Eczema advice video

Atopic eczema is the most common type of eczema, affecting around one in 12 adults and one in five children in the UK. In this video Dr Dawn Harper talks about how to make life easier when living with the condition.

Dr Dawn Harper says: 'Eczema is one of the most common conditions that I see in general practice, we know that 1 in 5 kids and around 1 in 10 adults suffer with eczema. Now the good news is that most children will grow out of it. But it can be quite distressing.'

What is eczema?

Dawn says: 'Eczema is basically a combination of dry and inflamed skin. When skin gets dry it's gets itchy and we scratch and make the inflammation worse. I'm often asked the difference between eczema and dermatitis and to be honest, the two terms can pretty much be used interchangeably. The most common form of eczema we see is something called atopic eczema and that's the eczema that runs in families, so if your parents suffered, you're more likely too and if you did, your children are more likely to. It's often associated with hay fever and asthma.

'There are, however, other forms of eczema. We talk about something called contact dermatitis and that is often seen around buckles of belts and jewellery. Common triggers are something like nickel. Sometimes something like that can be solved by just removing the trigger, that will be enough to cure the problem.

'Another common one I see, in hairdressers or people who use a lot of detergents, is an allergic dermatitis where people become sensitized to either hair products or detergents they are using all the time. Now of course that can be difficult if that's your job, wearing gloves as often as possible will help but you've also got to be careful not to let your skin sweat too much in latex gloves so sometimes its worth just wearing soft cotton gloves underneath rubber gloves so your skin isn't sweating.'

Eczema and diet

'Lots of parents ask me about diet and eczema and certainly some children find that their eczema flares with dairy products. If you really believe that diary products flare your eczema, it is certainly worth excluding them from your diet for a couple of weeks. You will know in a couple of weeks if it's made a difference. And if it has, rather than leaving them out of your diet completely, it is worth re-challenging your system, just gently, one product at a time to see if you can tolerate some of those products. If your eczema does genuinely flare again badly and you are considering cutting dairy products long term, then I would say please please talk to a dietician, you need a balanced diet - particularly if it is a child.'

How to cope with eczema

'The important thing about eczema and managing eczema is to keep your skin as hydrated as possible. This may sound strange but the first thing I ask parents of eczema sufferers to do is to get rid of their soap. Anyone with any skin condition tends to overwash, it's a natural reaction. You tend to want to clean it all up but actually if you use soap you will dry out the skin and what I would urge anyone to do would be to swap your soap for an aqueous, non-perfumed cream. It won't lather as well but it will keep the skin beautifully hydrated and it will go a long way in keeping the eczema under control.

'What I find particularly with young kids, is that they will wake in the night, and they are scratching before they are really fully awake, so keeping nails really short, just simple practical things like that, can really make a difference and wearing mittens or cotton gloves so you really can't get a hold on your skin and rip yourself to shreds before you are aware you are doing it.

'Extremes of temperature are generally not good news for an eczema sufferer, being very hot or sweaty or being very cold can actually cause a flare so trying to keep the environment you're in as neutral as possible temperature wise is a good thing.'

Using steroid cream for eczema 

'Another problem I am often confronted with is the use of steroid cream. If they are used responsibly, they are perfectly safe and will cause much more good than harm. What I mean by using steroid cream responsibly, is to use the weakest strength possible for the shortest duration possible and I always tell people to use it sparingly. Now my problem is one person's idea of sparingly and another's can be quite different. So as a rough guide I would say use enough steroid cream to cover the tip of your finger to cover an area of skin twice the size of the palm of your hand. We really do mean use it quite thinly.

'And using it like that, as soon as the redness and the inflammation is gone, you either step down to a weaker cream, or if you are on a very weak one, you can stop all together. Then you won't come to any harm using steroid cream for your eczema.

'At the moment, there is no cure for eczema so it's a case of managing the symptoms and one thing I see a lot of, is people who are eczema sufferers who find that when they under extreme pressure or stress, their eczema flares. So although it's not a direct cause, it is certainly an eczema-exasperating factor and if you are an eczema sufferer you need to manage your stress levels.'