In some children, parents note the appearance of dry and rough areas of the skin, and they do not appear everywhere, but only in certain places - on the head, on the face, behind the ears, on the arms or legs. Such changes must be reported to the pediatrician, he will not only find out the cause of their appearance, but also give recommendations on solving the problem.

Why does a child have dry skin: possible causes

The phenomenon under consideration can occur for a variety of reasons:

The risk of the phenomenon under consideration in a child increases if during pregnancy the mother took hormonal drugs, uncontrolledly consumed vitamins, smoked both during the period of bearing the child and during lactation.

If the baby is breastfed for a long time, then he will be provided with excellent protection against allergies, but in this case, the mother’s diet, the exclusion of fried, spicy foods, and fatty foods from her menu, is of great importance. Of great importance is the hereditary predisposition to allergies, not only on the maternal side, but also on the paternal side.

for a child can be:

• clothes made of synthetic fabrics;
• food products (including adapted milk formulas and mother's milk);
• aquarium fish and food for them;
• washing powder and any hygiene products;
• pet hair;
• tobacco smoke.

If the roughness and dryness of the skin is caused by an allergic reaction of the body, then it can be local in nature - for example, the phenomenon in question takes place behind the ears of a crumb. Often it joins the affected areas of the skin, resulting in crusts, weeping with an unpleasant odor.

Note:dryness and roughness of the skin behind the ears may not be a pathological phenomenon, but just a violation of the rules for caring for a child. For example, with vomit, it may flow into the behind-the-ear region and not be removed in time.

Why is the skin affected by allergies?

What's happened ? This is a response of the body to a foreign protein, after receiving a signal about the foreignness of the protein, an antibody is produced to neutralize it. This is precisely the mechanism of an allergic reaction. It is well known that substances that are not protein can cause allergies, and in this case, the non-protein substance-allergen combines with the patient's blood protein and now it is already regarded as foreign.

In a child's body, the enzymatic system is immature and therefore is not able to normally break down certain foods, as a result they become allergens. There is another option for the development of the situation - too much product enters the baby's body, some of its proteins remain unsplit due to enzyme deficiency.

Foreign protein is absorbed into the blood, these allergen substances can be excreted from the blood through the kidneys, lungs and through the skin with sweat. And just the skin reacts to them with the appearance of a rash, itching and redness.

Note:it is important not to overfeed the baby, not to overload his immature digestive system.

If we talk about atopic dermatitis, then its clinical manifestations depend on the age of the patient. In infants, this disease is manifested by dry skin, peeling on the face and scalp, diaper rash, even against the background of impeccable skin care for the child. If the treatment is carried out correctly, then the symptoms of atopic dermatitis are easily stopped, but if left untreated, the deep layers of the skin are affected in children, vesicles and sores appear, unbearable itching joins.

Atopic dermatitis in children over the age of one year, as a rule, acquires a protracted course with frequent exacerbations. The pathological process can turn into dry or weeping eczema, and if left untreated, bronchial asthma and allergic rhinitis progress.

Prevention of atopic dermatitis

To avoid the development of the phenomenon under consideration, parents should take care of his health from the first weeks of life of the crumbs. Preventive measures for atopic dermatitis, namely the appearance of dryness and roughness of the skin, include:

Treatment for dry skin in children

Since such a phenomenon is most often classified by doctors as, this material will consider the treatment of this particular disease. And, by the way, it will be quite complicated and lengthy.

Non-drug treatment

First of all, you need to adjust and normalize the nutrition of the baby. It is understood that it is necessary to exclude a food allergen, if the child is breastfed, then the mother should analyze her own menu and exclude from it products that theoretically can provoke an allergy outbreak.

Be sure to pay attention to the work of the intestines in the mother. If she is constantly tormented by constipation, then the toxins formed as a result of stool retention are absorbed into the bloodstream and transmitted to the baby with the woman's milk. To combat constipation, the mother can use lactulose, suppositories with glycerin, and increase the intake of fermented milk products.

If the child is bottle-fed, then you should seek help from a doctor - you may need to change the previously selected formula for feeding.

