Is your child suffering from eczema? Or are you seeing dry, scaly patches appear now that the weather is getting cooler and the air a little more dry?
Turns out 9.6 million kids under the age of 18 suffer from eczema, so you’re not alone parents. Caregivers often have lots of stress and anxiety when taking care of their loved ones with eczema. Always trying to make sure they are getting better and not worse, while juggling medications, appointments, and daily life.
Caregivers also lose lots of sleep. According to the National Eczema Association they stated “Caregivers of children with atopic dermatitis are four to eight times more likely to get less than six hours of sleep per night, on average”.
This is a problem that can literally keep you awake at night, so make sure you take care of yourselves, too. It’s important!
How are eczema and Dermatitis Really different
Eczema and dermatitis are both skin conditions that cause similar symptoms in the body. Eczema and dermatitis can look different ways depending on the person and how severe and sensitive the skin is.
Dermatitis is categorized as the inflammation of the skin, used as a broader term and not pinpointing exactly the kind of eczema, nor necessarily describing the symptoms the person has.
Eczema is described as a group of skin conditions in which the skin is itchy, dry, and inflamed.
Some of the most common different types of eczema seen in the United states include:
- Atopic
- Contact
- Dyshidrotic
- Varicose
- Nummular
- Seborrheic
- Discoid
Atopic eczema
The most common eczema you see in adults and children is called Atopic eczema. According to the National Eczema Association it is stated “Atopic dermatitis, the most common type of eczema, affects more than 9.6 million children and about 16.5 million adults in the United States alone”.
Symptoms you see with the atopic type are often dry, itchy, inflamed skin. It can also cause redness, swelling, cracking, and crusting of the skin. Cleaning and moisturizing your hands daily will help with preventing this. Soaps that are most recommended are the ones free of dyes, alcohols, and fragrance.
Also known as atopic dermatitis, Atopic eczema has many different causes, with the common triggers being food allergies, emotional stress, and dust mites.
According to Schweiger Dermatology Group some of the foods that cause the most flare ups include “eggs, dairy, soy, citrus, tomatoes, gluten, and even some spices such as cloves, cinnamon, and vanilla.” Curiously, once you’ve managed to find out how to heal or prevent the flare-ups longterm, many children and adults are then able to eat these foods again. Always use the process of elimination in trying to determine what is actually causing the flare-ups.
Often this type of eczema is seen early on in children who have a family history of this condition. We’ll look into the complicated puzzle of eczema genetics further on.
Contact eczema
Contact eczema is when the skin becomes irritated or inflamed after being in contact with a certain substance.
Some common triggers for contact eczema include:
- Soap
- Cosmetics
- Fragrances
- Jewelry
- Poison Ivy
It’s best to find out and then avoid any irritants and allergens, and during early childhood is when most families become aware of what affects their children’s bodies.
For ear and body piercings, always try to use jewelry made of hypoallergenic material, such as surgical steel or gold, especially if it’s ear piercings for your infant daughter.
Dyshidrotic Eczema
Blisters everywhere! Dyshidrotic eczema, also known as pompholyx, is a chronic and painful skin condition that causes small blisters on the palms of hands, soles of the feet and edges of the fingers and toes. This eczema by far, seems to be the most nightmarish of the group.
Unfortunately, medical experts don’t know what causes this type of eczema, although its suspected it may be due to stress, allergies, or even hands and feet that are often in a damp environment (and are therefore moist too often).
While there’s no real cure or remedy to prevent this kind of eczema, except to practice good, clean, and healthy skincare, it is encouraged to look into alternative medicine, herbal practices, and even spiritual healing practices like meditation, prayer, spending time in nature, and practicing gratitude have been shown to have incredible healing effects.
And when you’re suffering from dyshidrotic eczema, you have nothing to lose from trying the alternative path.
Varicose Eczema
With Varicose eczema it tends to be a long term problem. This is a much different type than commonly seen, and is usually caused by poor blood circulation and found in elderly patients.
The lack of efficient blood flow causes the body to collect blood in the lower legs, making it unhealthy for the surrounding tissue.
Varicose Eczema often causes swollen ankles, itchy skin, skin discoloration, and aching of legs. A lot of people wear compression socks helping their blood flow, and not sitting or standing for too long, and keeping active is recommended.
If you or someone you love is dealing with Varicose eczema, you may also try gentle stretching and physical therapy exercises to help stimulate their blood circulation. Here are some GREAT exercises you can help your loved one do together found here.
Lesser Known Eczemas
- Nummular and discoid eczema while named differently, are the same symptoms of itchy, swollen and cracked coin-shaped patches appearing on the skin.
- Seborrheic eczema (Cradle Cap) causes a rash of oily patches with yellow or white scales. This mostly appears on the scalp but also can appear on the face, upper chest, and back.
Most Common Eczema Symptoms
People with eczema often have a skin barrier that is highly at risk for skin infections often because of cracked or broken skin. It’s recommended to not scratch or touch your eczema, in order to prevent infections.
