Simple skincare routine could stop babies developing eczema

The application of a moisturizer on the skin of a baby every day could reduce its risk of developing eczema, but this seems to depend in the genetically at risk of the state.

Eczema, or atopic dermatitis, is an inflammatory condition characterized by itching and dry skin that can be bloured or bleeding. It usually starts in early childhood, with symptoms that were generally spread out with age.

To explore if moisturizers can help Hywel Williams at the University of Nottingham, the United Kingdom, and his colleagues recruited more than 1,200 parents in the United States whose babies did not have eczema.

Half of the babies, aged 0 to 8 weeks, had an immediate family member with eczema, so probably a higher genetic risk of the disease.

The researchers assigned to chance about half of the parents to apply one of the five moisturizers, who were available without a prescription, everywhere in the body of their babies every day. Parents could choose one of the moisturizers and exchange with each other.

The remaining parents were invited to refrain from using moisturizers unless they consider it necessary, for example if the skin of their babies seemed dry. More than half of the parents of this group said they did this until once a week.

Two years later, the researchers analyzed the health files of infants. They found that overall, 43% of those of the non-HOISTURATOR group had received a diagnosis of eczema against 36% in the moisturizing group. “It is a substantial reduction,” said Michael Cork at the University of Sheffield, in the United Kingdom.

But when the researchers analyzed the results more closely, they found that the moisturizers were only protective among the participants who had no member of the immediate family with the condition. This is aligned with the results of a previous study which revealed that moisturizers had no advantage when applied to babies with a high genetic risk of eczema.

Those who have a low genetic risk may be more likely to develop eczema due to environmental factors, such as air pollution. It is believed that moisturizers fill the gaps between skin cells, helping to prevent such irritants from entering the body and triggering an inflammation that manifests itself like eczema.

But high levels of inflammation can already exist in the body of people who have a high genetic risk of eczema, against whom moisturizers cannot protect, explains Cork.

The researchers did not monitor when the parents exchanged between different types of moisturizer, so they cannot determine which ones worked best. Additional research is necessary to disentangle this, explains Cork.

Studies should also explore whether the results apply to the inhabitants of other countries, where the degree of triggers such as air pollution can differ, explains Carsten Flohr at King’s College in London.