Control Your Child’s Eczema Before It Controls You: A Guide to Eczema Management
From sleep disruption and poor productivity to emotional and mental stress, eczema causes a range of negative effects on both the child and the parents’ health and function. Implementing proper eczema management is important to maintain a good quality of life despite having this skin condition.
Eczema brings a whole lot of inconvenience that can affect many areas of your child’s life. According to an article in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment, the symptoms of eczema cause a range of negative effect on a child’s health and function such as sleep disruption, skin infection and discomfort, emotional and mental stress, low self-esteem, behavioural deficits, impaired peer relationships, restricted physical activities, dependency, and fearfulness.
On the other hand, parents of affected children may also suffer from
- Exhaustion
- Sleep disruption
- Emotional and financial stress
- Anxiety
- Work disruption
- Limited leisure activities
- Strained spousal relationship
If you and your child are going through the challenges mentioned above, know that you are not alone in this battle. Many children and parents around the world have been dealing with the same difficulties caused by eczema. Based on the Guidelines for the Management of Atopic Dermatitis in Singapore, atopic eczema affects 20.8% of school children and teenagers aged 7 to 16 years in Singapore. In some countries, the prevalence of atopic eczema can also be as high as 20%, as per the Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Atopic Eczema published by Ministry of Health Malaysia. This percentage continues to rise, affecting both developed and developing low-income countries.
To treat and manage eczema properly, it is important to understand what this skin disorder is all about. Atopic eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, is a chronic, recurrent inflammatory skin disorder which results from skin barrier defects, immune dysfunction and environmental factors. A flawed skin barrier causes transepidermal water loss, which makes the skin dry and allows penetration of irritants, allergens and pathogens.
While dry and itchy skin is a common symptom of eczema, you can’t just conclude that your child has the condition based solely on pruritus. According to the U.K. Working Party’s Diagnostic Criteria for Atopic Dermatitis, to confirm the diagnosis of eczema, patients must have an itchy skin condition that is accompanied by three or more of the following:
- History of involvement of the skin creases such as folds of elbows, behind the knees, fronts of ankles or around the neck (including cheeks in children under 10 years old)
- A personal history of asthma or hay fever (or history of atopic disease in a first-degree relative in children under four years old)
- A history of a general dry skin in the last year
- Visible flexural eczema (or eczema involving the cheeks/forehead and outer limbs in children under four years old)
- Onset under the age of two (not used if the child is under four years old)
Resources:
Guidelines for the Management of Atopic Dermatitis in Singapore
http://www.annals.edu.sg/pdf/45VolNo10Oct2016/MemberOnly/V45N10p439.pdf
Clinical Practice Guidelines for Management of Atopic Eczema
http://www.acadmed.org.my/view_file.cfm?fileid=883
Addressing treatment challenges in atopic dermatitis with novel topical therapies – Journal of Dermatological Treatment
https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ijdt20
Treatment of Childhood Atopic Dermatitis and Economic Burden of Illness in Asia Pacific Countries
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275668112_Treatment_of_Childhood_Atopic_Dermatitis