If the skin of the newborn is peeling, the mother cannot remain calm. And this is quite understandable, because the condition of the skin in most cases reflects the general health of the baby. Is it worth worrying about peeling skin in a baby's first month of life and what to do if the skin really peels off, we will tell you in this article.
What's happening
Peeling of the skin is a normal and completely natural process. It was invented by nature so that dead epithelial cells make room for young cells. If the skin ceases to peel off, then the epidermis - its outer layer will grow so much that the skin will become thick and rough, like armor.
The shedding of dead keratin cells is called desquamation. It can be physiological and pathological. And if peeling skin in a child over 3-4 years old is almost always a reason for a visit to the doctor, then in newborns (children under 28 days of age), desquamation is often harmless physiological in nature. One could calm down on this if everything were so simple.
But in practice, excessive peeling can be a "signal" for parents that the baby is uncomfortable, that it is time to change something.
To recognize these "signals", parents must have an idea of why babies' skin peels off during the first month of life.
Causes
Finding in a child fragments of the skin with traces of severe peeling, do not panic and call the ambulance. Mom needs to calm down and sensibly evaluate all the possible causes of desquamation.
Adaptation
Babies are born in a thick virgin lubricant. During the last months of pregnancy, it is actively produced by the sebaceous glands located on the baby's skin. After birth, the delicate and thin skin is protected by a lipid mantle - an invisible layer of fat The mantle is designed to protect the baby from mechanical stress, but it practically does not protect it from bacteria or thermal temperature extremes.
After giving birth, the baby will have a different habitat - air. It is not at all like the water one in which he stayed all nine months of his mother's pregnancy. Naturally, the skin needs time to adapt to new conditions.
First of all, in the process of adaptation, the very lipid mantle suffers, the baby's skin becomes more vulnerable and can begin to actively lose moisture. This forms dry areas on the body with visible peeling.
Adaptive desquamation does not need treatment, since it is a temporary phenomenon, which by the end of the neonatal period (by the end of the first month - the beginning of the second) passes without a trace.
Hygienic mistakes of parents
Sometimes a newly minted mom and dad take so much care of their newborn baby that they consider it their duty to wash it twice a day and always with baby soap. The effect of the detergent on the lipid protective layer practically kills it in a matter of days. The skin is defenseless. This causes drying out of the epidermis and premature death of keratin cells.
The other extreme is an overly sloppy approach to newborn hygiene... As a result, diaper rash and prickly heat form on the skin of the crumbs, and the dry skin after inflammation begins to peel off strongly and eventually peels off in large clumps. This is quite painful for the baby. Most often, this desquamation manifests itself in the groin, on the buttocks, under the armpits and in the skin folds - on the arms, legs (under the knees), on the neck (under the chin).
Nutrition and metabolic problems
Severe peeling and peeling of the skin from the fingers and toes, as well as from the palms of the crumbs, can speak of pathology. The most probable reason is a lack of vitamins A and E. The newborn should receive them with breast milk, and if the mother's body lacks these substances, then the baby will feel their shortage within a week or two of independent life.
Allergy
The skin becomes dry and begins to peel off if the child develops an allergic reaction to food (in this case, to components of breast milk or formula), as well as to medicines and chemicals. Such peeling is quite easy to recognize - it is accompanied by reddening of skin areas, and a small rash may appear.
Peeling can appear on any part of the body, but most often it is noticeable on the face, on the cheeks, nose, forehead and chin of the baby, behind the ears, on the scalp.
Fungi and bacteria
Pathogenic microflora attacks a child from the first minutes of his life in this world. A weakened, premature baby, a baby with congenital pathologies, diseases, may not cope with problems that require the work of not only general, but also local (skin) immunity, and then various infections appear. Peeling is characteristic of streptoderma, as well as a huge number of a wide variety of fungal pathogens. Infectious desquamation will not be an independent symptom.
The child will certainly show other signs of an infectious disease - loss of appetite, sleep disturbance, moodiness caused by soreness and itching, fever.
Violation of the microclimate
The hotter it is in the room where the child lives, the higher the likelihood of pathological changes in the skin. The skin becomes dry, the upper stratum corneum breaks easily and is injured, after which it begins to peel off. Insufficient air humidity, dustiness, heat, sweating of the child himself, in combination with the previously listed external conditions, create the effect of "scalded skin" with the occurrence of prickly heat, dried fragments.
