#千万IP创科学普# Is baby eczema an allergy to milk protein?

In the long journey of parenting, the baby's health is always on the mind of parents. Baby eczema is a common skin problem, however, many parents often fall into a misunderstanding that baby eczema is a milk protein allergy.

Is this really the case?

In today’s science class, we will take you to understand the true relationship between baby eczema and milk protein allergy, help parents understand and deal with their baby’s eczema problems more scientifically and accurately, get out of cognitive misunderstandings, and escort their baby’s healthy growth.

1. What is eczema?

Atopic dermatitis, commonly known as eczema, is a common chronic inflammatory disease of the skin, manifested by various forms of rashes such as erythema, papules, papulovesicles, discharge, erosions and crusts. It often starts from the face and can spread throughout the body in severe cases.
Severe itching, babies often scratch repeatedly, become irritable and restless, and their sleep is affected!

Baby eczema can be divided into three categories: mild, moderate and severe.

2. Causes of eczema

There are many causes of eczema, such as genetic factors, skin barrier dysfunction, food and inhalant allergies, infection, and imbalance of skin immune function.

Food allergy is only one of the causes of eczema, and it is also a factor that triggers and aggravates eczema. However, not all babies with eczema have food allergies. It takes four steps to determine whether a baby with eczema has milk protein allergy:

01

Parents should provide a detailed medical history, such as the baby's feeding situation, whether allergy-related symptoms occur after drinking milk, and when the symptoms occur.

02

The doctor will assess the severity of the baby's eczema and whether there are other allergic diseases such as allergic gastroenteritis, allergic rhinitis and/or asthma.

03

Perform allergen testing on your baby: such as milk skin prick test, blood test for milk-specific IgE, avoidance diet test and oral milk provocation test.

04

Conclusions were drawn based on a comprehensive analysis of medical history and test results.

3. Eczema = allergy?

Pay attention!

It is recommended to conduct allergen testing for babies with eczema in the following situations: In daily life, it is found that babies with eczema have allergic symptoms within 2 hours after eating certain foods.

01. Babies with persistent eczema and severe rash

02. When babies with eczema have digestive tract symptoms, such as blood in stool, diarrhea, or constipation

03. Babies with eczema combined with allergic cough, asthma or allergic rhinitis

04. Correlation between eczema and food allergy Clinical studies have shown that there is a strong correlation between eczema, food sensitization and food allergy, especially with the severity and chronicity of eczema.

The prevalence of food allergy confirmed by food provocation test in Chinese babies under 2 years old with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis is 49.7% . The most common allergic foods that cause eczema are milk, eggs, wheat, soy, nuts, fish, etc., and infant eczema is mainly caused by milk, eggs, wheat, and soy.

Expert consensus or guidelines for the diagnosis and management of eczema-related food allergies have been developed at home and abroad. It is unanimous that eczema is closely related to food allergies. Food allergies are factors that induce and aggravate eczema. Babies with moderate to severe eczema, early-onset eczema, and eczema combined with other allergic diseases should see a specialist to determine whether it is related to food allergies.