Here's What I'm Thinking

Ok, today I started a food diary of everything Clara eats. I plan to type up ingredient lists for everything, document any reaction, including pictures after she eats and throw in descriptions of her bm's just for fun.


So let me tell you my theory. One place I found online explained eczema like this: People with eczema lack, we'll call it an enzyme, that creates a barrier on the skin. Without this barrier, the skin ends up acting more like a sieve, allowing allergens and ickiness to get into the body.


When you look at it that way, it seems logical to me that if she gets food on her face during the course of eating that it would cause irritation. This would explain why it doesn't happen everytime she eats a certain food and why it just goes away quickly and doesn't really cause other problems like it seems an allergic reaction would. My theory: the degree of messiness determines the severity of the reaction.


Case in point. These pictures were taken after breakfast. The first is after she finished eating, but before I cleaned her up. The second is after cleaning.


Really red and some raised bumps. She had an english muffin and banana pieces. Because they were cut into pieces they were really messy and bananas are highly acidic.

The next two are from lunch. She had grilled "cheese" sandwich and berry applesauce. The second picture isn't really clear, but she did have some redness (and a double chin).

Dinner consisted of ham, green beans and biscuits, but Clara refused to eat anything but a biscuit with honey. Non-messy meal equals no redness. Also her snack was dried tropical fruit and no problems there. She had goatsmilk with both. (I know, sounds yucky but I thought I'd try it out).
I'm testing my theory tomorrow by giving her the same breakfast, only this time feeding the banana to her myself so that it doesn't get all over her. Stay tuned.