At the same time, parents often forget that a child needs moisture more than an adult, because the skin of newborns is 90% water. Therefore, moms and dads do not always attach due importance to the amount of ordinary water drunk by a baby.
Exposure to irritating substances
Peeling and peeling of the skin on the body can be a consequence of exposure to the skin of harmful and aggressive substances that are contained in the washing powder with which the mother washes the child's linen and bedding. Around the navel, for the same reason, the skin begins to peel off after the umbilical wound has healed, if the parents, following the recommendations of the hospital staff, treated the peri-umbilical zone with brilliant green.
How can I help you?
A newborn boy and girl do not need to be taken to the doctor right away. First you need to remember well and analyze:
- what mom ate the day before;
- whether the child changed the formula if he is artificially fed;
- is the room hot and the air humid enough in the house;
- whether the baby is sweating;
- whether he is wearing synthetic or semi-synthetic clothes;
- whether he has signs of diaper rash;
- whether the baby has a fever, abscesses in various parts of the body, eating disorders (diarrhea, vomiting, profuse regurgitation, lack of appetite).
A doctor is required:
- with extensive and deep peeling, when a pink bright layer of thin skin is visible under the layer of dead and detached epithelium, there are cracks, blood, microtrauma;
- with any peeling against a background of fever, eating disorders, redness of the skin and the appearance of a rash and other pathological symptoms.
Thus, adaptive peeling and slight superficial peeling of the skin, not accompanied by changes in behavior, appetite and well-being of the child, do not need to call a doctor.
What the doctor will do
In case of complaints of peeling, the doctor will definitely take tests of blood, feces and urine to assess whether there is a lack of vitamins A and E, as well as other useful substances, whether the baby has a bacterial or fungal infection, whether he has allergies. Samples of exfoliated epithelium will definitely be examined in the laboratory.
Based on the data received, a medical verdict will be issued and appropriate treatment prescribed - antibacterial, antifungal, antiallergic.
How parents can help
Parents can do a lot on their own. It is enough to note that in 90% of cases of desquamation, wrong climatic conditions and hygienic "blunders" of moms and dads are to blame:
- If peeling is found in a child you need to measure the room temperature... Ideally, it should be at a level of 20-21 degrees Celsius. If it seems too cool to the parents, then you can additionally dress the child with another undershirt. Air humidity protects the microclimate from drying out. The optimal values for this parameter are 50-70%.
- A special device can help create the correct humidity - humidifier, it is inexpensive, but the whole family will feel the benefit from it, because sufficiently humidified air is not only healthy baby skin, but also effective prevention of respiratory diseases and viral infections for all family members.
- With daily bathing it is worth giving up soap, foams and shampoos, it is advisable to use baby soap no more than once every 3-4 days. It is not necessary to wash the scalp of a newborn with soap more than once a week. Herbal decoctions can be added to the water - chamomile or string. The water temperature should not be too hot, no higher than 37 degrees.
- After the child's water procedures do not rub intensively with a towel, this injures the skin, it is better to dip it with a soft towel or flannel diaper so that moisture can persist and penetrate into the middle layers of the epidermis. If you have a tendency to dry skin, you can use baby cream, peach, apricot, almond or vaseline oil after bathing. It is better to refuse powder altogether, since talcum powder helps to dry the skin.
- The child must drink water. Between feedings, even if he is completely breastfeeding, you should water your baby so that his tissues, including skin, do not lose moisture.
- Usually, there are enough adjustments that parents will make in the daily life of a newborn. After establishing normal temperature and humidity, bathing without soap and cosmetics, refusing to powder, the problem of peeling and peeling of the skin is safely solved within a few days. The skin restores moisture and becomes more elastic. If it doesn't, be sure to consult a pediatrician about the possibility of using oil solutions of vitamins A and E, with the approval of the doctor, they can be applied to dry skin areas topically to restore the vitamin balance.
Children with peeling are carefully given a daily restorative massage, be sure to use a fat cream or massage oil for this, so as not to inflict additional skin injury on him.
- Newborns with problematic flaky skin useful tools such as "Bepanten", "Dexpanthenol", "Boro-plus". It is important to protect the skin of the crumbs from the effects of wind, frost and direct sunlight. It is not recommended to use UV-protected creams for such small children, so the baby should be in the shade so that sunburn does not become another reason for desquamation.
The answer of a neonatologist to the question of why a newborn's skin peels off, see below.
