Transcription:
Winter Skin Care Advice from a Pediatric Dermatologist

Deborah Howell: You know, the winter season is often a joyous time full of celebrations and fun activities for many. It's also a time of difficulty for our skin, and it can be even more difficult to manage the skin troubles that might arise for your little ones. Here to speak with us today is Chief of Pediatric Dermatology at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, Dr. Teresa Wright to share some tips on how to safely protect your child's skin this winter. Welcome Dr. Wright.

Dr. Teresa Wright: Thank you. So much for having me today.

Deborah Howell: Excellent to have you on the program. Let's get right to it. What are some of the most common skin issues for children in the winter?

Dr. Teresa Wright: So the number one common thing is going to be dry skin, and everybody has dry skin in the winter. Not just kids, but kids in general have skin that tends to be more sensitive. So I tell parents, when your skin is dry, it has little cracks in it. So basically more moisture is able to escape, but also irritants from the environment can get in more easily, and that tends to cause itchiness, which can lead to scratching and that can promote rashes and other problems. So it's really important to just have a good daily routine to address dryness and try to prevent those issues

Deborah Howell: Could you tell us a little bit about a good daily routine?

Dr. Teresa Wright: Yes, absolutely. So there's a common myth that daily bathing or showering actually worsens dry skin and is bad for your skin if you have dry skin or eczema. In reality, there's actually no clinical evidence to support that, and I see lots of children with dairy, severe eczema, and in general, I recommend that they do go ahead and have a bath or shower nightly. The important thing though, is the details, right? So the details are really important when it comes to this, question. And so bath or showers need to be short, ideally less than 10 minutes and not too hot, which can apply to older kids and teenagers who often like to take long hot showers.

All products. So soap in particular, we want to use a mild cleanser that says that it is fragrance free. So it should be fragrance free and dye free. So it shouldn't smell good and it shouldn't have any color. And then after bathing, you just wanna get out, pat your skin dry, and then apply a thick ole into all of your skin, ideally from head to toe, certainly from the neck down. And by that I typically prefer a cream or an ointment preparation. So lotions tend to contain a lot of water and therefore have more preservatives in them, so they're just not as effective and they can also be more irritating. So those are kind of the really important points.

So bathing is good. The other thing I tell parents, if their kid has eczema and they're treating that with medications. The other nice thing that bathing does is when those top layers of skin cells are moist from the bath or shower, they will actually absorb what you put onto them more readily. So that bathing is important from that standpoint as well.

Deborah Howell: So do winter conditions, worsen preexisting issues like eczema?

Dr. Teresa Wright: Yes, they absolutely can. because when your skin is dry, it tends to be more itchy, and then there's a tendency to scratch, and that can definitely provoke eczema flares.

Deborah Howell: And what can parents do to help their child with these issues?

Dr. Teresa Wright: So important things, the things I've already discussed. Keeping the skin clean so, short, daily bath or shower is fine. Avoiding products that might be irritating. So primarily avoiding fragrance and dye. The other point that I like to make is that you definitely wanna look for fragrance free because unscented is not exactly the same as fragrance free. There are fragrances called masking fragrance, which is sometimes added to products to cover up odors within them. And those are actually considered fragrances from a chemical standpoint. So it's really important that products say fragrance frame. And then, you also want to use, something that's thick as an olian, so preferably a cream or an ointment. So most of those come in tubes that you have to squeeze out or jars where you have to scoop it out rather than lotions, which are less effective.

Deborah Howell: Okay. You mentioned products to steer clear of any practices to steer clear of?

Dr. Teresa Wright: I think, in general, again, letting kids take baths or showers that are really long or really hot if you're talking about an older child. We recommend, soft clothing, especially for kids who have eczema. So avoiding fabrics that might be itchy or that might be hot. You want things that are soft and breathable. So we recommend a hundred percent cotton a lot. When kids get hot, they can tend to start to have more itching and scratching as well.

Deborah Howell: When should parents seek help for their child from a dermatologist?

Dr. Teresa Wright: So I think if your child has rash, if your child has been diagnosed with eczema or you think they may have eczema, and they have rashes on the skin that are persistent and aren. Bonding to what you're doing. if you're addressing, bathing properly and moisturizing properly, but there's still rash, or a child is just really uncomfortable because of their skin then that would be, the time that I would suggesting seeking a help of a dermatologist.

Deborah Howell: And I'm hoping you can give us your top tips to protect our children's skin this winter.

Dr. Teresa Wright: Again, I think the important things are just, the routine of, trying to improve dryness and avoid irritation of the skin, so keeping baths and showers short, using fragrance-free and dye-free products for soap. And then just really moisturizing. The biggest thing is really moisturizing, keeping that skin well moisturized is gonna go a long way to preventing, discomfort from itching and then, breakouts like eczema.

Deborah Howell: Now, it's a little tricky because you want to protect the skin. you also wanna moisturize the skin, but if you're a teen, you also wanna avoid acne. So what's your advice there?

Dr. Teresa Wright: Yeah, so I see lots of teenagers who have acne and also have eczema. So the important thing there is that they follow all of the advice I just went over for their body skin. So from the neck down, but for their faces, they need to stop using thick emollients on their faces. And luckily there are many, many products available over the counter that are oil free. Products made specifically for acne prone skin that we can recommend for, moisturizers for the facial skin in teenagers.

Deborah Howell: And when your patients come to you, do you both talk with them and their parents about skin regimen?

Dr. Teresa Wright: Yes, I generally, most of my patients are less than 18, and I typically always see them in the room with their parents or parents. And so I'm talking to, the child or teenager along with their parents at the same time and answering, questions of the parents and the patient. So they're all hearing this advice together.

Deborah Howell: Good, and I'm sure for teenagers, Devastating when they do have the, especially the eczema acne combination, what do you tell them to give them some hope?

Dr. Teresa Wright: Well, eczema, I mean, there's certainly a wide spectrum of severity when it comes to eczema. You know, I tend to see a lot of kids and teenagers who've had fairly severe eczema for their entire lives. But the good news with. That is that now we have better and better treatments all the time. We have, more targeted therapies that are very effective. So, just in the last, few years, we've had a number of new treatments come out, and I'm aware of many more in the pipeline. So, there are many new treatment options on the horizon. So I think that's really encouraging from, an eczema treatment standpoint, especially for patients who have much more severe eczema.

For patients who have more mild to moderate eczema, I mean, they'll nearly always improve as long as they just follow instructions. So for them it's really about adherence. If they do, what I recommend that they do and do it, consistently, then they. Be able to control their eczema. And I think same thing for acne. The vast majority of teenagers who have kind of mild to moderate acne, as long as they follow the regimen and use their medicine, I would say it doesn't work. If you don't use it, then they will usually improve quite a lot and then they will typically, outgrow acne over time. So that's how I encourage them To have hope that their skin will get better.

Deborah Howell: Right. adherence and routine. Well, Dr. Wright, thank you so much for talking to us today about winter skin care for our children. It was really,

Dr. Teresa Wright: Thank you for having me. It was my pleasure.

Deborah Howell: This is the Peds Pod by Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. I'm Deborah Howell. Thanks for listening. Have yourself a great day.