• Give your child an oatmeal bath in lukewarm water. Soak for at least 20 minutes, but no more than 30 minutes. Cover the skin thoroughly with the thickest cream your child can tolerate within 3 minutes of leaving the bath.
• Refrigerate any prescription medication or moisturizer. This will stop itching fasten than room temperature creams. For trips away from home, use s cooler.
• Make sure your child’s skin is covered with an emollient like petroleum jelly before he or she goes swimming.
• Cover your child’s face and hands with an emollient like petroleum jelly before he or she goes out in cold weather.
• Babies hand s and cheeks should be coated before meals so that foods and beverages don’t irritate their skin.
• Have your child wear loose fitting, comfortable clothes made of cotton or any other smooth fiber fabric.
• When you purchase new clothing or bedding, wash it before your child uses it. Dries, preservatives, and irritants on few fabrics can leach onto the skin and cause itching.
• Keep your child’s fingernails trimmed.
• Have your child wear cotton gloves at night. Knee high socks are sometimes better because they don’t fall off as easily.
• Keep your child’s hand busy during the day. Idles hands will often find occupation in scratching. Try worry beads, hand size squeeze balls, or hand toys.
• Try over the counter antihistamines. If oral antihistamines make your child drowsy, try a topical cream. Benadryl cream is often effective but does contain allergens that can cause an allergic reaction if overdosed, even in those without eczema. Ask your doctor if a prescription cream called zonalon might help your child. Zonalon doesn’t contain allergens.

For some children with eczema, scratching may become an obsessive habit. The child may be unconscious of scratching until he or she causes excessive pain or bleeding. It’s important to help your child control the impulse to scratch. By observation and conversation, determine your child’s itch pattern.

A common but often not recognized cause is the friction of clothing on skin when your child changes. Another time to watch is when your child’s attention is taken away from an engrossing activity, like watching TV or playing video games. Forgotten itching may suddenly demand a good scratch.

Dr.Sarah Tyler is a dermatology specialist in UK. Let her show you how you can help your child lead a normal, enjoyable life with the Minimum Disruption From Eczema.

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 6:12 pm and is filed under Eczema. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.