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Children's Health

Everyday Management of Eczema

Summary & Participants

Eczema may not be a life-threatening condition, but it is life altering. Learn how people can manage eczema by avoiding triggers and treating flare-ups.

Medically Reviewed On: June 10, 2008

Webcast Transcript

SHEILA FRIEDLANDER, MD: Atopic eczema is a skin condition, which most of people refer to as plain old eczema, in which the person has extremely sensitive skin and they react to normal things in the environment in a way that causes them to be itchy. It causes their skin to become dry and they usually develop red, welty-type sometimes or thickened, scaling lesions.

ANNOUNCER: In other words, eczema, which strikes both children and adults, is something that can cause people great discomfort.

ALICE GOTTLIEB, MD: They itch. They're unsightly appearing. They have trouble with sports because sweating exacerbates it. But clearly the itching drives people crazy. Their appearance is unsatisfactory to our patients.

ANNOUNCER: While the origin of eczema is not fully known, we do know that certain things all around us can trigger flare-ups.

SHEILA FRIEDLANDER, MD: The condition is caused by things that we might think of as normal environmental agents. Let's say we have a dry day: for you and me, well, we feel it's a little dry. For a patient with eczema, they become very itchy, they scratch, they break out and they're in misery. Other things that can kick patients off are just the wrong clothing. If they wear wool, it may cause scratchiness for their skin. Polyesters, which will cause them to sweat will cause them to break out. The wrong detergents. Any of these things can cause them to become very itchy, then they break out. And they scratch and it's a vicious cycle. The more they scratch, the more they itch, then they can become infected.

ANNOUNCER: Naturally the first step in controlling eczema is to try and prevent outbreaks.

SHEILA FRIEDLANDER, MD: Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize. That's the most important word that you can emphasize to your patient. The other thing is avoidance. To try to avoid things that you know will kick your patient off, will make him worse.

ANNOUNCER: Luckily if an outbreak does occur, there are a variety of options to treat it. Often a priority is to stop the annoying itch.

SHEILA FRIEDLANDER, MD: We need to try to break that itch-scratch cycle. Unfortunately, we don't have any one particular great medicine to stop the itch-scratch cycle, but we do utilize antihistamines. And in large studies, it's been shown that they're mostly effective to make the patient drowsy.

ANNOUNCER: One very effective treatment has been steroid ointments and creams. The problem is that steroids can have significant side effects if used long-term.

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