FOOD INTOLERANCE NETWORK
FACTSHEET
About eczema and other itchy
skin rashes
Eczema can be related to:
* food intolerance (sensitivity to food chemicals such as salicylates,
sulphites or other food additives)
* food allergies (a reaction to the proteins in foods)
* environmental allergies e.g. grass, dustmites
* chemical sensitivities, e.g. latex, formaldehyde in building materials
and wrinkle-free fabrics, irritants in washing powders, soaps, perfumes,
cleaners and many others
If you come from a family with migraines, irritable bowel symptoms or
behaviour problems, your eczema might be a reaction to certain food chemicals
such as additives and salicylates. Sulphite preservatives can be a big problem
with rashes, especially for children and big beer and wine drinkers, and there
are other preservatives, colours and flavour enhancers that can cause problems.
Salicylates (in most fruit and some vegetables) are another big suspect in this
type of eczema. If cutting down on
additives is not enough to clear up your skin, a low chemical elimination diet
- free of additives, low in salicylates, amines and flavour enhancers -
supervised by a dietitian can pinpoint exactly what is affecting you (ask for
our list of supportive dietitians, see below). Salicylates are natural pesticides
that are present in varying amounts in most fruit and some vegetables and are
particularly high in tomatoes, broccoli, citrus and all juice. These chemicals
can pass through breastmilk to affect babies. Note that the new A2 milk from
selected
If you come from an allergic family (with a history of hayfever, asthma),
it may be worth having allergy testing for food or environmental triggers. The
most common food allergens in
For adults, if your eczema has only developed since you started your
current job, and particularly if it gets better during long holidays, you need
to consider occupational eczema - that is, related to latex gloves or other
chemicals at work. One woman's long term dermatitis (hands and arms) turned out
to be related to formaldehyde in her car's steering wheel (see Story [276]
below).
With a skin rash that starts suddenly in a person with no previous
history of rash, consider the new flavour enhancers of the 635, 627, 631 group.
The Ribo Rash factsheet on the website is a good
place to start. Sometimes Ribo Rash is misdiagnosed as eczema. MSG may also be
a cause – see MSG Factsheet.
The side-effects of prescription or over the counter medication can
cause a sudden new rash.
People who improve when they avoid wheat products may need to consider
the bread preservative (282) or a particular type of rash associated with
gluten called dermatitis herpetiformis that often remains undiagnosed. It can
take a lot of detective work, so please feel welcome to ask questions - people
with skin rashes often need some extra help.
How to avoid environmental chemicals
Personal items
Toothpaste:
Soul Pattinsons Plain, or make your own: mix 3 parts baking soda with 1
part salt - add 3 teaspoons of glycerol/glycerine to each quarter cup of dry
mixture.
Soap:
uncoloured, low-perfume (eg Simple)
Redwin Sorbolene Moisturising Bar with Vitamin E and Glycerine www.redwin.com.au
EnviroCare Sensitive Body Hair Cleanser (from health food stores) www.ecoshop.com.au
Shampoo/
conditioner:
eg Dermaveen oatmeal, QV oatmeal in pharmacies
Deodorant:
unperfumed roll-on eg Simple
Sunblock:
Megan Gale invisible zinc (from David Jones or by mail order www.adorebeauty.com.au/adorebeauty/viewitem.asp?idproduct=2491);
Ego Sunsense Low Irritant sunblock;UV Natural
Lip
Balm:
Lansinoh preservative-free moisturiser and lip balm (from pharmacies);
Vaseline
Skin creams:
Plain sorbolene. For the extra sensitive, your local pharmacy can make a
batch of pure sorbolene with 10% glycerin.
Ego brand of skin creams from pharmacies
QV brand of skin creams from pharmacies, such as QV Kids Wash.
Dermeze ointment, a moisturiser for dry skin developed by
Household
Washing
powder (no perfumes, no enzymes):
eg Lux,
No: perfumed fabric conditioners, soakers, ironing sprays
Cleaning:
Soda bicarb
Vinegar
Enjo cleaning cloths
Steam cleaning
Low perfume dishwashing detergent (Palmolive original, Morning Fresh)
Dishwasher powders are acceptable
No: perfumed cleaners, aerosols, airfresheners, essential oils, incense,
pesticides including cockroach baits
No: commercial cleaners, eg carpet cleaning
Medicines
No fruit or other flavoured syrups
No butter menthol or other cough lollies
No salicylate-containing medications: aspirin or other nonsteroidal
anti-inflamatories, no salicylate containing acne lotions or wart remedies, no
oil of wintergreen lotions, no mentholated rubs or liniments, no herbal or
homeopathic medications
No coloured, flavoured or preserved tablets or capsules: ask for plain
white or empty contents of capsules into a small amount of failsafe icecream or
maple syrup
For eczema, avoid formaldehyde in fabrics and building materials. Avoid
renovations during your elimination diet and systematic reintroductions. '100%
pure cotton' sheets and clothes from K-Mart for instance, all contain
formaldehyde for wrinkle control. This won't be on the label. You have to ask
manufacturers.
