Eczema Treatment, Causes, Types, Symptoms, Medication And Facts

Eczema in babies is very difficult to handle – this for the parents who are taking care of the babies and the babies themselves. Apart it just being painful and very uncomfortable for the babies, parents undergo through stress, strain, worry and emotions that are not good. The baby gets less sleep which gives the parents less sleep when they try and pacify the baby – thereby contributing to their fatigue. To handle the baby with eczema well, the parents must be aware of how a baby with it must be taken care of.

When babies have eczema they start to get very dry skin called xerosis. If this dry skin is regulated, it will make the experience easier for the baby. The remedy for doing that is to add bath oil in the baby’s bath water and let the baby soak in it for a few minutes a day. There is a misconception that when babies are allowed to soak in their bath water that their skin will get over dry. But the adding of the bath oil, not only prevents this but it also makes it beneficial for the baby’s skin.

When the skin itches, it is a natural reaction to scratch which aggravates it and causes a rash. The baby will naturally tend to scratch. To prevent that, eczema cream must be applied to baby’s skin after being bathed. It must be done at this time because the skin will be moist and soft which will allow the cream to only work better. Another alternative to prevent the children from scratching their wounds is to cut their nails and to cover their hands. Babies tend to scratch more when they are asleep. These can be socks or even mittens but anything that is soft that will do. If incase the baby scratches and it leads to an infection, then a doctor must be called or seen immediately. If not treated, there is a very good chance of infection occurring.

The clothes that the baby is made to wear can make a big difference. Cotton is the best for a baby that has eczema. Also one must remember to cut of tags from new clothes. Wearing undergarments inside out help as the seams don’t irritate the skin. Clothes must be washed using only a mild detergent and must be rinsed well before hanging out to dry so that the detergent completely goes off the clothes. Toys that the baby plays must not be the kind that can scratch the skin and irritate especially sharp ones. Even the otherwise the material they are made from must be smooth and not rough.

Another very important part of the effort is the food that the baby eats. As the baby grows and is given new food, this must be done slowly and one at a time. A mass change of diet can be too fast for the baby’s system. If it is slow, one can evaluate what food the body will react badly to.

Like many other diseases and conditions, one would think that eczema is a condition you can go to the doctor for and get yourself healed after taking the prescribed medicine but research shows that it is not so. Prescription only digs the hole deeper. The regular prescription creams don’t really take the problem away. Soon enough the itching comes back and the medicines suddenly start to stop working. The more the itching, the more the more the medicines, the more they fail and we are stuck still scratching away.

The reason these treatments don’t work is because they don’t address the real problem of the issue which is the fact that the immunity of the body is so low. In such a case, the things that cause eczema will continue to come back and itch and make you scratch. Also, it is mostly genetic. More importantly, the causers are a whole lot of things like weather, detergents, food and such.

The issues with the present mainstream medicine methods used is manifold. The antibiotics kill the flora, which are in the intestines. Corticosteroids drastically pull down the body’s ability to fight off infection and to make it worse they even make it very hard for the body to heal if it has an infection. Antihistamines work for the first time and then onwards they direct the body to stop responding to it. Then on, administering them is a waste. The UV Light Therapy used in extreme cases of eczema only causes skin cancer and sun damage. Tar treatments almost have the same effects directly increasing skin irritation.

The only true long term solution is that which complements these treatments with natural solutions. The natural methods while they increase the immunity of your body, they naturally also decrease the amount of irritation your body feels when in contact with environmental factors. This also done as a regular treatment can reduce symptoms.

To naturally increase your immunity, there are absolutely simple things that you can do:

1) You must drink lots of water

2) Do not stress yourself (physically, mentally and emotionally)

3) Make changes such that you keep your skin more moist. Use a moisturizer or even shower more than once a day so that your skin stays moist for longer.

4) Remove all chemical influences that make your skin react unfavourably.

5) Use only hypoallergenic substances on your skin that are non toxic

6) Make sure you eat only food that has been cut up and cooked at home. Processed food poses a danger to your immunity.

7) There are a whole load of home remedies that can easily help you do a lot better with your eczema.

Any day, herbal treatments are preferred because they have no side effects and they do a better over all good to your body and its system.
So, it works two ways. When Eczema takes its toll, you need treatment to kill it but you also need to strengthen your immunity so that it does not happen again

In most cases, using natural means to cure a heath disease is always the most popular as it is without side effects. In the case of Enzema also, this is true. Non natural medicines only cure the instance of eczema and don’t serve towards increasing or preserving the immunity of the body. Natural medicines on the other hand contribute to the long term increasing and preserving of immunity and thereby not needing to get treated to eczema anymore.
There are many natural ways to achieve this. Their intention is to not give eczema a reason to come back anymore.
Using Vitamins:

Vitamins have many properties that help to restore immunity to the body. Vitamin E is an anti oxidant. It heals the skin and hydrates it. Vitamin A provides the much needed boost to the immunity system that keeps eczema away. Vitamin B2 provides more oxygen supply to the skin and repairs the tissues of the skin making it a lot more like healthy skin should be. Vitamin B3 sees to it that your body takes in its carbohydrates. Vitamin C boosts immunity and it is by itself natural anti-histamine. It does the job with absolutely no side effects. The thing with Vitamin C is that it can’t be stored in your body. It has to be taken in via the food that you eat. But one thing is to be remembered. We cannot simply take this like medication. We need to take this in our food.

