Friday, February 18, 2011

Eczema In Infants and Children


Most often than not, eczema in children is only simple food allergy. Some children also suffer from air borne allergies that can lead to other reactions too including asthma, cold and fever. Eczema in children starts off with regular allergy symptoms and then progresses further. Allergy becomes eczema when the skin shows telltale signs of swelling and rashes. As it progresses, the skin can swell, become red and without properly taking care of it, the skin can start flaking, it can break and bleed as well. Eczema in children and infants is very painful and parents need to take special care of any symptoms showing up.
The first thing that children need to know about their skin disease is that it's curable. Since the disease is visible on the skin, it can cause serious mental trauma in children. As parents, there are quite a few alterations you need to make in your child's diet. Knowledge about your child's allergies is the first step. In a lot of cases, infants who are lactose intolerant get allergic reactions without parents realising what is going wrong. Getting an allergy profile early in life will help to prevent reactions and skin rashes like eczema.
Infants who are still breast feeding have shown relief signs when their mother changed her diet as well. Avoiding eggs, spice, fish and nuts for the first year of lactation helps relief the child's allergic reactions and rashes.
To reduce the child's itching and burning sensation, make sure their diet is not too acidic and the skin stays moisturised at all times. A lot of harsh medications can cause more harm than good. Rather than taking help from a skin doctor, talk to a paediatrician. Children and infants have very soft skin and you don't want to make it worse. Use moisturising soaps and soft water when you are giving your child a bath. Also, keep petroleum jelly and cold cream handy to constantly keep your child's skin moisturised.
Keeping a journal to note daily changes in your child's skin helps understand it a lot better. A lot of times, there are things that they do and things that they come in contact with that aggravate the rashes. Noticing these few changes can help avoid future breakouts. To make it a better living environment for children, remove any thing in the house that can attract dust and mites- heavy curtains and carpets are the worst things for a child.
Food needs to be changed every few weeks since during their growth years, since their reaction towards food elements change rapidly. Children with eczema have shown attention deficit and learning disorders in school due to the trauma, so parents need to be extra careful about their needs.
Since it is hard for children to control, steps need to be taken to relief the itchiness of the skin rashes. Scratching the skin just makes the eczema worst and even causes it to spread and bleed. Use antiseptic creams and lotions to soothe it.

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