In the event of dryness and roughness of the skin after, parents should stop giving the baby a new product and feed only the usual food for two weeks. Parents should remember: each new product is introduced as complementary foods separately, addiction should last at least 3 weeks, which will allow you to identify the true irritant with great accuracy.

If the child is over the age of one year, then you need to keep a diary of observations of the body's reaction to different foods. Be sure to exclude fish, eggs, citrus fruits, cheeses and strawberries from the diet - foods that are most likely to cause allergies. Subsequently, they can be entered, but in minimal quantities.

In addition, you should remember the following recommendations of doctors:

1. Sweets are strictly contraindicated for children with rough and dry skin (atopic dermatitis), as they increase fermentation in the intestines and improve the absorption of allergens. The use of honey, sugary drinks and jelly leads to a deterioration in health.
2. Under the ban for children with the phenomenon under consideration are preservatives, stabilizers, emulsifiers and flavor enhancers, exotic fruits.
3. The child needs to be provided with a full amount of drinking, since a lack of fluid in the body leads to constipation.
4. It is important not to overfeed your baby. For example, with artificial feeding, a small hole is made in the nipple so that the baby eats his portion of the mixture in 15 minutes - this way he will get pleasure and a feeling of fullness.
5. The first food is vegetable puree. And the most hypoallergenic foods are cauliflower and zucchini.
6. The air in the children's room should always be fresh, slightly cool and sufficiently humidified. Only in this case it will be possible to prevent sweating and dry skin.
7. Wash children's clothes with a hypoallergenic phosphate-free powder, rinse at least 3 times in clean water. If the dryness and roughness of the skin is in a progressive stage, complicated by a bacterial infection, then the laundry will need to be rinsed in boiled water.
8. Dishes and toys of the child should be washed regularly with hot water. This must be done without the use of chemical detergents / cleaners.
9. the child must daily, and at least 3 hours and in any weather. If you have a walk on frosty days, then the baby's face must be lubricated with a fat baby cream.

Atopic dermatitis proceeds in waves - periods of exacerbation are replaced by periods of remission. But even during periods of "calm" parents must follow certain rules:

Medical treatment

Let's make a reservation right away: the treatment of roughness and dryness of the skin with drugs is carried out only under the supervision of a doctor and in strict accordance with his prescriptions. Drug treatment of atopic dermatitis includes:

Parents should not be indifferent to the appearance of lesions with rough and dry skin. Yes, in most cases this phenomenon does not represent anything serious for health, but in some it is a sign of the development of atopic dermatitis. The treatment of such a disease is always long and difficult, it requires a lot of time and patience on the part of parents. Otherwise, eczema or bronchial asthma may develop.

Tsygankova Yana Alexandrovna, medical observer, therapist of the highest qualification category

The fact that the baby is not all right with the skin, that it is too dry and peeling, can be determined by the way he is born. Post-term babies most often suffer from dry and thin skin that is prone to diaper rash. But these cases are quite rare. Doctors say that the skin is flaky in almost all newborns, and this is understandable. The child gets out of the mother's womb into a rather aggressive environment, and it takes time to adapt to it.

If the child behaves normally, nothing bothers him and there are no signs that he is sick, then parents can calm down and wait until such a phenomenon simply passes by itself. But there are more serious reasons why the skin begins to peel off all over the body.

Usually the baby is an acquired disease, and it is called atopic dermatitis. Why does it arise? Someone thus reacts to water when bathing, in which there is a lot of chlorine by modern standards, someone does not tolerate this or that product that is included in the baby's diet, someone does not tolerate fabric softener. Each child may have its own reason, the main thing is to find the factors in time why the newborn's body is flaky.

2 Localization of the problem on the head

On the head, the skin of a baby peels off for completely different reasons. This . But parents can be reassured by the fact that for babies up to a year this is completely normal. Why does a newborn have seborrheic dermatitis on his head? This is because the sebaceous glands are active. By the year, such a phenomenon should pass by itself, it does not require any special treatment.

3 Newborn skin care

As mentioned above, the skin of a newborn requires special care and attention, otherwise it can cause problems. What should every mother know so that her child's skin is healthy, so that there is no such problem as the skin peels off?

