Babies And Children With Eczema Are Missing Certain Strains Of Gut Bacteria

Certain bacteria missing in the gut can cause food allergy (IgE immune response). This points to restoring gut health as a way to address food allergies.

Food allergies are those that can cause life threatening anaphylaxis.

Babies and children with food allergies are missing certain strains of gut bacteria. The research shows that in fact, adding those bacteria strains to mice, protected the mice against food allergies.

This means that figuring out what’s happening in the gut may help resolve food allergies without making changes to or modulating the immune system, and may resolve all food allergies at one time rather than one at a time as is the case with immune therapy.

Food allergies affect mostly younger children and are more prevalent in Western countries. They are on the rise too in developing countries.

The theory is that Western lifestyle is adversely affecting opportunities for babies to acquire a healthy gut microbiome.

This is more confirmation that health begins in the gut. It’s where 80% of your immune system is, so it makes sense that problems in your gut can cause a range of immune problems.

This also means that your symptoms and health problems (including skin rashes like eczema) are rooted in gut problems.

This also means that elimination diets, fad diets, and any diet that restricts whole real foods, food groups and categories of foods will not solve the problem, and in fact can make it worse. That’s because your body runs off nutrients from foods you eat. When they are missing imbalances develop and symptoms and health problems follow (this can be even worse in little ones).

I have yet to find a client who has truly resolved their symptoms and health problems with diet. It may work for a little while, but the problems come back and worsen over time.

This is because now the body is missing fuel it needs to grow, develop, repair, function and thrive!

Food is not the root cause. Restoring your health means restoring your gut health.

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Food allergy, food sensitivity, food intolerance. What’s the difference?

Food allergy, food sensitivity, food intolerance. What’s the difference?

Food allergy is an IgE immune response, and it can cause hives, itching, rashes and flares, gut symptoms, vomiting, trouble breathing, and swelling for example, and can be life-threatening.

Food sensitivity is an IgG immune response, and it can cause gut symptoms, skin rashes and flares, brain fog, joint aches and pains (and more), and points to gut dysfunction and leaky gut. Reactions are not life-threatening.

Food intolerance can cause symptoms like an IgG reaction and also isn’t life-threatening. It results from an inability of your body to appropriate metabolize a food or foods, and it won’t show up on IgE or IgG testing.

Just because your food allergy and sensitivity testing came out clean, keep this in mind!

While I am an anti-diet advocate and help people nourish their bodies rather than restrict food after food to manage symptoms, in some cases there are potentially problematic foods that are causing your symptom flares, including you and your little one’s eczema.

Dairy is a common eczema trigger, even without IgE and IgG reactions.

Cow dairy is a culprit, and sheep and goat dairy can be too. Sometimes people that can’t tolerate cow dairy do ok with sheep or goat. This is because the proteins are a bit different, BUT some of the proteins in all these dairy sources are the same.

If you’re struggling with eczema flares and eat dairy, removing it short term (2-3 weeks) can help identify if it’s a problem or not. Short term is key!

I absolutely recommend working with a professional to help identify and address the root cause of your little one’s eczema, other skin rashes, gut problems, and to appropriately address food allergies, sensitivities and intolerances.

Remember that food allergies and sensitivities are not the root cause, and removing foods, food groups and categories of foods from the diet long term can lead to imbalances, symptoms and health problems. This is because your body runs off of nutrients from foods you eat, and when they are missing, your body lacks the fuel it needs to do all it’s supposed to do!

When To Try An Elimination Diet

I do want to point out that there is a time and place for elimination diet when used appropriately, and this is best done with professional supervision. 

Using an elimination diet is often what we do to identify food sensitivities.

A carefully crafted, short term elimination diet can be helpful to identify triggering foods. If you’re trying an elimination diet to ID food triggers, that should only be a 21-30 day experiment, while you are addressing your impaired gut health. Once your gut is back in shape, you should be able to eat those foods again. And we do want the diet as broad and inclusive as possible.

I can’t stress this enough, food sensitivities mean you have impaired gut health. You need to restore your gut health, NOT keep those foods out forever. 

Food sensitivities are not a root cause of your symptoms and health problems. They are a symptom of impaired gut health.

Here’s the deal with food sensitivities. 

Impaired gut health leads to inflammation in the gut, which leads to leaky gut. 

The inflammation causes the lining of your gut to become permeable. Food particles and toxins from your gut escape into your bloodstream. They are not supposed to be there. Your body mounts an immune response as it should because the food particles and toxins aren’t supposed to be in your bloodstream, and you develop food sensitivities, digestive symptoms, skin rashes, chronic fatigue, autoimmune disease, joint aches and pains, and a VERY wide range of symptoms and health problems. 

Notice that many of these issues don’t involve gut symptoms at all. 

This is also why it doesn’t matter what you eat or how healthy it is. Those food particles are still getting into your bloodstream, causing reactions. 

Even if you remove your main trigger foods (which are those you eat most often), over time, you’ll become sensitive to more and more foods because you still have impaired gut health, and your diet will become even more limited and nutrient poor, creating more stress, food phobias and worsening of your symptoms and health problems.

If you are on an elimination diet, have tried an elimination diet, are interested in trying one, or if you are interested in further exploring your gut health to address the root cause of why you have food sensitivities in the first place, I'm here to give you the guidance you need, and to make sure your body gets the nourishment it needs.

For questions, or if you’re ready to get started with next steps on your health journey to nourish your body and beat your symptoms and health problems, book your introductory consultation with me!

If you’re a self started who doesn’t need much handholding, my Online Gut Restore Program is for you! It address all 3 of the common reasons I see nutrients missing, which leads to imbalances followed by symptoms and chronic health problems.