Steroids: An increasing number of parents are complaining to the Food
Intolerance Network that they are offered only steroid creams for their babies
and young children's eczema, yet some of these creams unless used very
sparingly can have irreversible side effects including skin thinning, flushing
and bruising. For more information, see http://dermnetnz.org/treatments/topical-steroids.html.
A reader's story: I took my 3 year old son to the doctor. He was covered
in a sudden full body rash. The doctor gave me a script and said to smother him
head to toe. I was adamant that I wanted to know why, I didn't just want to
cover him in cream. It's nice to know why it happened so you can avoid it the
next time. The doctor didn't say he didn't know. He just got up and said I'd
wasted his time. So I changed to another doctor.
SOME RASHY STORIES
Allergy to Sorbolene
When our daughter first developed a rash our GP diagnosed it as
pityriasis rosea, which is uncommon but not unheard of in babies and resolves
itself after about 6 weeks. Two months on the rash was still there, so since
then we have been trying to figure out the cause via the GP, naturopath,
paediatrician, etc. Then one day I took my daughter to see the clinic sister
who has seen her rash LOTS of times and mentioned to me almost in passing that
some people can be "allergic" to sorbolene. Apparently people can
build up a sensitivity to it over time and we've been slathering it on our poor
daughter for months! I stopped putting
it on and within a day her rash started improving. [Sensitivity to Sorbolene
can be to the ingredient TEA which is used in the Redwin soap, above]
[451] Severe eczema and cradlecap in a fully breastfed baby
(August 2006)
My two and a half year old
daughter has had severe eczema and cradle cap since she was a few months old, I
never made the connection between the eczema and food allergy because she
wasn’t even on solids when we first noticed the eczema. She was fully breastfed
and I am embarrassed to admit that it didn’t occur to me that what I ate may be
causing the rash! I had her to the doctor plenty of times over her first two
years and came away with all sorts of creams and lotions, but nothing that
worked. (Mind you the doctor never once suggested food allergy either!)
Anyway six months ago she
had an allergic reaction to peanut butter, we took her to an allergist who
performed skin prick tests and not only is she anaphylactic to peanuts but also
allergic to egg and tomato. We eliminated all nuts and egg and tomato from her
diet and whilst she improved and her cradle cap went, her skin still didn’t
clear up. She still scratched a lot (mostly at night), got allergic shiners
under her eyes, and always seemed to have a slight cough and a clear runny
nose.
I recently got hold of Fed
Up with the idea of doing the elimination diet then slowly introducing things
back in to see what else may be causing her eczema. I am pleased to tell you
that the eczema is now completely cleared up along with all the other symptoms
simply due to avoiding all preservatives.
Before going fully failsafe
we eliminated all those nasties from our diets and what a difference it has
made! I just want to say thank you for what you do and for making it so much
easier for parents like me, who 18 months ago had no idea what 160b or 282 were
and thought I was giving my children healthy food with their yoghurt and cheese
spread etc. I almost look at my daughter’s anaphylactic allergy to peanuts a
blessing in disguise, because if not for that I never would have investigated
food allergies and would still be obliviously feeding my family all sorts of
nasty things.
[431] My daughter gets eczema
and asthma from salicylates (July 2006)
When my daughter was two I noticed that her eczema seemed to flare up
after I had given her spaghetti one day or two before. I asked my dietitian if it could be tomatoes
and she said "yes - it can be salicyates". So I stopped giving her spaghetti and
tomatoes thinking this would solve the problem however she still had eczema so
I just treated it. When she turned three
years old she started getting asthma, about every month and when she had a
virus or a cold. My daughter always only drank water or milk but at her Kindy
Christmas Party we had to give her some cordial to drink because there wasn't
anything else and that night she had asthma. The same thing happened a month
later after she had a raspberry fruit drink. My doctor just told me how to
treat the asthma so I went to my dietitian. She prescribed vitamin supplements
and took my daughter off dairy which reduced the frequency and severity of the
asthma but made the eczema worse. It
took a couple of months for me to realize that I was mixing the vitamin
powder in orange juice, then the dietitian gave me a list of all the foods that
contained salicylates so I could avoid them. A few weeks after we started
avoiding salicylates, my daughter's skin started clearing up. So you can see
the pattern with the tomatoes, fruit juice and orange cordial with real fruit
juice – reader by email.
