Infant eczema

Infant eczema refers to an inflammation of the baby’s skin and it is one of the most common skin complaints in infants and small children. It causes itching, oedema, vesicles, lichenification, peeling and redness in the affected area. The eczema may arise for many different reasons and may be caused by inhalation, contact or by certain food.

The typologies of eczema that may arise in infants are mainly three.

Atopic dermatitis

The skin of a patient with atopic dermatitis reacts abnormally and easily to irritants, food, and environmental allergens and becomes red, flaky and very itchy worsening in the evening. This kind of eczema affects babies particularly during the first year of life. The real causes of atopic dermatitis are unknown, but the disease seems to result from a combination of genetic (hereditary altered Omega 6 metabolism), environmental (presence of particular allergens) and psychosomatic factors as it occurs in many skin pathologies. In atopic dermatitis, the skin becomes extremely itchy and dry, causing redness, swelling and cracking due to a lacking activity of the delta-6 desaturase enzyme involved in the metabolism of the essential fatty acids Omega 6. During breastfeeding period, atopic dermatitis arises soon after the third month causing itching and redness that are mainly localized first on cheeks and forehead and then on the trunk and in the forearms and legs’ flexion folds. In babies aged more than one year patches also affect neck’s folds, hands, elbows and knees. Instead, in teenagers eczema may occur on the nape, on the eyelids and on mouth’s corners.

Allergic Contact Dermatitis

Allergic contact dermatitis is an itchy skin condition caused by an allergic reaction to specific substances that get in contact with the skin. Contact allergy occurs predominantly from the allergen on the skin rather than from internal sources or food.
The dermatitis is generally confined to the site of contact with the allergen, although in severe cases it may extend outside the contact area or it may become generalised. Some typical substances that cause allergic dermatitis are nickel, chromium, cobalt, perfumes and preservatives contained in products like cleansers and creams. Products like toothpaste, medical plasters and some kind of shoes too may cause an allergic reaction on baby’s skin.

Irritant contact dermatitis

Irritant contact dermatitis occurs when chemicals or physical agents damage the surface of the skin faster than the skin is able to repair the damage. Babies and newborns are often affected by two kinds of irritant contact dermatitis. The first one is also known as napkin dermatitis as it hits particularly the nappy area. This phenomenon is mainly due to the contact of the skin with dirty nappies and it generally arises when the baby is already able to sit down by himself such as after the fifth month.
Instead, perioral dermatitis is a facial rash that tends to occur around the mouth but it is rare and hits particularly young women and less frequently babies and adult men. Often, when this kind of dermatitis occurs in small babies many parents blame the soother for being the cause of the irritation but the real causes of perioral dermatitis are still unknown.

Infant dermatitis are treated mainly with cortisone, steroids used locally, soothing and skin’s moisturizing. Anyway, treatment has to be decided by the dermatologist following a specialist examination and under no circumstances it has to be improvised. Often, many parents blame certain kind of food for causing the eczema and start to reduce or change their baby meal and daily diet without following a reasonable criterion. But this is a behaviour that should be absolutely avoided like any other do-it-yourself solutions.