When experiencing an eczema flare-up, it’s best to avoid any dirty surfaces, cover the area of an eczema breakout with clothes so it’s not exposed, wash your hands with healing soaps with ingredients like goat milk, or oatmeal and honey.
The most common eczema symptoms include:
- Dry, cracked skin
- Itchy skin
- Scaly patches
- Blisters
- Darkening of the skin
- Oozing and crusting
- Thickened skin
- Raw from scratching on the skin
Environmental Triggers
Environmental factors and triggers play a big part in eczema, and hay fever is at a higher risk factor when outside in your daily life activities.
Hay fever and eczema are both conditions that can often be linked, and when having both, they can even worsen each other. While Hay fever can almost seem like a cold, it is caused by pollen and different types of allergens in the air from:
- grasses
- weeds
- trees
- molds
Hay fever is usually seen in areas with warmer climates, large landscape fields, and most common during early spring. Many people suffer these allergy reactions that end up causing their eczema to flare up or begin in the body.
Your home environment matters, also, as eczema often occurs more in people that live in a smoking household, or in those who smoke, themselves, than in those who do not.
Stone Oak Dermatology has stated:
“Sometimes, pet dander and saliva can also worsen eczema symptoms. Animals can even bring outdoor irritants into the home.”
Stone Oak Dermatology recommends families with eczema choose hypoallergenic dogs to help the eczema flare ups if that is the family’s wishes.
From my own personal experience, I witnessed my baby cousin having eczema all along his body when he was about 3 years of age. I noticed that there was a lot of his face near his cheeks, due to him eating different foods and dust collecting in his home environment, especially being on his bed.
With that being said, allergic reactions look different for every person and some will never develop eczema.
Medical Treatment Options
Many people use complicated and expensive treatment plans to help with controlling their severe eczema, often prescribed by healthcare providers. Steroid creams are an extremely common form of treatment, with the most common one being the topical corticosteroids cream. Young children, however, are often prescribed mild topical steroids.
Some of the side effects of these steroids include:
- Thinning of skin
- Ttretch marks
- Turning
- Stinging sensation
A lot of the time these steroids cream do help temporarily, but never for a long amount of time. Another problem is that your body gets used to the steroid, so it become less effective overtime and doest work the same anymore.
When managing your eczema, it’s encouraged to keep up with your hygiene, including taking healing, lukewarm showers or baths with products designed specifically for your condition, while avoiding hot showers, and making sure to moisturize with thick creams daily.
There are many options of eczema-healing lotions suggested by dermatologists out there to try, like Aveeno, Eucerin, Cetaphil, Honest Company, and La Roche- Posay. Goat milk lotion is also a great alternative that many people swear by in managing to control their eczema.
Genetics Behind Eczema
The genetics behind eczema are a very tricky puzzle to figure out, due to so many factors involved.
While many time passed down by family members, we are seeing more and more that eczema can spontaneously start with no apparent genetic background due to environmental factors.
This is even more complicated when we take into fact that DNA modifying ingredients in our food (like Sucralose) can alter our children’s genes – making them have problems like eczema they may not have been exposed to before.
When parents do have the genetic component, it is often the skin barrier that is most affected due to being too thin. The abnormal thinness is caused by a mutation in the gene called filaggrin, and in normal circumstances, the skin has two copies of the filaggrin. People with eczema only have one copy of this gene, making the skin thin and vulnerable.
Parents often pass down this skin condition due to their genetic mutation. When first seeing eczema in your children, the years of age can sometimes vary, but this starts as early as 2 years of age. Eczema in older children may look different than in younger, and often appears in different areas of their body like their hands, feet, arms and the back of their knees.
Lilly Allen Gibbs, Founder of Pipe Creek Soap Company has stated
“One of our sons suffered from eczema from the time he was an infant until just a couple of years ago when I started implementing more natural remedies – goat milk soap being the final one that effectively solved all his eczema issues to where he doesn’t have flare ups anymore.
The effect was so profound – at his worst, he would be so dry and scaly he would bleed on his hands, he went from truly suffering to never having any problems again.
I knew I needed to help other moms and dads out there who are at their wits end trying to help their children with eczema.
Our company sources the best oils, luxury butters, and ingredients from around the world – we aren’t just regular goat milk soap, we try to go above and beyond to make it a truly wonderful sensory experience.”
She has also said “She never experienced eczema herself, until after her pregnancy with this particular son. Due to something called microchimerism, her body absorbed some of her son’s DNA during the pregnancy, and for a while they had matching eczema patches on their hands.
Genetics and the role of microchimerism is still something that needs more scientific research but is a fascinating subject on how we not only can pass down something like eczema, but can almost, “catch,” it through pregnancy.”
Take care of yourself
Eczema cannot remain left untreated because it can have serious complications down the road, spreading to more parts of the body, or in repeat, hard-to-treat infections.
It’s best to stay healthy with this and get it treated whether it’s a steroid cream or something else you find to help with eczema like our nourishing goat milk soap.
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