[247] 635: Ten week rash from 635 (April 2003)
I have never suffered any kind of food allergy in my life (43 years) and
then about ten weeks ago I found myself suffering from an extremely intense and
constant itch of my hands and arms. After two days of this I found I had come
out in hives, starting on my upper chest, abdomen and back. It then spread to
my arms and my legs and from then on each day might be different combinations
of location of the hives, but always somewhere. They were worse at night causing
intense itch and lack of sleep, I can't begin to tell you how unbearable the
itch was and how it affected my everyday living and my ability to work. On
several occasions my lips have been swollen and I find on occasion that
although my upper lip doesn't look particularly swollen, it feels 'thick' and
like I have been to the dentist. Once my eyelids puffed up too. Through
studying the foods that I had eaten I became almost certain that it was 635
causing my problem. For almost two weeks I avoided all foods containing this
additive and was finally able to come off the antihistamines I had been forced
to live on. I then ate a seasoned lamb steak bought from my local butcher and
the next night the hives were back. Guess what? On contacting the butcher concerned,
he was able to tell me that the seasoning used on those steaks contained 635. I
wish this product had never been put on the market. I'm sure it is what, to put
it frankly, has caused me absolute hell almost continuously for over two
months. For more information, see Ribo Rash factsheet
on the website
[433] Preservatives including
sulphites (July 2006)
"I have a 3 year old son who was diagnosed with eczema around the
12 month mark. He started having rashes when he was put on solids but nothing
too serious. Last year we took him to a skin specialist who told us his
condition was very mild and prescribed cortisone (Elocon). When we asked for
allergy testing, she told me it was not caused by foods. Fourteen months and a
few tubes of Elocon later, his condition was very bad. He would scratch himself
in his sleep to the point of bloodstains on the sheets and had problems staying
asleep. His skin was permanently scarred and bloody because of scratching the
same spots so they never had a chance to heal. I was in despair and did not
know what to do especially as I took him to my GP and he again refused to do
anything other than prescribe Elocon."
Eventually this mother decided to try diet for herself and contacted the
Food Intolerance Network through our website. Through cutting down on additives
she found that preservatives were the main culprit and wrote:
"Since we took him off additives and preserved foods (eg lollies,
juice, sausages), his skin has improved very well. He stopped scratching and
started to sleep through the night. Then on Saturday he had half a sausage and
bam, itching and redness started within 30 minutes. Luckily it only lasted a
few hours and again yesterday we went to a party and against my better judgment
I let him have orange juice and soft drink and same thing happened.
“Because I now know exactly what he eats, it is easy to pinpoint the
cause. I am disappointed with our
medical practitioners, the so called specialists, especially the one who saw my
son last year and put him on steroids. I have become an avid label reader and
when I explained to my 3 year old why he cannot have all the stuff he normally
loves, he surprised me with how well he is coping."
[432] Eczema and sulphites
again (July 2006)
My daughter developed eczema when she was being introduced to solid
foods at about 6 months but I didn't take her to the doctor for another year
and then we managed it with eczema cream until we went travelling when she was
two. The eczema got much worse while we were travelling and eventually we tried
the elimination diet. We went gluten free right from the start and at first she
got much worse. It took us months to work out that she was sensitive to many
food chemicals but especially sulphites, which were in gluten free flours and
also in the bore water on our property. I was also using a herbal cream that
was making her eczema worse. She is very sensitive and reacts to Sorbolene, and
smells like Estapol.
Eczema exacerbated by dust
mite allergy
A few years ago my son's health was declining with eczema attacks
lasting several hours, and hives breaking out without us knowing the reason. He
was already on a restricted diet but he was awake for 2-4 hrs every night,
screaming "please help me, Mummy", and his legs were sometimes so
scabbed up that he could not straighten them enough to walk. He was five.