First of all, I want to anoint the baby's skin with something to moisturize it, and thereby eliminate its dryness. But with full confidence we can say that it is completely useless, since the skin of a baby is a completely different skin than that of an adult, and the same care as for the skin of an adult will only hurt the skin of a baby. First you need to look for internal problems, why the skin will cover, and after that choose measures to eliminate the problem.

If a mother uses conditioner, powder or rinse aid when washing clothes, then peeling of the skin in a newborn may occur just because of it. You need to try to stop taking it for a while, and the problem may resolve itself. And for the future, you need to know that children's things cannot be washed with powder for adults, it is not designed for such skin. It is necessary to wash children's things only with the help of special baby soap, it will not damage the skin of the newborn.

But even when it comes to baby soap, things need to be thoroughly rinsed so that soap does not remain in them. Although it is for children, it should not be allowed to come into contact with the skin of the child constantly. If there is no such soap at hand, or the mother is against hand washing for some reason, then you can use a special baby powder and baby clothes conditioner, it should also not harm the baby's skin. The question of good rinsing also takes place here, otherwise such a powder can also harm the child.

Even if the mother purchases special baby powders, then you need to use only those that contain the least chlorine, and remember that even manufacturers of baby clothes are unscrupulous. Do not forget that the strong smell of the powder can disturb the child and cause him an allergic reaction associated with the respiratory tract. Ideally, the powder should not smell of anything, and if it does, it should be very gentle and not caustic, which will be almost invisible to the newborn. Even many adults are not at all pleasant with the strong smell of chemicals and detergents, and babies cannot stand it either.

4 Special diet

If the child is breastfed, then the mother will have to follow a very strict diet, since the child may experience, if not an allergy, such an unpleasant reaction caused by skin itching, dryness and peeling on the face and body.

To begin with, you need to exclude dairy products, whole cow and goat milk from your diet, since it is to these products that children most often have an inadequate reaction. Very often, an allergy occurs to citrus fruits, strawberries or chocolate, therefore, while the child is breastfed, these foods in their diet will either have to be very limited or excluded altogether. A nursing mother should not consume all coffee drinks and too strong tea. Particular attention should be paid to those products that contain a lot of artificial colors, flavors and additives. Most often it is added to sweets and sweet pastries. To avoid allergies in a child, these products will also have to be excluded from the diet, and if you use sweets, then only in small quantities and with the most natural composition. It is best to change them for those fruits, the use of which causes allergies the least.

If the child is bottle-fed and has similar problems, then most likely the type of mixture simply does not suit him. To do this, you need to try some of its other types and find the best option that will not cause any negative reactions of the body.

Feeding must be handled with extreme caution. Do not give those foods that have been indicated as dangerous for a nursing mother. Do not give any red vegetables and fruits until the parents are convinced that the child has a normal reaction to complementary foods. You can not give your child immediately tomatoes, carrots, beets, bell peppers. Care should be taken when giving fish and fish products, as many people are also allergic to fish and seafood. You can give any natural boiled meat, but avoid offal, as they can also lead to an inadequate reaction.

5 Extra care

As for the clothes of the child, this can also cause a number of problems and difficulties. The skin of the baby must constantly breathe, so there can be no talk of any clothes made of synthetic materials. The child's clothes, which are constantly in contact with his body, should be made only from natural and high-quality materials; in no case should you save on them. This also applies to bed linen, on which a child, especially a newborn, spends most of his life. When the child grows up, you need to forbid him to crawl on the carpet, since his pile is very aggressive and can simply damage or scratch the baby's skin, the pile can provoke allergies or various types of skin peeling, which will then be very difficult to get rid of.

When bathing, you should not use any soap, even baby soap. It dries out the skin even more. It is necessary to choose the optimal means for bathing children, which will not cause such problems with the skin.

After the bathing process has been carried out, the child must be carefully wrapped in a soft towel, his skin should not be rubbed, but only gently wiped. The towel should be individual for the child, you need to make sure that its villi do not fall off and do not damage the body of the newborn with their lumps. You need to know that a towel for a newborn should be strictly individual, of the lightest color that can only be found on sale. What is it for? The fact is that bright chemical dyes are used to produce colored towels. In some cases, even they can cause an allergy in a child or simply skin problems in the form of peeling.

