When my daughter was born, she never slept well. She would sleep maybe 40 minutes and then be up again for a feeding, we assumed all this was normal for a baby. Around 3-4 months old this journey continued. My husband and I were exhausted and just couldn’t understand why she would not be full enough to sleep maybe an hour. Then the symptoms came, she started not eating well and spitting up a lot. She would scream and cry after every feeding. It was extremely frustrating because I thought as a new mom I was doing something wrong. I would take her to the pediatrician and they would tell me there is nothing they can do and that she is fine. Something deep down in me just knew better and knew something else was wrong. So I called a mom friend of mine and she told me, she thinks my daughter has reflux. So I looked it up and my daughter had all the symptoms. I was shocked. I took her in and sure enough the doctor finally diagnosed her with reflux as a 4 month old. It was the hardest thing for me but as soon as she started medication she started to eat better and sleep better. The whole was happy with a little more sleep. We thought we were out of the woods.
Then around 8-9 months old she started breaking out with rashes all over body. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it, I asked my mom and she didn’t know what it was. I asked friends and they said it has to be eczema. I knew I had eczema but I didn’t know children could get it especially this young. We decided to schedule her an appointment with a dermatologist. Sure enough, she diagnosed her with Atopic Dermatitis. The dermatologist was kind enough to recommend us to an allergist to get allergy testing. My mind was blown at this point. So here we go to the appointment and sure enough she ended up being allergic to dairy, soy, dog, and so many more. It was the hardest thing for me to watch. We then had to start removing the foods. We also had a dog and had to keep her away from him. I started to keep her skin covered in pants even in the hot hot summers.
After being diagnosed this led me down a rabbit hole of how to cure eczema. I joined multiple FB groups and asked many moms. Towards the middle of my journey I started to realize that these foods were causing her skin to react. Why would foods do that? I didn’t understand. I was scrolling one late night on Tiktok and found this amazing naturopath and asked her if she worked with kids with eczema and she did. With more testing came more results that my daughters gut was destroyed. So we started working on her gut and removing foods that were just destroying her skin. After a few months of trial and error, my daughter is now almost clear of her skin issues. It has been the longest journey and one of the toughest as its still an on going process. But we now know how to avoid it through the foods she eats and how to treat it.