Eventually, we found the problem was dust mites. We knew he was sensitive to
them because he had been allergy tested by a doctor, but I had
"relaxed" a little with the vigilance I had previously had. And then I realised that the whole time, he
had a big tear in the dustmite cover on his mattress.
So I went back to using the dust mite wash from the supermarket, and
washing his sheets four times in clear water after that, and hanging them on
the line all day, every six weeks. And washing his sheets in hot water every
three days. And clearing his bedroom of
everything except a bed, and wet-dusting once a week. he difference was
amazing. The first night, he actually slept through. And now, a year and a bit later, his legs,
which were just big scabs from bum to ankle, are beautiful creamy soft smooth
skin. And a much happier boy. The emotional scars are still there, and taking
time to heal. We got a book about eczema by a dermatologist that discusses the
emotional toll on the family, and it is so true.
[276] Dermatitis from
formaldehyde in car steering wheel (September 2003)
I have always been prone to skin irritations since I was a little girl.
During my mid teens in the 60s I contracted quite bad dermatitis on the backs
of my hands. This manifested itself on the palms of my hands too, at times, and
no-one seemed to be able to discover the cause of the irritation, the resulting
blisters and weeping skin. Skin specialists recommended various creams and
potions including tar ointments, pure lanolin, various other forms of similar
creams and ultimately full strength cortisone ointment which seemed to be the
only thing that reduced the itch and the inflammation. I continued to use the
cortisone ointment on my hands from that time until only a few years back when
I decided to speak to a dermatologist here in Canberra. During the period of
those years my hands fluctuated in the severity of irritation, sometimes really
bad, and at other times less severe.
The dermatologist did a skin patch test in which I had to leave various
substances on my skin for a week without touching or removing the patches.
During that week I returned to the dermatologist on the Wednesday and the
Friday to check the reactions. On the Wednesday there were two substances that
had caused a slight pink spot on my skin. However, by the Friday these two had
increased in redness and another one had begun to cause inflammation of the
skin.
The three offending chemicals turned out to be:
Formaldehyde - used in large amounts in many plastic industries,
building materials, eg paints, glues, varnishes, some pesticides. It is also
found in small amounts in cosmetics, eg creams, shampoos, make-up, nailpolish,
new fabrics and clothes, high quality paper, house-hold cleaners, disinfectants
and in smoke from cigarettes or fires.
Quaternium-15 found in creams, lotions, shampoos, and other cosmetics
and skin care products.
Colophony - found in adhesives, sealants, shoe wax, lacquers, gums,
varnishes, pine oil cleaners, cosmetics, wart remedies, skiwax, dental floss,
modelling clay, paints, resins, athletic rubs, and many industrial products.
High quality gloss paper may be coated with colophony.
Well! We came to the conclusion that my chronic dermatitis of the hands
(at this stage, and certainly consistently since my late teens) was caused by
contact with resin steering wheels. The irritation was particularly obvious
during the hot summer months. During the week following my diagnosis I wore
cotton gloves when driving. I have had no recurrence of the problem since then
(approximately 7 years now). My car has a pure sheepskin steering wheel cover -
my husband can't stand the feel of it, yet I can't stand to drive the car
without it. I must admit I was amazed to discover the cause after all those
years! - by email,
[314] 13 years of intolerance
to soy (April 2004)
I am soy intolerant. More specifically I suffer from a legume
intolerance which is only now apparent after 13 years of suffering and
frustration. My intolerance manifests itself in the form of hives, large red
itchy welts that, in a severe attack can cover almost all of the body, be
unbelievably itchy and uncomfortable to say the least. In my situation, my
symptoms got worst and extended to lethargy, aching and swelled joints,
sleepless nights and eventually an emotional feeling of hopelessness of ever
being able to stop the relentless onslaught. My condition was medically
referred to as Chronic (severe - never ending) Idiopathic (origin or cause
unknown) Urticaria (hives). See the rest of this story on the website...
MORE INFORMATION
Available in sue Dengate’s books, Fed Up and The Failsafe Cookbook
(currently out of print and available only in libraries), our DVD (Fed Up with
Children's Behaviour), available through the website www.fedup.com.au and selected bookstores
including Angus and Robertsons, and The Failsafe Booklet, available for
download from Failsafe Eating on the website. See also Friendly Food by Anne
Swain and others, available from bookstores.
The information given is not intended as medical advice. Always consult
with your doctor for underlying illness. Before beginning dietary
investigation, consult a dietician with an interest in food intolerance.
update July 2006