Chlorinated water can have an extremely negative effect on the baby's skin, so you should only use water that has passed through a special filter to bathe him.

After bathing, you need to apply a special baby moisturizer to the skin of the child. Many parents prefer this cream a special oil for children's skin, which smells good, is easier to apply than a cream and has a positive effect.

Don't worry if your baby has skin problems. In most cases, simple hygiene rules are sufficient. After a while, the skin of the newborn will become the same.

Peeling on the skin of a child is an alarming symptom, but not always dangerous. If you find the cause that led to the violation of the skin in time and eliminate it, the baby will delight parents with soft and delicate velvety skin. In this article we will talk about what to do if peeling has begun in children of different ages.

What it is

Peeling is a natural process. In this way, the outer layer of the skin - the epidermis is freed from keratin cells. They mature and develop in the deep layers of the skin, during the day they travel from the depth to the surface, simultaneously synthesizing keratin, and then, when their lifespan ends, they die and fall off. The process of peeling in medicine has a very specific name - desquamation.

With pathological desquamation, keratin cells live for a shorter period, quickly come to the surface and die in large quantities - peeling becomes noticeable.

With physiologically caused peeling, the process remains almost imperceptible to the human eye - the scales that exfoliate are so small that they can only be seen through a microscope.

If the skin did not have the ability to peel off, the dead keratin cells of the epidermis would gradually create a thick and durable layer, keratinized, similar to a shell. In order for the skin to remain elastic, nature has created this unique mechanism in its own way - desquamation.

However, peeling can not always be considered normal. Quite often, the life span of keratin cells decreases due to a number of adverse factors, both external and internal.

Causes of peeling

Children's skin with increased desquamation can respond both to adverse living conditions and to various diseases. In children of the first year of life, peeling of the scalp and body is relatively harmless - it indicates that the skin is adapting to a new environment, because during pregnancy the baby was surrounded by water, and after birth - by air.

Such natural peeling is usually not catastrophic, but if a large area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe skin is peeling off, then it is worth thinking about other, more serious causes of this phenomenon. The most common causes of excessive desquamation are as follows.

Dry skin

Dryness of the skin is rarely congenital, because all children at birth have a sufficient supply of lipid fatty grease, which protects the thin children's skin from the harsh realities of the outside world. This layer can become thinner under the influence of a variety of reasons, the most common being dry air and heat in the house where the baby grows.

The hotter it is, the drier the air is, which is why peeling is more often observed in winter, when heating is working in apartments, strongly drying up the air. Most often, due to the microclimate, the skin dries up in infants and preschool children.

In adolescents, the sebaceous glands work more actively under the influence of sex hormones. The disadvantage of this fact is the formation of acne, but the undoubted plus lies in the fact that peeling is almost not threatened.

vitamin deficiency

Peeling can occur in children of any age due to an insufficient amount of vitamins A and E in the body. It is these substances that make human skin supple and elastic, regulate cellular metabolic processes in its layers. Such a vitamin deficiency occurs in infants if breast milk contains little retinol (A) or tocopherol acetate (E).

The skin becomes fragile and vulnerable without these substances in older children.

In flaking associated with vitamin deficiency, flaking often occurs on the fingers, toes, nose, chin, and head.

Hygiene mistakes

Careless attitude to hygiene requirements, rare washing, contamination of the skin lead not only to peeling, but also to infection of the resulting cracks. However, too diligent washing, daily use of soap, baby shampoos, bath foams also lead to drying of the skin and, as a result, to desquamation.

The lipid protective layer that protects the skin from external aggressive factors with frequent use of cosmetics and alkaline detergents, such as soap, is quickly erased, the skin ceases to retain moisture.

Due to violation of hygiene requirements, peeling usually occurs behind the ears, on the scalp, on the legs and arms, inside the ear.

Hormonal changes

The most underlying causes may lie in the hormonal status. Usually, the skin reacts with peeling to a change in the balance of certain hormones. Such peeling often occurs in adolescence, during a period of change in hormonal status on the face of the child, on the heels and palms.

