How to Help a Baby with Eczema Sleep

As parents, we want the very best for our babies and children. When they are sick or uncomfortable, it is difficult to watch. This is particularly true for ailments which happen over a long period of time. Eczema can affect a lot of your child’s activities. There are many treatments for it, but there will inevitably be times when it rears its ugly head once again. Having a child with any form of chronic illness, even when it’s something as mild as eczema, can be very stressful for parents. The feelings of helplessness you endure when you watch your child in pain or discomfort are truly difficult to overcome.

However, thankfully, all is not lost. There are many ways you can help your little one and ensure their condition does not negatively impact their quality of life. Eczema is only a skin condition, but it can often be painful, and is always unbearably itchy. As such, it’s important to know how to best address the symptoms of eczema so that your baby can be as comfortable as possible.

The Importance of Sleep

The importance of sleep is something we can all agree on, but it is particularly important for babies and young children. During sleep, a growth hormone called somatotrophin is released through the pituitary gland. In order for a baby to develop healthily, they needs to get enough rest to ensure that this hormone is released and distributed properly. As such, if your baby has eczema and it is affecting their sleeping, it could be having an impact on their overall growth and development. This is one of many reasons why it is important to find ways to increase the comfort of a baby with eczema when they are going to sleep.

Eczema in Babies

Eczema is a skin condition that usually appears before a child reaches five years old. It can appear in various places around the body, but it is often more prevalent on joints like the elbows and knees. Nearly one out of five children exhibit symptoms of eczema, and the specific cause remains unknown. Skin conditions in adulthood are often triggered by stress, but a baby is not yet aware of this emotion and so it is often characterized as a genetic disorder. Still, there are many possible causes and triggers ranging from the environment to chemicals in food.

If you start to notice rashes or pink spots on your baby’s skin, it is likely that they have eczema or some other common skin disorder. The umbrella term for skin disorders is dermatitis, which is really just an abnormality of the skin. Most skin disorders go away and may come back later in life, or disappear and never come back again. Their appearance and severity is seemingly random, so the best thing you can do as a parent is to treat the symptoms and ensure your baby is as comfortable as possible.

Tips for Helping a Baby with Eczema Sleep

Up to 83% of children who suffer from eczema have difficulty falling or staying asleep. In order to make their environment more conducive to the relaxation and tranquility required for a good night’s sleep, here are some tips you can try out on your baby:

Specialized Skin Care

Oatmeal and hydrocortizone are just two popular ingredients added to moisturizers for sensitive skin. Moisturizing skin helps to strengthen and rejuvenate the tissue. Eczema often causes skin to crack because it is so dry, so moisturizing it just before bedtime will help to reduce the itch. You should also look into products with aloe vera for its healing properties. Always ensure that the product you choose is suitable for the age range of your baby. There are even multiple resources online which provide recipes for homemade recipes using only natural ingredients, so these are also worth researching.

A Cool Environment

Overheating can really add to a baby’s discomfort when they are already struggling to sleep. Moreover, too much heat will cause your baby to sweat, and sweating intensifies the itchy painfulness of eczema. As such, it’s important to make sure that the environment your baby is sleeping in is cool enough. We are coming into the summer season, when even indoors can seem muggy, so it’s all the more important to set your air conditioning system to a temperature that will ensure a baby stays cool.

Non-Itchy Fabrics

When you have itchy skin, the last thing you want is an itchy wool blanket wrapped around you. For a baby with eczema, choose a soft and natural fabric that soothes their skin. One such fabric is bamboo. Bamboo is an environmentally friendly material that is made without any chemicals. Its gentleness and luxuriousness will help your baby nod off to sleep much better than fabrics that itch their already compromised skin. Not only this, but bamboo fibers are three degrees lighter than traditional cotton, which can make all the difference to a baby who is uncomfortably warm and itchy.

Warm Water

Simply applying some warm water to the affected areas is a marvellous way of soothing an itch. You can do this either by bathing your baby directly before bedtime, or simply dipping a soft cloth in warm water and dabbing it on the areas that seem to be most itchy.

Our Story

Here at Kyte BABY, we are genuinely emotionally invested in babies. Eczema is a disorder which we truly care about, as you can see in our company history. The owner actually started this company as a means of combatting chronic eczema in her own child, so when we tell you that our products are eczema-friendly and will help your child, we mean it sincerely.