Using Probiotics:

Probiotics are a certain kind of bacteria that work against the harmful to the body kind of bacteria. They work very well when used to rid the body of eczema that comes from reaction with allergens. One such type is Lactobacillus GG. It is the most commonly used type of bacteria when using probiotic strain to rid the body of eczema. Cases when used have shown that this method to be effectively useful with children. The treatment worked very well with eczema cased due to food allergies.

Herbal Creams/Gels
Filled with substances like licorice, witch hazel extracts and chamomile, topical herbal creams and gels have been proved to be very successfully active in bringing down the eczema symptoms. Before you do actually use the cream, you must first consult a doctor to check if it alright to use it because the substances in these creams have been known to cause allergies in some conditions.

Gamma Linolenic Acids

A kind of fatty acids, Gamma Linolenic acids are the best solution for the bubbles or lumps that results at times as a result of the occurrence of eczema. It provides the deficiencies that cause for the outbreak of eczema.
It has been seen time and time again that the methods that have worked the best are the methods that are naturally based. Working at eliminating the cause is better than trying to kill an outbreak. Other methods are not as effective as the natural methods.

Taking care of yourself when you get burdened by Eczema at home is very easy. Home remedies for it are the same as that for allergies. If you have had allergies or someone has had allergies at home, you will know. These are simple down to earth rules that if you follow you should get by.

1) Keep your skin moist by taking warm showers throughout the day. Remember not a bath but just let the water moisten your skin. The effect will not be as much if you have a hot water bath. After that you must, wipe yourself dry with a towel gently and then apply moisturizing lotion all over. Do not use lotions that have fragrances and check if their contents do irritate your skin or not.

2) Don’t wear tight clothes. It makes the skin congested and makes it more likely to get eczema. Also, you must not wear clothes made out material that is rough or poky like wool (unless you wear it over a full sleeved shirt if you have to). It irritates the skin and increases the chances of getting a skin rash.

3) If you do get a rash, do not scratch the rash at any cost. If you really are unable to help yourself, cover the patch by dressing it up. Wearing gloves helps because even if you scratch especially at night. It won’t affect the wound so bad.

4) Remove the allergen (the reason why you are getting eczema) and keep it away from you. It could absolutely anything that irritates your skin. The bed sheet on your bed, the soap you use, the clothes you wear, the food you eat, sweat, washing powder or even something in the water that you use.

5) When you get a outburst, don’t exercise your body too much. Exercising at such time too can very easily irritate it.

6) Medicate the rash by applying on it a steroid cream with an anti itching lotion. Do this regularly and daily till the rash disappears. If you miss a day it is like starting all over again the next time you put it.

7) Take Diphenhydramine which should take care of the itching. It does make you very sleepy so you shouldn’t do any activity that would need you to have your full attention on like driving.

Keep the patch clean. Keep regularly cleaning the rash with hypoallergenic soap so that it remains completely clean after which you must add lubrication and the anti itching location. You could do this as many times a day as you can.

Apart from all this, you must lead a healthy lifestyle, sleep enough hours, avoid having to undergo stress and don’t exert your body too much – this is including the exercise that you do. It is not the case that the eczema will go away immediately after you do all of this. You have to keep at it will go away slowly.

After ascertaining that what you do have is eczema, there are two kinds of medicines that will be given to you by a doctor or at a hospital. One to take away the itching and the other will be anti-inflammatory drugs. The standard that you will get is a prescription anti-steroid cream and an antihistamine treatment. You may get some doctors orders to restrict food for a while but those have been proven to work in most cases. Skin drying agents are also sometimes prescribed but they are usually also known not to work as much. If the eczema is not responsive to this, there are other treatments that may be tried including PUVA, coal tar and even chemotherapy.

Based on the kind of rash, there are three kinds of courses that doctors prescribe. A non serious eczema is set right by a dose of antihistamines. They are not heavy medicines. One can just take one and get on with the day. The more serious cases are given corticosteroids which is a short course as it has quite a few side effects. A long course has too many bad qualities. This is only because the eczema is severe. In addition an antibiotic or a anti-fungal cream is also given in case there may be an infection.