External environment

Peeling is especially prone to the skin of a child who walks a lot and for a long time in the sun, with strong wind, during frost. Drying of the epithelium and premature death of keratin cells in this case have only external causes. Such desquamation appears on all open parts of the body that are exposed to wind, sun, and low temperatures. Usually the skin is flaky in places, there is a slight discoloration of the skin in the affected areas.

Allergic reaction

With food, drug, seasonal and other types of allergies that are accompanied by dermatological symptoms, peeling, as a rule, does not begin immediately, but a few days after the appearance of a rash and redness. Red scaly spots that tend to merge may appear on the body, on the face , chest and back. In babies up to a year, such spots with fragments of desquamation quite often appear on the back of the head and on the forehead, between the eyebrows.

Peeling in this case is caused by pathological drying of skin areas that have previously undergone an inflammatory process under the influence of an immune response to antigen proteins or under the direct action of an allergen without the participation of the immune system.

fungal diseases

The cause of severe peeling can be a fungal skin disease. There are a great many fungi that can cause mycoses. Desquamation in this case accompanies skin lesions at the sites of fungal colonies.

Usually in children, such peeling has a whitish, almost colorless, tint. It is localized most often on the scalp, on the foot, on the palms and the back of the hands, in the eyebrows and even on the upper or lower eyelids, if mycosis has spread to the ciliary zone.

Other diseases

Peeling skin is accompanied by diseases such as psoriasis, ringworm, seborrhea, some forms of diabetes, thyroid problems, as well as kidney problems and extensive helminthic infestations.

What does it look like?

Peeling, which should not cause great concern, looks uninflamed, without redness, swelling, without the formation of deep bleeding cracks in the skin. With physiological desquamation, a rash never appears, the skin does not peel off in large "flaps", there is no grayish or silvery discoloration of peeling scales. Infected cracks are dangerous.

If the skin is dry its integrity is easily broken even with a light touch. Under such conditions, a bacterial or viral infection may occur, the “entrance gate” for which will be a crack or microtrauma that has appeared on the skin. In this case, there is inflammation, suppuration, soreness.

If you find such signs, you should definitely consult a doctor, since the causes of peeling can be far from harmless.

Diagnostics

Diagnosis consists in the fact that the doctor collects a complete history - when and with what state of health the child was born, whether his closest relatives have dermatological problems, what he eats, what he has been sick with recently. By the appearance of the skin, the presence or absence of itching, pain sensations, the doctor will be able to put forward presumptive diagnoses.

Putting everything in its place will help laboratory diagnostics. An analysis of blood, urine and feces is a necessary minimum that will have to be taken. Sometimes they can be sent for a blood test for hormone levels, as well as for allergy tests if an allergic reaction is suspected in a child.

Treatment

• Treatment of dry skin, regardless of the cause, always begins with a change in the child's living conditions.
• Humidify the air in his room as much as possible, begin to monitor the air temperature. From the point of view of a beneficial effect on the skin, the following parameters are the best: the temperature is not higher than 21 degrees Celsius and the humidity in the air is 50-70%.
• An air humidifier will help create such conditions, since the device is inexpensive, as well as special taps - limiters that allow you to adjust the temperature in the radiators.
• Properly selected clothing and, most importantly, its quantity will help reduce sweating, which also contributes to the drying of the skin. You can not dress the child too warmly, wrap him up. You should also avoid prolonged contact with the skin of synthetic fabrics, in which perspiration and evaporation are disturbed.

• For the duration of treatment, the use of soaps and shampoos should be limited, even if they are for children, special hypoallergenic ones. Washing with soap should be done no more than once a week, you should also wash your hair with shampoo no more than once every 7 days.
• From foams, gels and other cosmetic products for the skin should be abandoned altogether.
• Dry skin should not be treated with alcohol and solutions containing alcohol, lotions.
• You can not wash the child with too hot water, soar with a broom in the bath. But the door to the bathroom during the water procedures should be kept closed in order to create additional moisture in the air.

