Baby eczema

Infant or baby eczema is a condition that scares many parents. This dermatological problem affects the skin on the neck, the face, the upper chest and the scalp during the first months of life. Later on it may occur on the shins and forearms as well. There are a number of facts regarding baby eczema that parents should be aware of. Watch out for blisters that could break or leak and for extensive skin dryness. If the baby's condition is really serious, it may involve the whole skin. Normally, the diaper area, the nose and mouth parts remain unaffected by the condition. If the areas of skin on the forearms and shins are thickened between the ages of twelve and eighteen months, parents should not be worried since this happens due to babies' crawling a lot.

Eczema or dermatitis, with baby eczema included, are terms used to describe some skin conditions recognized by symptoms such as very itchy and dry skin, reddening, swelling, cracking or scaling of the skin. Though eczema may appear almost anywhere on the body, in babies it mainly appears on the scalp, chest, and forehead as well as around joints. In very serious cases, baby eczema can be so annoying by the itchiness that it will cause discomfort during sleep and keep the baby awake and crying. Very many babies suffer from atopic eczema but this usually occurs because of a genetic predisposition. This condition tends to occur and develop somewhere around the age of two or three months. Atopic eczema results from an oversensitivity of the immune system with reactions of the sufferers to environmental aspects that normally do not elicit an immune response. Whether babies develop eczema because other members of the family suffer from atopic conditions such as asthma, hay fever or eczema it is still not very clear and certain. Another possibility when infants develop baby eczema results from the prolonged exposure to a specific allergen.

Regarding the treatment of baby eczema it must be pointed out that there is no specific catch-all treatment, unluckily, since it is an allergic condition. Fortunately several therapeutic solutions have been developed and they can help improve the suffering babies' conditions significantly. Although improperly called remedies, there are all sorts of preventive measures that will keep baby eczema away: careful bathing habits, the use of cotton clothes only, proper skin moisturizing, careful diet choice and avoiding animal contact. Besides, parents should make sure they keep the baby's environments dust free, as well as minimize scratching through cutting the baby's nails short.