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Any skin disorder or minor rash is irritating and can become quite a hindrance since it affects your appearance and therefore your confidence. Eczema is no exception. Do you have inflamed skin accompanied by maddening itch that you can’t scratch enough to get rid of? How about a rash, where the affected area looks red with a prominent blackish tinge? If you’ve answered was ‘yes’ to the abovementioned, it sounds like you have eczema.
What is eczema?
Eczema is also known as atopic dermatitis, which is a type of skin disorder. Its characteristics are similar to a rash which is inflamed, reddish in appearance and may later have a blackish tinge. The skin can feel scratchy and rather prone to flakiness, blisters and in some cases, oozing of water or even blood from excessive scratching. Eczema is characterized by pruritus, eczematous lesions, xerosis (extremely dry skin), and lichenification (thickening of the skin and an increase in skin markings).
Causes
The reasons for eczema vary from person to person. Our genes contribute to us inheriting eczema by a whopping 80 per cent.The two main reasons why it will develop are: firstly, though a weak or dysfunction in our immune system and secondly, a disturbance in your epithelial-barrier/skin barrier.
Do you have allergies, asthma, allergic rhinitis, urticaria (hives) and acute food allergies? Well, this is possibly the reason for the disturbance in your immune system and why you have eczema. Stress has also been cited as making eczema worse; when you’re stressed your immune system often isn’t too happy with you which leads to incessant itching and perpetuating the vicious cycle.
There are different types of eczema, all of which have a maddening itch as the number one symptom. Your dermatologist needs to first identify what type of eczema you have and from there will help you deduce what is causing this annoying skin disorder and help you treat it.
What to do in the meanwhile
Since food allergies can play a huge role in triggering eczema and since it’s a commonly found skin disorder, dealing with it is one of the most difficult things for parents and children to do. Eczema doesn’t discriminate when it comes to age or body area, and it’s an annoying menace that way, but here are some ways to ease the pain and itching before going applying harsh cortisones on your skin, especially for children.
Tip 1
Hygiene will play a huge role in keeping eczema at bay as it spreads very quickly on the skin, especially if there is contact from an itchy area to another skin part. Washing your hands often when you have an outbreak or you just can’t help but scratch is going to reduce spreading. Avoid over-washing hands and not moisturizing afterwards with petroleum jelly or non-perfumed moisturizer, as over-washing will lead to excessive dryness which is a big no-no for eczema sufferers.
Tip 2
Avoid cleaning chemicals, soaps, detergents and harsh clothing – soft cottons should be worn more frequently so as to not irritate your skin. The perfume and drying agents in soaps make eczema worse so if possible wash your skin gently with emulsifying ointments or aqueous cream and lukewarm water.
Tip 3
To treat and ease weeping eczema, moist compresses should be used on the patches at least until the inflammation and weeping has subsided. Make a dressing out of cotton or gauze and ice-cold water to be placed on the affected area. It should be somewhat loose with the ability to let the fluids evaporate from the skin. After the inflammation and itching are at bay you can now apply an ointment or gel as prescribed by your dermatologist.
Eczema is extremely annoying and can be a confidence dampener, but there are ways of treating it and keeping it at bay. Reassess your diet and use some deductive reasoning after a very close look at your lifestyle. Insist on an allergy test from your dermatologist so you can squash eczema at the root.
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