• After bathing, places with peeling should be lubricated with any oil-based product, for example, baby cream. The use of powders with a tendency of the skin to dryness is prohibited.
• It is important to ensure that the child drinks more fluids, does not stay in the sun or wind for a long time. Usually these measures are more than enough to solve the problem with skin peeling once and for all.
• If the cause of desquamation is related to the disease, then the appropriate treatment is added to these recommendations.

For allergies

To rid the child of allergic spots with a flaky surface, doctors recommend antihistamines - Suprastin, Erius, Tavegil and others. But first of all, they try to protect the child from contact with the allergen. They review his diet, exclude products that are dangerous from the point of view of the likelihood of developing allergies. Particular attention is paid to detergents and laundry detergents so that they also do not contain allergens.

Declare war on house dust. If peeling does not go away within a week, the doctor may prescribe ointments on a hormonal basis - "Advantan", "Triderm". In severe cases, the child is given antihistamines together with calcium preparations, and treatment with glucocorticosteroid hormones, in particular, Prednisolone, is also prescribed.

For a fungal or bacterial infection

If laboratory tests reveal a fungal or bacterial skin lesion, the doctor prescribes appropriate therapy. With mycoses, the child undergoes a fairly long antifungal treatment, both with external preparations and preparations for oral administration. After the prescribed course, a short break is made and then the treatment is repeated to prevent relapse.

Bacterial infections often require antibiotic use- most often in ointments, as well as antiseptics (aniline dyes, hydrogen peroxide).

With vitamin deficiency desquamation

It is often possible to restore the balance of vitamins A and E after the appointment of topical oil solutions of these vitamins. They are applied and easily rubbed into flaky places after bathing, when the skin is steamed and saturated with moisture. Care should be taken to lubricate the peeling areas on the face and behind the ears.

The child is then discharged vitamin complexes by age, and give advice to parents on the organization of nutrition of the baby- buckwheat porridge, red and orange vegetables, butter, fatty dairy products, fresh herbs and fruits, cod liver - this is exactly what should be on the child's table with a deficiency of vitamins A and E.

Usually, after the elimination of the disease or condition that caused the deterioration of the appearance of the skin, peeling stops.

Prevention

So that the skin of a son or daughter always remains elastic and does not peel off, you should observe measures to prevent dry skin:

• Do not overheat or overcool the child.
• Do not experiment with cosmetics and various detergents.
• Ventilate more often and do wet cleaning at home.
• Make sure your child is drinking enough fluids.
• Do not wipe baby skin with vodka and alcohol.
• Do not give your child any medication without a doctor's prescription.
• Harden the baby from birth (the skin develops local immunity up to 5-6 years, it is the first five years that are very important for hardening procedures).
• Monitor nutrition - do not give allergenic foods, and also control that the diet contains a sufficient amount of microelements and vitamins necessary for normal growth and development.

How to care for dry atopic skin, see the following video.

Peeling of the skin is an excessive exfoliation of dying cells of the epidermis. With children of any age, this kind of trouble happens very often. The reasons for this phenomenon can be very different. Only one thing unites all cases: if a child has flaky skin, this, as a rule, is not so much an independent problem as a sign of the presence of some kind of malfunction in the body.

What can peeling of the skin in a child mean?

A baby is born with thin and delicate skin, not quite adapted to the influence of aggressive environmental factors. The covers of the crumbs easily lose moisture and react painfully to any adverse conditions.

The reason for the drying of the skin can be overheating, hypothermia, being outdoors in strong winds. Sometimes the culprit of the trouble is a caring mother or grandmother, who adds potassium permanganate, a decoction of oak bark or other disinfectants to the water intended for bathing the little one.

It also happens that a child's skin is peeling due to detergents that are used to wash his bed linen and clothes. In such cases, correcting the situation is quite easy: it is enough to identify and eliminate the source of irritation.

Often the answer to the question of why a child's skin is peeling lies in a slightly different area: the problem arises from unusual or inappropriate food. This phenomenon can be observed with children of any age, but infants most often suffer. Peeling of the skin is combined with other signs of diathesis: indigestion, itching, rash, etc.

