SKIN CARE OF BABY
Daily skin care for toddlers
- Use gentle, fragrance-free cleansers and soaps.
- To prevent dry skin and rashes, apply liberal amounts of moisturizer after bathing.
- Initiate early sun-protection behaviors, including:
- The regular use of a broad-spectrum sunscreen that offers a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of 30 or higher.
- If child is prone to skin irritation or allergic reactions,
select a physical or chemical-free sunscreen with the ingredients zinc
oxide or titanium dioxide.
- Reapply sunscreen approximately every two hours, even on cloudy days, and after swimming or sweating.
- Wear protective clothing, such as a long-sleeved shirt, pants, a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses, where possible.
- Seek shade when appropriate, and remember that the sun's rays are strongest between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
- Use extra caution near water, snow, and sand because they reflect the damaging rays of the sun, which can increase your chance of sunburn.
Pediatric skin infections
Warts
- Skin growths caused by viral infection.
- Warts most regularly seen by dermatologists are common warts and plantar (foot) warts.
- Common warts usually grow around fingernails, on fingers, and on the backs of hands.
- Plantar warts occur on the bottoms of the feet, close to the toes.
- Warts can disappear on their own over a period of several months.
- Treatment is recommended because old warts can spread the virus to the skin around them, creating new warts.
- Topical treatment options include salicylic acid, liquid nitrogen, or canthardin.
Community acquired methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureaus (CA-MRSA)
- Also known as the superbug.
- Easily spread among families and children at daycare centers and schools.
- Presents itself as skin and soft tissue infections, such as cellulitis and open sores.
- Treatment includes oral antibiotics such as clindamycin and tetracyclines.
- To prevent CA-MRSA, children should wash their hands often, cuts and scrapes should be quickly cleaned and bandaged, and children should be taught not to touch other people's wounds or bandages.
Bug bites
- The most common bug bites are from fleas, mosquitoes, wasps, or bees.
- Some bug bites can cause bacterial infections, such as impetigo, a superficial infection of the skin characterized by yellow, crusted, well-defined lesions.
- Impetigo is highly contagious and can be rapidly spread among children.
- Treatment for impetigo includes the use of topical or oral antibiotics.
- To avoid bug bites, apply an insect repellent with the ingredients permethrin or the chemical DEET.
- Repellents containing permethrin should only be applied to clothing.
- Permethrin has a residual effect through several washings and provides lasting protection.
- Repellents containing DEET should have less than 10 percent concentration if applying to children.
- Repellents with DEET should not be applied to babies younger than two months old.
Pediatric skin inflammations
Eczema
- This general term encompasses various inflamed skin conditions,
including one of the most common forms of eczema, atopic dermatitis.
- About 10 percent to 20 percent of the world's population is
affected by this chronic, relapsing, and very itchy rash at some point
during childhood.
- It occurs most often on the face and scalp.
- Can be confused with cradle cap, which is a red, scaly rash on
the scalp, sides of the nose, eyebrows, eyelids, and the skin behind the
ears, and it usually clears on its own by 8 months.
- Treatment options:
- Nonprescription corticosteroid creams and ointments.
- Prescription topical, steroid-free medications.
- Tacrolimus and pimecrolimus, which are prescription topical
medications that belong to a class of drugs called calcineurin
inhibitors and work by modulating the immune response.
- The 2004 total direct cost associated with the treatment of
atopic dermatitis/eczema (in both children and adults) was $1 billion.
The majority of the cost, $154 million, is attributed to spending on
prescription drugs1.
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