Baby Skin Care

Expectant and new parents alike often have lots of questions about baby skin care. Baby skin care is a ‘hot topic’ and advice can be conflicting – Is water only best for washing? Are all wash products bad? Should you moisturise babies and with what?  Baby skin care is an area where advice, even professional advice, is given on opinion and experience rather than evidence – so what are the facts concerning baby skin care?

All babies have an immature skin barrier and thus are vulnerable to dry and irritated skin. It is believed that about 60% of children with atopic eczema develop it in the first six months of life. According to the National Eczema Society one in five children in the UK sufferes with eczema. The reasons for developing eczema are a combination of genetic and environment factors, so if you have eczema in your family, it may well develop if triggered by a factor in the environment. Therefore this leads to the question – can atopic eczema be prevented? The short answer is we don’t know and currently there are studies looking at if preventative measures can make a difference, the results won’t be known for a good few years, as babies are being studied into childhood.

However, we do know that a trigger for eczema developing is dry skin and a vulnerable skin barrier. So baby skin care should try and prevent dry skin and protect the skin barrier. Washing is important, detergents (including soap and bubble baths) should be avoided. Use either water alone or a pH adjusted wash product especially designed for babies. Dry skin should be treated with a medical emollient or fragrance-free moisturiser designed for a baby.

New cotton baby wear designed with a polymer layer of DreamSkin Health (currently only available at TESCOs) can benefit delicate baby skin. Dream Skin garments improve moisture retention of the skin; help reduce skin itching and irritation, are resistance to common irritants and help maintain comfortable body temperature. To visist F&F's DreamSkin range following the link http://www.clothingattesco.com/baby/dreamskin/icat/dreamskin

By Eczema Expert