-netflix
Thanks I will check that out! x
Hi Milli. Maybe worth getting in touch with Dr Tim Spector about your son’s allergies?
Thanks, I'm sure he must be inundated! But I will try, thanks for the suggestion xxx
Hi Milli. My daughter, nearly 10yrs old, has a severe dairy allergy and, like your son, has spent her childhood to date feeling that she is missing out as she watches friends and peers consume dairy-laden foods everywhere we go. Her dream is to try dairy ice-cream one day or eat a regular bar of chocolate. We spend our lives reading ingredients labels and trying to find palatable dairy-free options so that our daughter can feel the same as everyone else. Every time she is away from us we worry about her coming into contact with dairy - her allergy dictates that she only has to touch something or someone where dairy has been, let alone consume it, to have a reaction.
It's hard and it's getting harder, the older she gets. Last year, following a couple of severe reactions we were issued EpiPens and managed to obtain a referral to Addenbrookes Allergy Clinic, Cambridge. During out appointment, we were told how allergies within the medical profession are 'not well understood' and little is really known about why they occur and why they might suddenly go away. We asked if there were any immunotherapy trials underway for dairy allergy but only peanut allergy trials were taking place. There was discussion about re-introducing dairy to our daughter's diet in microscopic amounts over a long period of time via the 'milk-ladder' but given the severity of her two recent reactions we were advised to wait until her next appointment (at the time a year away) before starting. So here we are, no further forward but with a little bit of hope ahead of her Allergy Clinic appointment next month.
I'm sorry to hear this it sounds like your daughter's allergy is stronger than my son's. I received so much info in response to this post and I'm going to try and dive into it all soon. The key point I keep hearing about is gut healing and diet / the microbiome. Have you looked into this? X
Hi Milli. My daughter, nearly 10yrs old, has a severe dairy allergy and, like your son, has spent her childhood to date feeling that she is missing out as she watches friends and peers consume dairy-laden foods everywhere we go. Her dream is to try dairy ice-cream one day or eat a regular bar of chocolate. We spend our lives reading ingredients labels and trying to find palatable dairy-free options so that our daughter can feel the same as everyone else. Every time she is away from us we worry about her coming into contact with dairy - her allergy dictates that she only has to touch something or someone where dairy has been, let alone consume it, to have a reaction.
It's hard and it's getting harder, the older she gets. Last year, following a couple of severe reactions we were issued EpiPens and managed to obtain a referral to Addenbrookes Allergy Clinic, Cambridge. During out appointment, we were told how allergies within the medical profession are 'not well understood' and little is really known about why they occur and why they might suddenly go away. We asked if there were any immunotherapy trials underway for dairy allergy but only peanut allergy trials were taking place. There was discussion about re-introducing dairy to our daughter's diet in microscopic amounts over a long period of time via the 'milk-ladder' but given the severity of her two recent reactions we were advised to wait until her next appointment (at the time a year away) before starting. So here we are, no further forward but with a little bit of hope ahead of her Allergy Clinic appointment next month.
Hi Milli, It is important to know more about your pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience with your son, as we now know that this is the critical time (a narrow window) where the microbiome is established and directly impacts our short and long-term health.
For example, (maternal and/or infant) exposures to antibiotics in pregnancy, labor, and during lactation can impact the infant microbiome. We also know that a Cesarean birth deprives the baby of receiving critical vaginal and gut microbes that are essential in "seeding and feeding" the infant microbiome. And in addition, if the baby is exclusively breastfed (and receives the essential and beneficial microbes and human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs, which are indigestible by the baby but rather food for the microbes so they can grow, multiply and colonize the gut) that are in human milk but not formula; whether the baby was able to have extended skin to skin contact and receive beneficial microbes from the parents skin, and whether it was a hospital birth where babies can pick up pathogenic microbes in the air and from everything/everyone they come into contact with or if it was a home birth/postpartum period where the microbes are less likely to be pathogenic and more likely to be beneficial - are all considerations.
We have a maternal heritage where we, as mothers, pass our microbes on to our children (and we received microbes from our mothers - going back - and going forwards - for generations).
This is a complex subject for a short post, but ultimately our early microbial exposures train our immune system and are directly associated with autoimmune health, metabolic health, neurologic health, endocrine health, etc.. all areas of health! And definitely can impact risk for allergies, asthma, and eczema.
If you are interested in learning more and speaking to a health specialist knowledgeable in this topic and microbiome restoration, I can put you in contact with some trusted experts in the field.
Thank you for all that you do!
With love, gratitude and respect,
Leah Lissauer
Thank you Leah!
