Eczema: what food should you eat?

Are you wondering if you need to monitor your diet? Diet often raises a lot of questions from people with eczema since it's a potential culprit. What if eczema was caused by food A? Or B? Or C? Here are some useful tips.

Eczema and food allergies

A clear distinction must be made between eczema and food allergies. The two phenomena are only linked in a small percentage of cases.

Cow's milk protein allergy is the most commonly blamed allergy, and it affects infants in the first few months of life. Babies affected will have eczema plaques among other things: they are irritable, experience weight-gain problems, digestive problems, etc.

Using a protein hydrolysate or an amino acid preparation is reserved for children whose cow's milk protein allergy has been diagnosed by a doctor and is in no case recommended for babies with "classic" atopic dermatitis, meaning not associated with cow's milk protein allergy.

Food diversification in children with eczema should be done as with other children, between age 4 and 6 months.

Avoid restrictive diets

For people with eczema, both children and adults, restricted diets should be avoided. An elimination diet must only be used after consulting with a doctor and completing an allergological assessment. At this stage, it could be useful to learn to read labels correctly and limit the risk of deficiencies and also consult a dietician to find alternatives. A food allergy can resolve itself after a few years, thus eliminating the need for food restrictions, or it could last throughout life.

Here are some reflexes to adopt:

• Follow a varied and balanced diet
• Limit simple sugars and saturated fats.
• Identify foods and drinks that aggravate eczema without considering them real allergies: foods rich in histamine (biological molecule secreted by the cells in the immune system during an allergic reaction) or promoting the release of histamine (e.g. chocolate, tomato, wine, shellfish, etc.) intolerance to alcohol, foods rich in nickel to be avoided in case of nickel contact allergy...