The cause of peeling of the skin on the baby's head in many cases is seborrheic dermatitis - a disorder in which the integument produces too much sebum. This trouble usually goes away on its own when the baby turns one year old.

However, it is not always possible to cope with the problem. If your child has flaky skin, this may be a sign of the following serious diseases:

• Dermatitis (including allergic);
• Psoriasis;
• ringworm;
• fungal infection;
• Systemic lupus erythematosus;
• Ichthyosis;
• Hormonal disorders (eg, hypothyroidism);
• Avitaminosis;
• helminthic invasions;
• diabetes mellitus;
• intestinal dysbacteriosis;
• iron deficiency anemia;
• Pathologies of the kidneys, gallbladder or liver.

Peeling of the skin in children is also caused by some infectious diseases (for example, chickenpox or scarlet fever).

What to do if the child's skin is flaky?

Considering that the cause of a minor (at first glance) trouble may be a serious illness, parents who find peeling of the skin in a child should immediately show it to a doctor. If the problem is caused by a pathology of the internal organs, a metabolic disorder, or an infectious disease, trying to get rid of skin irritation will be useless at best. The specialist will be able to diagnose the underlying disease and prescribe a comprehensive effective treatment.

In the case when the cause of peeling is a reaction to food, it is enough to remove problematic foods from the diet so that the disease subsides. However, it does not follow from this that the food reaction will be repeated if you start introducing unusual food into the child's menu some time later. It is possible that the baby's body will gradually adapt, and food reactions will lose their sharpness.

One of the most common problems in newborns is peeling of the skin after birth. The skin of almost all newborns flakes off, the duration of time is different for everyone: from a month to the end of the entire infant period.

Normally, the skin of babies is smooth, tender, velvety. In the womb, the child is covered with a special lubricant, which, when born, is washed off, absorbed, erased, and the dermis becomes too thin and vulnerable. After some time, peeling appears. Pediatricians do not recommend specifically removing this lubricant, since it performs protective functions during the period of adaptation from a “water” lifestyle to an “air” one.

Peeling skin in a newborn - causes

If the skin of a newborn is peeling, the reasons can be very diverse:

1. Adaptation of the skin to a new environment is the most common cause of peeling. This is a natural and normal process. It is expressed differently in each child, to a greater or lesser extent. If the child is calm, there is no redness of the skin - there is no reason for concern. After a while everything will be back to normal.

2. Insufficient skin care of a newborn is a more serious cause of skin peeling. This happens if a child is bathed with manganese added to the water - it dries out the skin, which can lead to peeling.

3. Detergents are a common cause of skin flaking.

4. Wind and cold in the cold season, wind and sun in the warm season can cause peeling of the delicate skin of a newborn.

5. Dry air in the children's room is one of the reasons for peeling: the humidity should normally be 55 - 70%. Since the air is always dry in winter due to running heating, it must be humidified.

6. Allergic reactions to food. Most often this occurs during breastfeeding and depends on the foods that the nursing mother eats. With mixed or artificial feeding, allergies, and, accordingly, rashes and peeling of the skin can occur on some kind of mixture. Allergies are dangerous with the possible development of Quincke's edema - this is an emergency condition that requires immediate medical attention.

7. Newborn clothes can also cause redness, itching, rashes and flaking of the skin. This applies to artificial materials - they are contraindicated for children and require immediate replacement with clothes made from natural fabrics. Most often this applies to hats.

If all of the above causes are absent or eliminated, but despite this, the skin of the newborn continues to peel off, the causes may be in some diseases. Most often, the skin of a newborn is flaky if it has:

- fungus;

- ringworm;

- scabies;

- atopic dermatitis;

- ichthyosis;

- genetic problems of a hereditary nature.

In order to solve an unpleasant problem in which the skin of a newborn is peeling, the causes of this must be determined in time, and treatment prescribed as soon as possible.

Peeling skin in a newborn - symptoms

If the skin of a newborn is peeling, the symptoms of this phenomenon often depend on the reasons that led to the peeling:

1. Adaptive peeling

- appears at the age of three to four weeks;

- initially appears on the arms and legs, later spreads to the trunk and head;

- the general condition of the newborn is not disturbed.

