The relationship between eczema and food allergies
Dietary fat and obesity aren’t the only ways our diet is linked to eczema. Those with eczema are also more likely to have food allergies.
“But we’re increasingly understanding that it’s not food allergies that cause eczema – it’s the other way around,” says Carsten Flohr, chair in dermatology and population health sciences at St John’s Institute of Dermatology at Kings College London and consultant dermatologist at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital.
In around 70% of cases, eczema presents itself before the age of two. This, he says, is where parents – and their diets – can play a really important role in whether their children develop eczema.
There is a growing understanding, Flohr says, that babies can become allergic through the skin, in particular when they are massaged, or moisturiser is applied to their skin.
This is most likely because those applying the baby oil or moisturiser have traces of food protein on their skin, Flohr says, allowing the baby’s skin immune system to recognise the food as a danger signal, causing an allergy.
Research has found that allergies are largely prevented when children are orally exposed early to foods that commonly cause allergies, such as peanuts.