Does Your Child Need To See A Doctor About Eczema
Yes. Take your child to see your GP if your child:
- might have eczema for the first time
- is very itchy and uncomfortable
- has eczema thats weeping or bleeding
- has eczema that hasnt improved much after a few days, even though youve been treating it as usual
- is having trouble sleeping because the rash is so itchy
- has painful or eczema that has developed pus
- has eczema and is generally unwell for example, has a fever and/or is sweating, feeding poorly or tired.
You should also take your child to the GP if youre not sure whether the rash is eczema.
If your childs eczema doesnt improve with a combination of medical treatment and management at home, your GP might refer your child to a dermatologist. If the GP thinks your childs eczema might be from allergies, they might also refer you to an allergy and immunology specialist.
What Causes Baby Eczema
A combination of genetic and environmental factors causes baby eczema. These factors include:
- Skin irritants and allergens: Several things in your babys environment can bother your childs skin. If your child has an allergy, symptoms of eczema can flare up on their skin. Common environmental irritants and allergens include fabrics, soaps and certain foods.
- Immune system reaction: Your babys immune system defends against foreign invaders like bacteria and viruses that can make your child sick. If your baby has eczema, their immune system can overreact and confuse healthy skin cells and small irritants in your babys environment as a foreign invader. As a result, your babys immune system will attack your babys skin cells which can cause symptoms of eczema.
- Genetics: During conception, the egg and sperm cells meet to give your child the building blocks of their body, which are their genes. Sometimes, changes to your babys DNA happen , which can affect how your babys body functions and develops. An eczema diagnosis could cause a lack of proteins in your babys body that are responsible for maintaining their skins protective barrier. If your childs protective barrier in their skin isnt working as expected, they could experience symptoms of eczema.
There Are Different Types Of Eczema
- Contact dermatitis: It usually develops after your skin gets into contact with a known irritant/ allergen.
- Nummular Eczema: Also called the discoid Eczema, this type of dermatitis is much common within the older population. Allergens usually cause it the condition is depicted by round lesions that weep out a fluid.
- Atopic dermatitis: It is the most common type of Eczema. Typically, the medical condition is caused by a malfunction in the immune system and problems with the skin barrier.
- Dyshidrotic Eczema: The problem is most likely to develop if you are exposed to allergens. Usually, this problem occurs on feet and hands as itchy blisters.
- Neurodermatitis: It is more often referred to as lichen simplex chronicus. The condition is normally attributed to thick, scaly patches on the skin. It is mainly as a result of continuous scrabbling and rubbing of the skin.
- Seborrheic dermatitis: Unlike other conditions, Seborrheic dermatitis is usually caused by hormones, genes, and skin microorganism complications. The problem can be easily be traced to white/yellowish flaky and greasy patches on oil-producing glands.
- Stasis dermatitis: It is most common to older people. The condition is often as a result of poor circulation in the leg areas. This causes the veins in the region to swell and leak fluid and eventually causing swells, skin redness, and itchiness.
Depending on ones genetics, lifestyle, and environment, you develop one or more than one Eczema condition.
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How Can I Treat An Infected Eczema At Home
Natural treatments for infected eczema
What Can Cause Weeping Eczema
The problem happens because of inflammation in your skin. Heavy swelling can lead to dilation of your skinâs blood vessels. The vessels will then leak serum into your skinâs soft tissue, which causes edema, or mild inflammation. The serum will also leak onto your skinâs surface.
When your skin dries out, cracks, or becomes inflamed, youâre more at risk for infection. This can worsen your eczema symptoms. Staph , caused by bacteria, is the most common form of infection in people with weeping eczema.
If the herpes simplex virus enters your skin, it can also cause weeping eczema.
You canât spread eczema or weeping eczema to other people. But if your weeping eczema is paired with a secondary infection, you could spread that to others.
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Essential Oil Soothing Spray For Eczema
You can easily make a cooling spray that you can use whenever you need relief from dry skin that causes itching and irritation.
How to use:
- Pour 1 cup distilled water in a spray bottle and add 10-15 drops lavender oil.
- Shake well before each application and spray the remedy on the itchy inflamed skin for quick relief from the effects on an eczema flare-up.
Taming The Immune Response
Prescription skin meds that calm an overactive immune system can treat eczema from atopic dermatitis. Doctors generally prescribe them only for short-term use in people whoâve tried other treatments that havenât helped. They have a âblack boxâ warning due to a higher cancer risk. So ask your doctor about the pros and cons. A biologic medication called Dupixent, given as a shot, works on the immune system to treat atopic dermatitis.
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Is It Bad To Wash Your Hair With Shampoo If You Have Eczema
There is no definitive answer, as it depends on the person’s individual eczema-affliction combination and skin sensitivity. However, people with eczema might find that shampooing hair can lead to significant flare-ups of their skin condition, so it’s always worth testing a product before using it regularly on the scalp.
Food Allergy And Eczema Flare
- Food allergies are a factor in 30% of young children with severe eczema. This factor is mainly seen in babies.
