FL: What can be done for eczema during the winter?
Skin So Soft Warding Off the Dry-Skin Blues D
oes your child have itchy, dry skin in the winter? Santa Rosa dermatologist Dr. Jeffrey Sugarman is here to help.
Family Life: What kind of tips do you have for taking care of kids’ skin during winter, when indoor heat may dry it out?
their lips. Using a fragrance-free lip moisturizer is very helpful.
Dr. Jeffrey Sugarman: One tip is to turn down the thermostat a little bit. If the temperature is 68°F–72°F, it’s going to be better for your skin than if it is blasting hot. You could also invest in a humidifier, which will help add moisture to the air inside your house. You don’t want to invest in 20 humidifiers so you might just run a humidifier where you spend the most time, like the bedroom. You want to moisturize really frequently. I moisturize my hands every time I wash them to keep them happy, especially during the winter. I think a lot of people forget to moisturize
JS: Yes, absolutely. Children have a higher body surface-to-volume ratio so…their skin may dry out and be even more susceptible to these things we are talking about. You can take a shorter shower or a not-so-hot shower. A [too-hot shower] definitely dries out your skin. If your skin is beet red when you get out of the shower, the temperature is definitely too hot. I really like to use cleansers in the shower or bath that are fragrance-free. Even cleansers that say “unscented” still can contain fragrance. So if you have someone who has sensitive skin, you really want to make sure [the product] says “fragrance free.”
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FL: And all of these suggestions apply to children, correct?
JS: Eczema definitely gets worse during the wintertime for a pretty large cohort of children. So parents really need to make sure children are moisturized when they get out of the bath or shower. Within a minute or two [of getting out], blot the skin damp, and then put on a good moisturizer. And your choice of moisturizers is really going to depend on the age of the child and also how dry their skin is. So if you have an infant or toddler with really dry skin you are going to want to use a really thick, greasy moisturizer—Aquaphor
If your skin is beet red when you get out of the shower, the temperature is definitely too hot. or Vaseline—and if you’ve got an older child with not-so-dry skin you would want to recommend something more cosmetically elegant like Cetaphil lotion. There are a lot of really good products out there. Again you want to look for fragrance-free, and you want to find something that your children will like because if they don’t want to put it on, that’s really going to decrease compliance. It’s got to feel good and make them feel good. FL: Would you explain the phrase “cosmetically elegant”? JS: That means something that is really spreadable and it works its way into the skin easily and doesn’t leave your skin feeling really greasy. I have some people that say, “Can I use coconut oil or olive oil on my
February 2020 www.sonomafamilylife.com
