I've discovered the source of the latest eczema outbreak. Soy milk. Catherine had been getting at most 25% soy milk/75% soy formula for maybe two weeks, but when she was spot covered and sick last weekend, we went back to formula only because it's more nutritious and gave her no more soy milk. Until last night. As of yesterday morning, her face was finally the smooth, soft skin babies are supposed to have. I suspected soy milk was the culpit so I gave her 2oz at bedtime. Her primary eczema patch is back this morning (it shows up in one spot beside her mouth about the size of the tip of your little finger first episode.)

Why is soy formula OK (granted her cheeks are always rough but not bright red) but soy milk isn't? I gave her another 2oz this morning to try to make it worse before her GI appt this AM.

Wow--I have no idea!

Could the soy milk be processed in a place where other allergens are present?

Lesley it is something about the processing. I think soy formula would be processed somewhat and therefore the proteins would be less allergenic, but soy milk wouldn't go through the same process. Also formula would have a percent soy but also a very high percent of vitamins/minerals etc. Soy milk is 100% soy milk.
We too get eczema from cow and soy, we now use goat milk- its really good!

I would think that it would depend on the processing as well. When I gave Curran rice milk he reacted as though I had given him milk. In researching this I found out that the brand we use is contaminated with... you guessed it> milk. Maybe your soy milk is the same thing? What one are you using?

IMaybe your soy milk is the same thing? What one are you using?

Central Market Organic. Central Market is a local gourmet grocery.

Yeah, soy formula is more processed so the proteins are smaller. AJ didn't react too extremely to milk based formula, but things got worse on straight milk. I would talk to your GI and if you have an allergist about what they want you to do. We went to rice milk at 13 mos, but it's not an ideal situation. I would probably reccomend rice milk w/ a supplement of Alimentum (maybe 8ozs a day) along w/ extra fat in her diet and protein powder. Babies are so complicated when they ahve allergies!

boy do i wish i knew the answer to this one...as you already know lesley we had a BAD experience with straight soy milk even though she has been on soy formula forever. From the soy milk we got raging diarrhea, rashes, hives, runny nose, and an epi pen :smt022 As soon as we took her off of it she was fine...(well fine for her anyway) The really strange part is she is back on soy formula with no problems at all. Me being the idiot that i am at times, decided to try soy milk "just one more time" to make sure that was what all the symptoms were from...and we ended up in the ER. So there is Definetely a difference , just not sure what it is...it has to have something to do with the formula being more broken down, but it still doesnt make sense to me.