Supporting parents and carers of children with eczema

Caring for a child with a chronic condition like eczema is extremely demanding for parents and carers, particularly for families where both parents work, for single parent families, or for those with more than one affected child. Living with eczema can also have a significant emotional impact on the child, on parents who may feel distressed at their child's suffering and helpless to prevent it and who may also feel guilty or blame themselves if they too suffered from eczema as a child, and on siblings who may feel jealous or excluded.

Parents and carers may have concerns about how to talk to their child about eczema or be worried about their child’s self-esteem and social skill development. Providing advice, reassurance and practical support can encourage parents or carers to help their child adhere to treatment, thus controlling their eczema and enabling them get on with leading a normal life.

• Encourage their child to keep a diary – older children can note down how they feel and see how this changes when their eczema improves, helping the child to stay positive about their condition. Online diaries and treatment application charts are available on our patient website Eczemazones.co.uk. Click here to find out more.
• Be patient with younger children – it is hard to explain to young children what's making them itch, why they need treatment and why scratching is bad for them. Forcing young children to accept treatment or trying to stop them scratching can make them irritable, angry and upset. Instead adding an element of fun to treatment, like making faces in their emollient or making up a rhyme or song may help to engage a child.
• Balance support and understanding with tough love – Children may use their eczema to gain attention or to get their own way and there is evidence to suggest that mothers of children with eczema feel unable to enforce discipline.¹
• Talk to the school about concentration and treatment – sleepless nights and daytime itching can have a real impact on how children perform at school.^1,9 Parents can make arrangements for their child not to sit next to a radiator or a window or to avoid sitting on a dusty carpet at story time, as all these can exacerbate eczema. It is also important for treatment to continue during the school day so special arrangements may need to be made.
  Support from the NES

  Children with eczema can join the National Eczema Society (NES) to get further information and take part in national activities.
• Proactively talk about their child’s school experience - School age children are very aware of what is going on around them and anything that makes them feel different to other children. Children in their class who don't know what eczema is or why people have it may point and stare or ask questions. A child with eczema may find it easier to cope if they can talk to someone if they are having difficulties and if they feel able to respond to queries and questions from other children.
• Carry on as normal – living with eczema does not mean missing out – many activities are still possible. Swimming is an obvious activity for some people to avoid, however, applying an ointment emollient before swimming to protect the skin and a cream afterwards to moisturise the skin means children with eczema don’t need to avoid the swimming pool.

Supporting people » « Talking about triggers

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