I can tell you the answers! No antibiotics - maternal or baby (until the ones I mentioned once the eczema appeared). Home birth. Water birth (have said in another comment that I do sometimes worry about the pool as we had the kind that you can fill and leave up, rather like a hot tub, and it had a treatment capsule in the water that I regret not thinking more about). Skin to skin after the birth and beyond. Exclusively breastfed (weaned at 4). Not vaccinated (still has never been vaccinated - I'm not anti vax but I lost faith in the system and did not want to introduce any more substances into his body when he looked like the photos I've shared in the piece). I'm up for speaking to anyone. Thanks for your comment xx
Such a difficult trial Milli! I remember you telling me about it when you visited Australia. I'm sorry to hear he still has so many restrictions still. My son, 18 now, also has eczema, although not as badly and from not as young and I think in fact caused by vaccines, is doing much better with not allergies and dairy intolerance after a couple of years on high meat and low carb and few veg. I suppose you could call it a variation on the carnivore diet. I feel he would improve more if he was strict for a period but he's not quite willing at the moment and I think happy enough with his progress, although if his skin flares up (he became probe to bad and once puberty came along, wonder if that's next for Albie), he goes strict for a couple of days and he improves greatly.
It's great Albie eats meat but it might be the fruit, veg and other carbs he's eating that are keeping the inflammation alive in him.
Unfortunately what this suggestion means is even more restriction, for a while at least, but if it leads to results he might be willing. It's surprising what it does for your health, even if you think you have no particular issues. Aches and pains disappear very quickly, greying of hair slows, eyesight improves. So perhaps a stint by you in solidarity might help him. He obviously would have to do the very strict version, fatty meat from ruminant animals only, plus salt and water.
I know this sounds extreme so don't take it from me, check out Dr Anthony Chaffee, Dr Ken Berry, Dr Shawn Baker, Dr Paul Mason, Dr Sean O'Mara (who also recommends fermented veg) and the other doctors who are curing a huge range of mental and physical illnesses this way, including lots of eczema.
Just a thought, but it's possible he has the MTHFR mutation, or you perhaps. (eg did you take a folic acid supplement when pregnant).
Interesting exploration!
https://www.dranamaria.com/mthfr-mutation-and-eczema/
final thought to add - The GAPs diet that is used to treat autism and other gut disbiosis starts with just meat and bone broth too. It has a staged approach to adding other foods.
My daughter had eczema as a baby (kind of bad sometimes, but nowhere near as bad as your little one!) and was allergic to dairy and soy. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the cause, and why rates have increased so much in recent years. Of course I didn't figure it out but I'll share things I learned/thought in hopes that one of them will be a piece of the puzzle that helps someone finally put it all together. Many of these are in the area of prevention rather than helpful after the fact so they don't help you directly but I think anything that helps us understand this is useful in general.
1. Delayed introduction of foods (which was the recommendation here in the US when my kids were babies, not sure if it still is or if the UK is the same) greatly increases, rather than decreases, the likelihood of allergies. See https://aacijournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13223-018-0286-1#:~:text=Data%20from%20a%20Finnish%20birth%20cohort%20that%20included,to%20food%20and%20inhalant%20allergens%20%5B%2016%20%5D. , and I've seen other studies as well. The data on this seems very convincing - do NOT delay introduction of foods, introduce them early and often.
2. Desensitation therapy seems to be the only thing that works to cure them
3. My daughter was born with low blood sugar and had to have formula immediately after birth - could this be a cause? My non-allergic child was exclusively breastfed and didn't have dairy until she had solid foods. (However, this would seem to go against #1, and it's obviously anecdotal)
4. Data shows that allergies are more common in urban areas than rural, and in wealthier families. Is there some ingredient in products more likely to be used by these groups of people that is a contributing factor? A food additive, medication, cleaning product ingredient?
5. I have seen interesting research around the possibility of acetaminophen being a possible cause (I think you call it paracetamol in the UK). This would explain the rise in food allergies in recent generations since we stopped giving kids aspirin and used acetaminophen instead.
6. Could maternal age have something to do with it? This would also help explain the rise in cases in recent generations.
Side note - my daughter fortunately mostly outgrew the allergies by age 2. We were lucky her symptoms weren't too bad (mostly hives on her skin) so we weren't super careful about avoiding all traces of those foods and maybe that actually helped. She's 16 now and no longer has to restrict her diet, although she will occasionally get a few little hives after eating certain foods or if a cat gets right in her face. I hope your little guy is able to outgrow some of this too! I'm also really glad to hear some evidence that it's not vaccines. My daughter was vaccinated but it really did seem like her symptoms showed up prior to that so I didn't think that was it.
I absolutely love your approach to this. Have no helpful comments but have shared it onto my birth group to see if any of those already with kids have any feedback.
Sorry you and your son had such a terrible experience, might be worth looking at Lucinda Miller’s work, she’s a naturopath but uses evidenced based research. On instagar As naturedockid https://naturedoc.com/resources/?fbclid=PAAabfhpeUPtCg6FPuzfqYUFMNVEXGgkrzyqLiONT1Fxbqu6RlDemQa9uYswA_aem_AefYB520rvrD44lSS9N4tLb4NyILAGu8l919SuQAdyviXCrPtxK2Nb1KQotqSZ43xsk
Hi there, we are also a very happy Dr Aron family. My son has/had peanut and nut allergies. We have gone through a desensitisation programme in privately with Dr Adam Fox in London. They also offer programmes for egg and milk desensitisation. https://www.allergylondon.com/treatments/milk-allergy-desensitisation/
We've found the process really straightforward and happy to share any experiences.
Ah that is interesting, his name has come up a couple of times. I'll check it out, thank you. xx