- The main allergic foods are cowâs milk and eggs.
- The main symptoms are increased skin redness and itching. Some parents report these symptoms start during or soon after the feeding.
- The eczema becomes easier to control if you avoid the allergic food.
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Causes Of Itchy Red Skin That Happens With Eczema
The cause of eczema is multifactorial. There is both a genetic and environmental component to eczema, says Kaminska. Some of these factors are out of your control. For example, you cant change your genetics. As the Cleveland Clinic points out, eczema is caused by:
- An overreactive immune system
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How Does Weeping Eczema Affect My Body
The fluid-filled blisters that appear with weeping eczema ooze, causing wetness on the skin. The fluid dries and results in a yellow-to-orange crusty layer on your skin. Eczema is most common in areas where your skin flexes, such as behind the knees, inside the elbows and in front of the neck. However, it may develop anywhere on your body, including your:
- Swollen lymph nodes, especially in the armpit, neck or groin.
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When Infections Cause Eczema Blisters
People with eczema are more prone to infections because burst blisters or damaged, raw skin can be a breeding ground for bacteria, fungi, or viruses, says Amy Kassouf, MD, a dermatologist with the Cleveland Clinic in Twinsburg, Ohio.
One particularly dangerous infection is called eczema herpeticum the result of atopic dermatitis and contact with the herpes simplex 1 virus , the virus that causes cold sores and some cases of genital herpes, according to the NEA. The infection can occur when someone with even mild eczema has skin-to-skin contact with HSV-1. Many watery eczema blisters break out and are very itchy. The infection spreads fast, leading to fever and flu-like symptoms, and the fluid inside the blisters turns to yellow pus.
If the infection is untreated, it can eventually affect vital organs and ultimately lead to death, although thats rare, the NEA says. Treatment for eczema herpeticum consists of antiviral medications and painkillers as needed.
Infections from the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria can also cause pus-filled blisters and honey-colored crusting over the skin, according to the Mayo Clinic. Treatment of a staph infection includes antibiotics and drainage of blisters or wounds.
Signs an eczema blister has become infected include red color, warmth to the touch, whitish liquid drainage, and swelling, Rieder says.
How Can You Prevent Baby Eczema
If your baby has contact dermatitis, you can try your best to prevent a flare-up by identifying and avoiding common triggers, which might include:
- Moisture . Dress your baby in lightweight cotton clothing. Gently pat drool away when you see it.
- Scratchy fabrics. In addition to clothes and rugs, even your babys stuffed animals can trigger eczema.
- Allergens. Think pet dander, pollen or dust.
- Harsh detergents and soaps. Consider using a sensitive detergent when washing babys clothes and crib sheets.
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Choice Of Topical Corticosteroid
There are different strengths of topical corticosteroids that can be prescribed depending on the severity of the eczema. Discoid eczema usually needs a stronger type of corticosteroid than other types of eczema.
You might be prescribed a cream to be used on visible areas, such as your face and hands, and an ointment to be used at night or for more severe flare-ups.
What Causes Discoid Eczema
The cause of discoid eczema is unknown, although it is often accompanied by dry skin and is thought to be triggered by irritation of the skin.
Discoid eczema tends to affect adults and is rare in children. It is more common among men aged from 50 to 70 and women in their teens or twenties.
Some people with discoid eczema may also have other types of eczema, such as atopic eczema.
Read more about the causes of discoid eczema.
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If you can stand to feel a little greasy, opt for an even thicker ointment. “Ointments are best because they have that really occlusive barrier that moisture is not going to get through, says Summe. Most derms I talked to mention Aquaphor and Vaseline. Some eczema patients may have a known allergy to lanolin, an ingredient in Aquaphor, Wallace says, but otherwise its simply personal preference.
A secret weapon I stockpile is Avène Cicalfate, which is like topcoat for moisturizer. The chalky-white, almost pearlescent cream feels cooling, quells inflammation, and repairs damage. It isnt a moisturizer that penetrates the skin, though, so cream or ointment should be applied beforehand.
I’m well-versed in the world of OTC eczema products but still managed to unearth a few new ideas while talking to others familiar with the skin condition. Jacqueline Sacks is the founder of Saint Haven, a clothing line developed specifically for people with eczema and sensitive skin, spurred by her own children’s experiences. After trying “every product on the market,” she learned what proved most effective for her daughter: Aquaphor, Eczema Honey, and the Honest Companys All-Purpose Balm. Meanwhile, Venetsky relies on unscented products “made up of only one or two natural ingredients, like Alaffia Shea Butter. She also uses the super gentle Badger Balm Unscented for Sensitive Dry Skin.
My neck during an eczema flare-up
Weeping Eczema: What Is It And How To Know If You Have It
By Space Coast Daily // December 29, 2019
Eczema, or atopic dermatitis, is a chronic skin condition that usually appears in early childhood. It is often inherited and is characterized by red, itchy, and scaly patches of skin.
It is not contagious but can cause a lot of issues for the person who suffers from it.
