When summer arrives our customs tend to vary quite a lot because the routines of the rest of the year are affected. We travel to other places and arrive at often excessive temperatures, not only for adults, but also for our children.
One of the parts of the body that should be taken care of in summer is the skin, basically because it is the one that comes into contact with both the sun and the water in the pools and the sea. If our children also suffer atopic dermatitis, it may be interesting to know what can we expect from this disease and how can we treat it.
What is the atopic dermatitis?
Before getting into the subject I want to make clear the basis so that every father and mother knows what atopic dermatitis is and what it isn't. The Atopic dermatitis is a skin disease that manifests with dryness, reddened and scaly lesions, that they bite a lot (although when they are babies they can be bitten less) and that we usually call eczema. It is the most common skin disease in children: almost 1 in 5 children suffer from it.
It is a disease that usually debuts in the infant stage, around 4-6 months of age, although it can also occur later when the child is older or even in adulthood.
When the symptoms appear
The symptoms vary greatly over time, because they do not affect all children equally. Some are more or less good all year and occasionally suffer an outbreak, needing a few days of more intense treatment. Other children may have only one outbreak a year, or get to do one weekly. Some children have perfect skin while there are no eczema and others instead always have it slightly affected.
The worst time for atopic dermatitis is usually not summer
Against what many people think Summer is not the worst season for children who have atopic dermatitis, or at least not for most. You could say that children with atopic dermatitis can be divided into three different groups, namely:
- The largest group, consisting of children who get worse in the cold months and who improve in summer until they have almost perfect skin.
- The second group, formed by children who suffer the symptoms in reverse: they feel immense improvement during the cold months and instead in summer they become fatal.
- A third group in which there are the "poor unfortunates" who suffer the symptoms equally is the season of the year.
My children (the eldest and the middle) are in the second group. I remember that the pediatrician insisted that we go to the beach, that they were going to be great for atopic dermatitis, and the poor came home with tremendous itches, with almost open eczema and running away from me that chased them with creams (which they were stinging for having eczema wounds).
Care we should have in summer with children suffering from atopic dermatitis
If your child is one of those who do well in summer, the care will not be very different from the rest of the year. You just have to continue with the preventive treatment, using soaps and special creams, sheets and cotton pajamas, not abusing the shower with hot water (although luckily in summer you do not usually abuse it) and, ultimately, doing all that that you know that it works with your child (not all children do the same remedies well).
If instead your son is like mine, that with the heat they begin to show eczema and that with the beach water they feel more itchy we must follow the three possible treatments:
- He rescue treatment: It will be the one we use normally when buds appear. They are usually corticosteroid ointments if the skin is intact and, if there are wounds, if the eczema bleeds, it may be necessary to add an antibiotic ointment to prevent infection. If the itching is a beast and the child does not stop scratching, some syrup with antihistamine should be given, basically because, if it is scratched, the area becomes more inflamed, and if it becomes more inflamed, it stings more, and if it stings more, it scratches more , and if it scratches more ...
- He preventive treatment: which is what we use all year long while there is no eczema or when the thing is more or less good, as we have said with the other group, the usual creams and soaps, appropriate clothing, etc.
- He etiological treatment: is the treatment aimed at eliminating the cause that generates the outbreaks. If in summer more eczema appear because of the heat we will have to try to avoid it (difficult, huh?), Going out when the sun hits less, being in the shade, in places where there is air conditioning (they do not need to be “ giant refrigerators ”, but simply do not make it an exaggerated heat). If you decide to go to the beach you will have to assess how the sea water feels. Mine, as I said, makes them worse, so we don't abuse it and try to step on the pool more, which seems to make them feel better. If you do not manage to solve it, perhaps you should try to find some other agent that may be causing the symptoms in summer (one that is not the rest of the year), and if you find it, eliminate or minimize it.
