Any skin rash in a child always alarms attentive parents. After all, a rash can be a manifestation of a variety of ailments. Various dermatitis are most common among children. If you want to know about what dermatitis looks like in children, what to do if suspicions are confirmed, read the information provided in this article.
What it is?
Dermatitis in children is very widespread, since there are many reasons that cause inflammation of the skin - these are bacteria, fungi, viruses, and all kinds of external irritants. All types of dermatitis have a common mechanism of occurrence - it is almost always a delayed or immediate allergic reaction to one or another irritant. Therefore, dermatitis is referred to as allergic dermatosis.
Dermatitis can occur in a child of any age - both a baby and a teenager. In adulthood, the disease also occurs, but somewhat less often. This is due to the fact that the child's skin is much softer, thinner and more vulnerable than in adults, the local immunity is weaker.
Three stages of development of any dermatitis:
- Initial. It is also called acute microvesicular or macrovesicular. Skin irritation occurs upon direct contact with an atypical irritant, disappears immediately after the termination of such contact.
- Cork. This is the stage when liquid flows out of the bubbles characteristic of the acute stage, a crust forms (or scales on the skin).
- Chronic. Dermatitis passes into this stage if contact with the irritant does not stop and persists for a sufficiently long time.
Common symptoms
For all types of dermatitis, certain common signs are characteristic that make it possible to suspect just such a skin ailment:
- inflammation of the skin area, redness, swelling;
- itching and burning sensation in the affected area;
- the appearance of blisters, blisters;
- rather rapid transition from the initial stage to the cortical one.
Kinds
The following types of such a disease are distinguished:
Allergic
It does not develop immediately after contact, but after a while - it is a delayed allergic reaction. First, the body "learns" to perceive the allergen. Already with a second contact, a skin reaction may appear.
The peculiarity of such dermatitis is that the affected area is much wider than the area of direct interaction with the allergen. For example, a child prone to pollen allergy comes into contact with flowering plants, and stains his hands with pollen, and manifestations of dermatitis can occur not only on the hands, but also on the face, back, legs, on any part of the body.
Allergic dermatitis looks quite "picturesque" - it is almost always bright red skin in the area of inflammation, blisters filled with liquid contents. They can be both small and large. There is no uniform shape, blisters tend to merge. When they burst, a rough crust remains.
For effective treatment, it is imperative to find and eliminate the allergen that causes such a reaction in the child's body. Sometimes hormonal ointments, antihistamines, calcium preparations are indicated.
Atopic
This is a typical childhood disease and most often affects babies. This dermatitis is a chronic - and often genetic condition. It is of allergic origin and often develops in children with mite, fungal, food or pollen allergies, as well as allergies to certain medications.
In complicated forms, pyoderma (pustular staphylococcal skin lesions), viral and candidal skin lesions, linear dermatitis can be observed.
Itching with such dermatitis is observed even if there are no significant rashes. Typical locations of the rash are the face, neck, often rashes appear in the armpits, on the elbows, under the knees, in the groin area, on the scalp and in the area of the earlobes.
Itching is worse if the child sweats. The rash itself can be mild, or it can be quite bright. There are practically no visible vesicles with watery contents.
Diaper
This form of dermatitis is the lot of infants. Irritation occurs on the bottom, on the genitals, in the skin folds, limited by the diaper coverage area. At the same time, skin rashes never go beyond this zone. Inflammation occurs as a result of exposure to the skin of urea, ammonia. All these aggressive substances are found in urine. They show their properties especially strongly when urine and feces interact.
A rash with this form of skin ailment looks like spots with uneven edges.
Separate fragments merge with each other, when dry they form a crust. The color of the rash is from pink to rich scarlet, the size of the vesicles is small. In the initial stage of inflammation, the formations look like weeping eczema, the transition to the cortical-scaly stage occurs quite quickly.
Most of these skin problems in newborns and children in the first year of life are eliminated through timely hygiene procedures, frequent diaper changes, the use of modern disposable diapers, as well as drying and moisturizing creams for children.
