Allergy/acne advice or reassurance please!

[DixieLu]

Driving myself a bit potty and hoping for some with experience to be able to offer ideas.

My little boy is 8 weeks old. For about 3 weeks, just over he has had a rash on face, chest, neck, ears. Also has reflux and we seem to be even sickier at the moment. He is exclusively breastfed. He's fairly happy, unsettled spells but certainly not shouting the house down constantly.

GP and HV have big said rash is baby acne, but it's just getting worse and worse. Sometimes it looks very pimply other times just really red and raised and angry. My eldest daughter had cmpi and her dad had various allergies as a child. Suggested to GP and HV who dismissed the idea, said he was too young and breastfed babies don't get it.

Nappy wise we normally get one big explosion a day. They are seedy yellow, sometimes I think there's a greenish tint. They're not slimey as such but are a bit stringy if you know what I mean!

I'd like to keep feeding myself if it's not an allergy but don't want to try giving up dairy. Having tried it before I find it very stressful and just makes me feel more anxious and stressed at an already emotional (hormonal) time.

What should I do? Ask to try hypoallergenic formula and risk having to give up feeding if it's not cmpi and he won't go back to the boob? Try him with a bottle of normal formula and see if he reacts? Do the spots look like an allergy rash? Does the nappy look normal?

Help?!

 

[DixieLu]

 

[noon_child]

That nappy looks totally normal to me - on my screen that's a classic mustard colour. I can't comment on the skin cos I just can't remember what it was like with my daughter I'm afraid although I didn't look at it and think "Yikes that looks unusual".

Breastfed babies can get CMPI but I would't want to give up on the huge benefits of breastfeeding if baby seems happy and settled and his skin doesn't seem to bother him. What were the symptoms that gave you the diagnosis of reflux?

 

[DixieLu]

He was fussing and crying on the breast, burping and bringing up milk while feeding, quite uncomfortable when he had finished, wriggling and writhing (though that normally only lasts a few minutes). He also brings vomit back up into his mouth qlquite often without spitting it out.

I really hope it isnt cmpi. It wasn't diagnosed with daughter until she went onto foolrmula at six months, though she suffered sickness and skin rashes while I was breast feeding her. I think that is what is impairing my judgment!

 

[xarlenex]

This was my daughter's face, she also had dry skin patches on her elbows and small patches on her back and legs. She had explosive nappies between 5-10 times a day, her weight gain was awful (still not great but that's another issue) this all led us to try the dairy free formula and we are now down to a healthy one a day poo and her skin in perfect!

If it's your instinct that it's dairy could you temporary cut out dairy from your diet just long enough to see a difference? If it's confirmed that way then move onto the formula if you don't want to stick dairy free yourself? I couldn't do it either!

 

[xarlenex]

Also if it's caused by CMPA then it won't respond to a moisturiser, that was a big sign for us x

 

[Babybump87]

We are currently going through a stage of wait and see if our newborn has CMPA . DD2 has it . The hospital advised us that our newborn has a much higher chance of having it given he has a sibling with the same condition . Give your eldest and your DH has allergies too .

The nappy also looks normal to me a mustard colour. No blood or mucus which can be a sign of CMPA (not every baby has mucus/blood for CMPA to be present).

The rash can be hard to tell as it sometimes looks a lot like baby ache. We are bottle feeding so I’ve no advice on breastfeeding, if you feel it’s a allergy I would speak to your HV or GP soon as .

Good luck hope all turns out ok !