Real boys wear pink ... on their cheeks.

 This is what I consider a mid-level pink cheek

A couple weeks ago, Jamer’s mom informed me that Zach has a food allergy. I shrugged it off, but it’s been bothering me ever since.

Since Zach was two months old, he’s had a couple of small pink patches on his cheeks that come and go. I assumed it was dry skin. A few weeks ago those small patches got big and red — I mean fire engine red. That’s when I was told he has a food allergy. A few days later, the patches went away.

Last weekend, the bright red blotches were back.

I’m not convinced he’s allergic to solid food because the patches existed before he started eating solids. I am convinced, however, that his formula is triggering eczema.

Since Zach was two months old (and I went back to work), he’s been on a mixture of breast milk and formula. Most bottles consisted of 4oz breast milk and 2oz formula. I think that’s why his patches were so small and only pink. On the weekends, when I was home all day, he was exclusively breast fed, allowing his cheeks to heal.

Recently, Zach’s been weaned. I think that’s why his cheeks are now red and dry.

Over the weekend we decided to take him off everything and give him the remaining breast milk we had stored in the freezer. Within 12 hours of doing that, the red faded to pink and his cheeks started to heal.

A nurse with Zach’s doctor’s office said it’s unlikely he’s allergic to formula if he never had a problem with breast milk. That’s different information than what I read in articles — but I’m not a health care professional.

The articles I’ve read said it’s very uncommon for kids to be allergic to their mother’s milk, but not unlikely for cow’s milk — the base of most formula — to trigger eczema, which is what we suspect Zach has.

One of the suggestions was to switch him to a soy-based formula. We started that yesterday and it seems to be working — but now we’re being told we shouldn’t switch him without seeing the doctor first.

The problem is, after the weekend of breast milk, the rash has significantly lightened... making a doctor’s visit almost pointless.

I guess we’ll continue to monitor it and go from there. Luckily, other than the red cheeks, nothing about it seems to be bothering Zach. He has no other symptoms that we’ve noticed.