- Advice on whether daily bathing will help eczema has been inconclusive
- Allergists reviewed medical literature and concluded daily bathing is best
- But parents must avoid too much soaps and moisturise children afterwards
- Smearing emollient creams on afterwards is key for locking in moisture
Madlen Davies for MailOnline
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With painfully dry skin and incessant itching and scratching, having a child with eczema can be a living nightmare for parents.
And for years, advice on whether bathing their children every day will help – or if avoiding washing so frequently is a better idea – has been inconclusive.
Now, doctors have reviewed the available medical evidence and said it is fine to bathe children with eczema every day, as long as they don’t use too much soap.
The ‘soak and smear’ technique – in which children are patted dry after a bath and immediately smeared with moisturiser – is the best for soothing dry skin, they said.
It is fine to bathe children with eczema every day, as long as parents don’t use too much soap and smear their children with moisturiser immediately afterwards, allergists have advised
The researchers said doctors have been asked about the risks and benefits of bathing every day for more than 100 years – but parents haven’t gotten consistent responses.
The paper’s lead author, Dr Ivan Cardona, an allergist in Portlant, Maine, said: ‘A number of medical groups have commented on the general role of bathing in eczema.’
‘But they don’t all agree on the best bathing practices.’
Specifically, many groups don’t comment on how often a parent should bathe their child, he said.
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He continued: ‘Because parents are confused, and because they often take their questions to their allergist, we wanted to examine the studies that have been published on the topic, and see if there was agreement on just how often children with eczema should be bathed.’
Eczema involves extremely dry skin, and some medical professionals think infrequent bathing – defined in this paper as less than once a day – is the best way to avoid irritating the skin.
They believe infrequent bathing helps keep skin hydrated because it avoids constant evaporation of water, which can be drying.
Infrequent bathing also means less use of the soaps which can aggravate eczema.
Those in favour of frequent bathing – defined in the paper as at least once a day – believe the presence of very dry skin requires hydration with daily baths followed by moisturiser.
Applying small amounts of pH balanced skin cleansers should also be part of frequent bathing, they said.
The skin should be patted dry, and then moisturiser should be applied immediately to ‘seal’ in moisture – a process known as ‘soak and smear.’
‘The smear part is really the most important element, because unless moisturiser is applied immediately, then the skin is likely to dry out even more,’ said allergist Dr Neal Jain, co-author of the paper.
‘The weight of the evidence in the literature we reviewed and our experience in caring for these patients suggests daily bathing with “soak and smear” is more effective for soothing dry skin from eczema.’
The advice was published in an article in the journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
The ‘soak and smear’ technique – in which children are patted dry after a bath and immediately smeared with moisturiser – is the best for soothing dry skin, allergists said
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