Contact
It is also called simple dermatitis. It can occur when the skin is exposed to certain chemicals, household chemicals, allergens. There are children who develop photocontact dermatitis, a condition in which an external stimulus becomes active when directly exposed to sunlight. Frictional dermatitis is common in babies and is associated with irritation by mechanical friction (such as clothing).
Redness and rash appear during contact or immediately after contact with an irritant. The rash looks like blisters against a background of slight swelling, it is limited only to the affected area. The most successful example is a burn from contact with nettles.
Changes in the skin disappear in a very short time after the termination of contact with an aggressive substance or environment. Such dermatitis does not represent a great danger.
Toxidermia
This type of dermatitis is caused by the penetration of allergens or toxins into the general bloodstream and spread throughout the body in this way. The disease is always caused by aggressive substances taken by the child inside. These are usually medicines, food, and chemicals. Often in childhood, such a reaction manifests itself to antibiotics.
The appearance of a rash is always accompanied by general malaise and indigestion. Point bright inflammatory formations, as it were, repeat the blood path through the vessels and veins, they are often located in the direction of the blood flow and resemble a vascular network on the skin. The rash can be small, punctate, then it merges into large spots of bright color. In some forms, the rash is nodular.
Quite often, with the appearance of rashes, which can affect absolutely any part of the body, the temperature rises.
Eczema
Eczema on a child's skin can be caused by both allergens and viruses and bacteria. It is a chronic disease that from time to time makes itself felt with exacerbations. Small blisters, watery or filled with bloody fluid, do not appear throughout the body, but in confined spaces. When the blisters open, a weeping focus of inflammation remains in their place.
Most often, eczema appears on the face and neck, as well as on the scalp, in the scalp. There are many types of eczema, including dry and seborrheic. However, the clinical picture for all species is quite similar.
Eczema is treated according to individual schemes, most often therapy involves nutritional correction, exclusion of contacts with a wide range of allergens and strengthening of immunity. Periods of exacerbation of eczema most often occur during other diseases.
Hives
This type of dermatitis is called nettle fever. It has a predominantly allergic origin, and direct skin contact with an allergen is not always the case. Sometimes a rash with hives is due to a food or drug allergic reaction.
A rash with urticaria is always accompanied by severe (almost unbearable) itching. It looks like a cluster of pale pink blisters. By themselves, they are small in size, but clusters of such blisters can occupy large areas on the skin. By the way, the name "urticaria" is given to dermatitis for the outward resemblance of a rash with nettle burns.
The rash can be located on any part of the body; quite often it manifests itself on the arms and legs, on the face, neck, and on the scalp. The rashes cannot be called short-term, sometimes they persist for several weeks (for example, with atypical urticaria).
In a chronic form, such a problem is eliminated with hormonal ointments, local antiseptics and the use of antihistamines.
Dermatitis Duhring
This dermatitis is closely related to the state of the child's immunity. In babies with weakened protection, its appearance can provoke digestive disorders, as well as a genetic predisposition.
The rash will be typical, with small vesicles. Itching will appear several days before the rash itself. Often a secondary bacterial infection joins dermatitis, and then self-infection is possible. When combing, the child will open up the bubbles and spread the infection to healthy skin.
Any part of the body can be affected, the most "favorite" place of the rash with such an ailment is the anatomical folds of the skin, as well as the face, arms, back.
Perioral
With such a skin ailment, the lesions are localized around the child's mouth, therefore, dermatitis is also called perioral. It begins with the appearance of single red pimples on the chin or in the corners of the mouth, then the affected area becomes wider. Such dermatitis is not very common.
It is often confused with the herpes simplex virus, which is very common in childhood. A herpetic rash has nothing to do with dermatitis.
Conclusions
It is enough for parents to be able to distinguish dermatitis from chickenpox or measles. It is up to the doctor to find out in detail what type of dermatitis struck the child, since self-medication is not welcomed for any form of this group of diseases. Most often it leads to a chronic skin disease, which is difficult to treat even with modern medications.
How to solve the problem with allergic dermatitis in a child? The advice of the famous doctor Evgeny Komarovsky will allow parents to quickly cope with such a problem.
