As a parent, its extremely difficult to see your kid having to put up with the symptoms of eczema. This is where you need to make the most out of an eczema treatment. Your kid needs relief from his or her skins inflammation, scaling and itching the nasty symptoms of this skin disease.
The best way to help your kid from going through these symptoms is to know what triggers them. There are triggering factors which aggravate the symptoms or cause flare ups; being able to point them out and prevent them from causing flare ups do more to your kid with eczema than alleviating the symptoms when they are already there. Some of the known triggering factors may include exposure to: detergents, shampoos, dust mites, extremes in temperature, wool, polyester and others. Of course each kid afflicted with eczema may have other substances that their skin condition is reactive to, resulting to flare ups.
However, its not at all times that you can prevent your kids from coming in contact with such triggering factors. With this the case, its best to maintain your kids skin well-moisturized. Skin dryness makes his or her eczematous skin even itchier. Read on to get some important pointers on how to keep your kids skin well-moisturized.
It is recommended to give your kid a bath rather than as shower. Water from the shower head brushing against the eczematous skin will only irritate it. Many doctors advise giving your kid a bath daily for at least 10 minutes lukewarm water never hot water. Hot water will only aggravate the dryness of the skin. Do not shampoo his or her hair in the bath tub; its best to do the shampooing prior to soaking your kid in bath water. This is because some of the ingredients in the shampoo may irritate the skin. Use a mild, unscented moisturizing soap. When it comes to drying, pat the skin gently with towel and never rub it, especially on the affected areas.
Within 2-3 minutes after you give your kid afflicted with eczema a bath, you should moisturize the skin. Like mentioned earlier, itchiness is triggered by skin dryness. Immediately after bathing, do not expose your kid to flowing air because it will hasten water evaporation on the skin, resulting to dryness. There are many types of moisturizers you may use on your kids eczematous skin. Some of them are even formulated especially for the skin disease. However, a greasy ointment works best in moisturizing the skin. It takes a few trials to find one moisturizer that your kids eczema does not react to negatively. Its recommended to reapply moisturizers at least 2-3 times throughout the day.
During winter time, when the air is cold and dry, you must apply a more generous amount of moisturizer on your kids skin. Also, try to not expose affected areas to the frigid air to delay skin drying. During summer time, sweating also contributes to the worsening of the symptoms. It is best to have your kid stay mostly indoors, if possible. If your house has air conditioning, you should make sure that the skin is kept moisturized at all times. Also, you should install a humidifier.
Eczema treatment and prevention of flare ups is not at all that tricky, if you know the culprit. Just remember, the best way to minimize itching of the eczematous skin of your child is to prevent it from drying.