2. With low humidity in the room, the mucous membranes of the nasopharynx dry out first, which leads to the unhindered penetration of viruses and bacteria. Therefore, in addition to the fact that the skin of newborns begins to peel off, the symptoms of colds or dryness of the mucous membranes of the nasopharynx also come to the fore.

3. With increased dryness of the air, not only persistent peeling of the skin occurs, but even exfoliation of the epidermis, which is dangerous by the addition of an infection, especially with various, even minor, damage to thinned delicate skin - scratches, diaper rash, all kinds of dermatitis.

4. Due to constant thirst (due to dry air), sleep and nutrition of the child are disturbed.

5. Allergic reactions leading to flaky skin in newborns - symptoms may begin with redness and swelling after eating, bathing or walking. Later, peeling of the skin develops in those places where there was originally redness and swelling.

Peeling skin in a newborn - treatment

If the skin of a newborn is flaky, treatment should be started immediately after the appearance of scales. The treatment for flaky skin is to moisturize and soften it. As practice shows, most peelings pass with time on their own. But still, you don’t have to wait for the problem to resolve itself. Careful care of the newborn and constant hydration of the skin are necessary to avoid unpleasant consequences.

1. First of all, when bathing a child, it is necessary to exclude manganese, which is sometimes used on the advice of grandmothers, and other detergents.

2. After bathing, it is best to treat the skin with oil, after warming it up. Oil is applied to a swab and lubricated behind the ears, in the folds and fingertips. After that, the oil is applied to the whole body with massage movements. For this purpose, the following oils are used, the use of which effectively heals peeling:

- vaseline;

- sunflower;

- olive;

- peach.

There are special baby oils, but they sometimes have a strong smell, which the manufacturer uses for fragrance. It is undesirable to use oil with a smell for a newborn, because it can cause allergies.

4. For the treatment of skin peeling in a newborn, special baby creams and ointments are used. They act quickly, do not cause allergies and any side effects. The most effective are creams and ointments containing panthenol: depanthenol, bepanthen, etc.

5. If an allergy has become the cause of peeling, first of all it is necessary to establish the source of the allergen and remove it. The pediatrician will prescribe antihistamines in adequate dosages for a certain period.

6. If it is established that the child has a disease, due to which the skin of the newborn is flaky, treatment should be directed to the underlying disease.

Peeling skin in a newborn - prevention

Despite the fact that the treatment of peeling skin in a newborn in most cases is not expensive, it is still easier to prevent this problem than to treat it. Therefore, in cases where the skin of a newborn is peeling, prevention depends on the cause that caused the peeling.

The main preventive measures to prevent peeling of the skin:

1. The first bath of a newborn should be no earlier than a week after birth, so as not to wash off the protective fatty layer. During this period, you can only wash the newborn and wipe the folds with oil or baby cream.

2. Bathing in clean water. Do not use tap water, as chlorine irritates delicate baby skin. Use boiled or filtered water.

3. Use the bathing agent no more than twice a week.

4. After bathing, blot the skin with a soft towel and lubricate with a moisturizer.

5. Refuse wet wipes that dry out the skin. Or use special baby wipes that do not contain alcohol and fragrances.

6. Change diapers as needed, but allow the skin to “breathe” for a few minutes without a diaper.

7. When washing children's clothes, exclude conditioners and aggressive powders. It is better to use baby or laundry soap. Otherwise, an allergy may develop.

8. Do not use clothes and underwear made of artificial materials.

9. Frequent walks in the fresh air will accelerate the adaptation of the skin to the environment, increase immunity.

10. Do not apply protective equipment to the skin before going for a walk - you must do this in advance.

11. Mandatory humidification of the air, which has a beneficial effect on the skin of the child.

12. A nursing mother needs to adhere to a certain diet in order to prevent the development of food allergies in a newborn.

Prevention does not require much effort. It is only necessary to slightly change the daily care and remove some factors of influence. And remember: if a newborn child has a rash or peeling, it is necessary to follow all the appointments and advice of the pediatrician. In this case, peeling can be cured, as well as avoid unpleasant consequences.