How to distinguish between heat loss and allergies in infants?
A rosy-cheeked toddler on one not-too-beautiful morning appears before parents with an incomprehensible, and therefore frightening, rash on the face and body. The most popular version of what happened in infants - allergies and prickly heat. All parents know about it. But it is sometimes very difficult to distinguish the first from the second.
In this article we will tell you about the differences between allergic rash and prickly heat.
Differences of causes
A rash, which appeared on the background of an allergic reaction, and rashes as a result of a hemp, are really very similar. However, after weighing all the factors, parents may well determine the true causes of the appearance of skin manifestations. And allergies and prickly heat, they are significantly different.
An allergic rash is usually preceded in 2-3 days by some kind of event, which became the "starting point" for the inadequate reaction of the child’s immunity to a certain allergen. Such an event in the life of a baby can be:
- introduction of a new food product, complementary foods, changes in the diet of a nursing mother, change of adapted milk formula;
- taking your baby's medicine;
- buying a new toy;
- change of cosmetic skin care products;
- change of facilities for washing baby clothes, washing floors in the children's room;
- exposure to the open sun (the so-called photoallergic reaction, allergy to UV rays);
- close contact of the child with the pollen of plants (especially field grasses), animals, birds.
Allergic reaction in this case develops smoothly, that is rash does not appear immediately, but only after 2-3 days after the first "acquaintance" of child immunity with protein antigen.
A rapid allergic reaction can develop through direct skin contact with something toxic, chemical, for example, with alkaline or acidic compounds, as well as with the bite of some insects.
It can be preceded by a situation when the child was sweating heavily, he was hot. This is possible during the illness, if the baby had a high temperature, as well as if the parents did not comply with the temperature and humidity in the room where the baby lives.
If the child is hot, his body is trying in every way to reduce the temperature, for this there is a more active production of sweat. But the sweat evaporates in newborns and babies up to a year worse than in adults because the ducts of the sweat glands are narrow and the thermoregulation is imperfect.
Causes of prickly heat thus lie in:
- improperly chosen clothes in which the child is hot;
- exceeding the optimum values of air temperature in the room, heaters, which strongly dry the air;
- insufficient hygiene, which leads to blockage of sweat glands, the accumulation of sweat in the folds of the skin of a child.
Symptom Differences
Allergies and prickly heat begin about the same - with the appearance of skin rashes. Chicken head develops almost immediately after overheating, allergies can be delayed for a few days or even a week. And in fact, and in another case, the child may experience itching, discomfort in the area of redness. With prickly heat, pain is more pronounced.
The undernush manifests itself primarily in areas where sweating is higher. This is the zone of hair growth on the head, eyebrows, rashes affect the nose, as well as the neck fold and other folds on the body of the baby, as well as the buttocks, groin area.
Allergic rash is different because it extends not only to the folds, and not even always to them. Most often, an allergy to something in a child under one year old is manifested by a rash on the face (especially on the cheeks, on the forehead, on the chin), stomach, arms, legs, or back.
With allergies, there may be additional symptoms: runny nose, dry allergic cough, headache, the child may look more tired, moody, his appetite often deteriorates, and his digestion suffers. To distinguish between heat and allergies can be by the absence of nasal congestion, cough, symptoms of intoxication.
A quick, rather than delayed, allergic reaction occurs within an hour and a half after contact with the allergen. It differs from other species by its appearance - colorless bumps, more like nettle burns, appear suddenly.
They can also be accompanied by nausea, eating disorders, headache. The behavior of the baby changes, it becomes capricious and whiny.
What does this look like?
If you look closely at the rash itself, you can also understand that the difference between allergies and prickly heat in a newborn is there, and it is significant. When prickly heat, the rash has delineated boundaries and its individual elements are well visible - blisters, bumps, red spots. Bursting, the blisters in the folds of the skin turn into a weeping eczema:
- with crystalline prickly heat, rash appears as white or yellowish blisters;
- with red prickly heat, like reddish skin nodules;
- with deep prickly heat - as spots slightly more saturated, but still flesh-colored.
Even the drain areas, where the elements of the rash merged, united, you can see their outlines.
Allergic rash clearly delineated elements practically has not. It looks like redness, erythema, spot. Quite often there is inflammation, a slight swelling of the skin in the affected area.
Like pottery, allergies can expand in the area, coalesce, seize adjacent areas of healthy skin, however, allergic rash can appear in places far from perspiration - on the abdomen, on the sides, on the extremities, while persnita is able to merge and spread only in with difficult access of air - in the folds of the skin, under the diaper, in the hair.
If you visually distinguish a rash in allergies from tuna, it didn’t work, just leave the child naked for an hour or two:
- When you are exposed to fresh air, prickly heat quickly begins to dry up, become covered with a crust, lighten, small elements can turn pale and start to fade.
- An allergic rash will remain unchanged because air baths have no effect on it.
Treatment
If we are talking about a newborn (a child up to 28 days old), then a medical consultation is mandatory in both cases. Infants older than a month, parents may well be able to help themselves with prickly heat.
Allergy - a task for the doctor, and the task with a mass of unknown, because the examination and search for an allergen is still to be done if the mother is not sure that she knows exactly the cause of the rash.
With prickly heat
Parents should adjust the indoor climate. The air temperature should not exceed 21 degrees Celsius, the relative humidity of the air at which the child will not sweat a lot is 50-70%.
Such parameters will help to maintain the normal condition of the skin, and the existing elements of the rash will quickly disappear if mom and dad bathe the baby without soap, adding chamomile or a string to the water.
After bathing, the skin should not be wiped with a towel, it should be carefully soaked and treated with a drying plant or softening agents.
If moist skin forms, use powder or "Sudokrem», if the pottery has already dried up and a crust has formed, then its gently softening baby cream or healing and anti-inflammatory «Bepantenom" or "Panthenol».
For prickly heat, be sure to hold air baths, give the baby the opportunity to stay naked.
The appearance of prickly heat is a sure sign that the parents are not properly wearing the baby, they are wrapping it up. It should be left in the wardrobe only clothes and diapers made of natural fabrics, remove the extra layer of caps and vests, even if the grandmother and grandfather of the baby actively protest against this.
With allergies
The difference in the treatment of allergies from prickly heat treatment is that medications may be needed. Usually the child is prescribed antihistamines "Suprastin", "Tavegil" or others. Diathesis on the face and other parts of the body becomes less if the nutrition of the child is adjusted.
All potentially dangerous food products are excluded from the diet of the nursing mother, and the baby-artificial may need to replace one brand of adapted milk formula with another, hypoallergenic.
Care for the skin of the baby-allergy should be more carefully. Make sure that the bathing water is not very hot, not to use not only baby soap, but also other children's cosmetic products.
It is also better to abandon the use of folk remedies, in particular decoctions of chamomile and other medicinal herbs, since all medicinal herbs also pose a danger in terms of increasing allergies.
After bathing in the evening and several times during the day, the rash is treated with an antiseptic, if it is extensive, smeared with anti-histamine action ointments. Sometimes it may require the use of hormonal ointments. The task of local treatment in this case - as soon as possible to save the baby from itching.
Regardless of the type of allergen that caused the rash, infants should be protected from any hazardous substances - household chemicals, household dust, animal hair, and so on.
How to distinguish between prickly heat and allergies in infants, see the next video.