Eczema can vary in symptoms and severity. It may subside or flare-up on different days. Sometimes, tiny blisters that contain a clear liquid can form and the affected areas can weep.
This is a sign that the skin has become infected, and is usually called weeping eczema.
What is Weeping Eczema?
Weeping eczema is an atopic dermatitis characterized by pus-filled blisters. These sores weep which means the pus may seep out of the blisters and cause wetness. The pus is usually clear or yellow in color, which eventually dries up on your skin as a crusty layer.
What causes Weeping Eczema?
Eczema, in general, is caused by the inability to repair any damages to the skins barrier. This is due to a certain mutation in the gene called filaggrin.
Filaggrin is essential to the formation of the skins barrier. Every skin cell has two copies of this gene. However, people who have eczema only have one copy.
You need only one copy of the filaggrin gene to effectively form the barrier, but you need two for its repair.
If a person with just one copy of the genes skin is exposed to different irritants that may harm the skin barrier, its ability to restore the barrier will be limited.
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Your Treatment Plan May Need Adjustments
If you continue to have flare-ups after following the treatment plan prescribed by your dermatologist, tell your dermatologist. It can take time to find the right treatment for dyshidrotic eczema.
In studying dyshidrotic eczema, dermatologists have found that the following can be effective.
Treatment for excessive sweating: If you sweat profusely where you have blisters, treatment that helps to control the sweating can be effective. To treat the excessive sweating, your dermatologist may prescribe:
-
A prescription antiperspirant that you apply to the area
-
Injections of botulinum toxin where you have dyshidrotic eczema
Most people think of botulinum toxin as a treatment for wrinkles and frown lines. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has also approved it to treat excessive sweating.
Studies suggest that excessive sweating may trigger dyshidrotic eczema. By reducing the profuse sweating, some people are able to reduce flare-ups. If your dermatologist recommends botulinum toxin, protect your health by seeing a board-certified dermatologist for this treatment.
Stronger medication: People who have dyshidrotic eczema likely have a hypersensitivity. Its believed that this hypersensitivity causes the blisters. Applying corticosteroids to your skin can help lessen this hypersensitivity, but some patients need stronger medication.
Seeing an allergist can be helpful if you continue to have flare-ups
Avoid Harsh Detergent For Washing
Washing and cleaning are our daily activities. Unfortunately, most detergent powder contains toxic chemicals, artificial fragrances, preservatives, and chemical dye. These entire components react to our skin and make it drier.
As a result, eczema and skin rash are quite a regular occurrence. So choose your laundry detergent wisely, which is chemical-free.
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How To Get Rid Of Eczema Fast
The steps above can definitely help you to improve your skin and clear up dermatitis. However as you can see, eczema can be caused by many different things, so its important to find the root cause of your breakout.
Addressing the root cause is one of the best ways to get rid of eczema fast and forever!
Breakouts on the skin is often a signal that there is something around that may be making us breakout. If youre looking to get rid of the red itchy skin forever, then it can really help to look at whats around us.
I hope this guide helped you know more about eczema and find some easy ways to clear your skin. If it helped and inspired you, please let me know in the comments below! I always love hearing from you!
PS: Donât know where to start? Sign up to my free series The Clear Skin Plan !
Things To Consider With Otc Products
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration decides whether a medicine is safe enough to sell over the counter. However, using OTC medicines still has potential risks. Some interact with other prescription or OTC medicines, supplements, foods or beverages. Others cause problems for people with certain medical conditions. Be sure to talk to your healthcare provider before taking any OTC medicines for eczema.
Its important to correctly follow directions for OTC medicines and be careful when administering them to children. You should never take OTC eczema drugs for longer durations or in higher doses than the product label recommends.
Some common OTC treatments for eczema include:
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Tips For Building Your Eczema Skin Care Routine
Keeping your skin moisturized can help to prevent itching, irritation, and thickening of the skin. In fact, in mild cases, dry skin is the primary symptom of eczema, and a good skin care routine can help keep symptoms suppressed.
In other cases, managing symptoms may require additional precautions and treatments. Whether your eczema is mild or more severe, the starting point for most routines focuses on:
- locking in moisture
Medical Treatment For Eczema
Eczema cant be cured. But it can be managed by preventing and treating flare-ups as soon as they appear.
If your childs skin is inflamed and itchy, theyll probably need some corticosteroid ointment or cream. For mild eczema, you can buy mild corticosteroids over the counter at your pharmacy. The most common is hydrocortisone 1% cream. For more serious eczema or if the over-the-counter products arent working, youll need to see your GP to get a prescription for a stronger corticosteroid.
Other eczema treatments include pimecrolimus, a non-steroidal cream. Doctors might prescribe this cream for children with mild to moderate eczema on the face and in body folds.
If your child is scratching at a rash, you could ask your pharmacist or GP about using an antihistamine medication for a few days. Together with a corticosteroid cream, this might give your child some rest and help the flare-up to settle.
If your childs eczema rash gets infected, your doctor will prescribe a course of oral antibiotics.
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