Not only adults but also children are susceptible to vitiligo. So the cause of vitiligo in children like? How is the definitive treatment? Let’s find out more information about these issues in the article below.
Table of Contents
I / Vitiligo in children and other information to know
Vitiligo is a skin disease caused by Pityrosporum ovale cause. Anyone can get it, and tinea versicolor is also common.
Although it is not life-threatening, the itchy, unpleasant feeling will make your baby often fussy and cry. It will affect the baby’s health and development. And yet, vitiligo can also change or lose pigmentation on the skin. This will lose the aesthetics, causing the child to become confident when they grow up. Therefore, treating your baby early and properly will help avoid unwanted problems.
Symptom
Just like adults, the manifestations of vitiligo in young children are easy to recognize. These symptoms often manifest in the skin, so with a little attention it can be detected.
Usually, children with vitiligo typically have patches of skin with different colors:
- If a child’s skin is dark, patches of lighter skin will be seen. For babies with white skin, dark patches of skin appear.
- Slightly scaly or naturally flaky skin
- Pigmentation patches are not the same size and they have prominent edging.
- There is a slight itchy, or slightly itchy, sensation in areas where the skin is pigmented
- The longer it is left on, the more affected the skin will spread. If exposed to sunlight, the condition is even worse.
The affected skin areas are usually the back, neck, chest, face … rare in the legs and thighs. Because a child’s skin is fragile, it is very vulnerable. Moreover, skin symptoms are also uncomfortable, making children not eat and sleep well. Therefore, mothers need to pay attention to detect and treat the baby early.
The cause of vitiligo in children
The direct cause of vitiligo is due to an overgrowth of the yeast pityrosporum ovale on the skin. However, there are many factors that increase your baby’s risk of disease. Here are the common factors:
- Get plenty of sun exposure
- Due to the weather: The weather is hot, humid, high temperature, and heavy rain are favorable conditions for pityrosporum ovale fungus to grow. Meanwhile, the resistance in children is weak, the skin is susceptible to damage by pathogens.
- Improper personal hygiene: Children are not cleaned regularly, babies are not allowed to dry their bodies after bathing or not change diapers often.
- Dress your baby in tight, layered clothes: Children often sweat after exercise. Wearing a lot of clothes or tight clothes will prevent sweat from escaping. This makes the body wet, making pityrosporum ovale easy to grow and cause disease.
- Vitiligo can also be derived from the child’s location: The baby has oily skin, plus hormonal changes will increase the risk for the child.
Vitiligo in young children can have many causes. Therefore, knowing the cause of the disease will help parents be more proactive in treatment.
Is vitiligo contagious?
This is a problem that makes many people wonder. Vitiligo occurs due to a fungal infection of the skin, so they are highly infectious. Therefore, without precautions, it can spread to other parts of the body or from person to person. Pathways of human-to-human transmission of vitiligo include:
- Direct contact with patient’s skin
- Sharing clothes, towels
- Sharing bed, sharing pillows
The spread of vitiligo increases when there are favorable factors such as: Sweating in hot weather, people have to do heavy work such as construction workers …
II / Treatment of vitiligo in children
Children are sensitive and vulnerable subjects. Therefore, the treatment of vitiligo in children also needs to be properly done so as not to adversely affect the baby. Here are the common remedies for vitiligo in children:
Use medicine
If the child has vitiligo, the doctor often prescribes the use of medicines in the form of a solution or a topical medicine to treat the fungus pityrosporum ovale such as: Fluconazole, ketoconazole, Terbinafine, ciclopirox … Attention should be paid to apply the drug every day, once a day. on infected skin.
Usually, after about a week of applying the medicine, the baby’s skin will return to normal. But to limit the risk of recurrence, it is necessary to apply medication to the child within 3 weeks to destroy all the yeast. During treatment, it is recommended to allow the diseased skin to clear to reduce the spread of the disease.
If your child’s skin is severely damaged, and the depigmentation has spread over a large area, oral antifungal medication may be needed. These drugs may be Ketoconazole, Griseofulvin …
However, even using topical solutions or creams, parents should also be cautious. Should consult a doctor or pharmacist carefully to know how to use, and do not arbitrarily buy drugs to treat children.
Application of folk remedies to cure vitiligo in children
If you are afraid that the treatment of vitiligo for children with drugs may cause side effects, mothers can consult and apply folk remedies for vitiligo. This is a very simple, easy and safe method to avoid the risk of harming your baby’s skin. Here are the common folk remedies for vitiligo:
+) Use green banana to treat benign:
To cure tinea versicolor with green bananas for children, mothers can do the following: Prepare green bananas, note that they should choose not too old fruits so that they have a lot of pus. Then, cut them in half and rub the pus on the skin to be treated. Do about 2-3 times a day, persistently apply for about 7 days will see them bring good effects.
+) Medicinal herbs from medicinal herbs to treat vitiligo in children:
In addition to green bananas, cure vitiligo in children with laksa leaves is also a good remedy. According to Oriental medicine, this vegetable has a spicy taste, warmth, has antiseptic and antiseptic effects. Therefore, using it to cure diseases is also the way mothers should try.
The way to do it is also very simple: The mothers just need to prepare fresh lettuce leaves, wash them, and drain them. Then crush it, bring it soaked with a little alcohol and then apply directly to the affected skin. Perform regularly about 2-3 times per day, after about 1 week will see the skin lesions are reduced.
+) Use galangal root:
Not only used as a spice to process many dishes, galangal can also cure diseases. According to Oriental medicine, this tuber has a spicy taste, aroma, moderate effect, treatment of rheumatism, helps relieve pain, cure vitiligo, ringworm …
If your child has vitiligo, the following treatment from galangal can be applied:
- Method 1: Galangal peeled, washed, drained and crushed. Bring them to the skin need treatment about 2 times a day.
- Method 2: To increase the effect, mothers can take crushed ginger soaked with alcohol. Then also use this mixture to apply to the skin.
- Method 3: After washing ginger, crush it, squeeze the juice into the pot. Mom added some lemon juice to heat it up. Next, take a soft cloth or cotton soaked in the mixture to apply on the skin to be treated 2 times a day. Persist in doing about 1 week will see the symptoms disappear.
+) Cure vitiligo with a wand:
The leaves are washed, drained, crushed and used to apply on the skin in need of treatment. Leave for about 30 minutes, then bathe your baby with clean water. For good effect, it is recommended to apply about 2 times per day.
+) Treatment of vitiligo in children with alum:
- Option 1: Alum and sulfur are crushed. Then mix alum, sulfur, vinegar in a ratio of 2: 2: 1. Apply the mixture evenly to the affected skin 2-3 times a day, apply for about 1 week to see the relief of symptoms.
- Method 2: Prepare alum and borax according to the ratio of 4: 1. Bring borax to bake, fry alum and crush them out, put in a glass jar with a lid to use gradually. After washing the child’s skin with warm salt water, take betel leaves without crushing and apply the juice to the skin. Next, use a mixture of alum and alum just obtained to sprinkle it. Apply it regularly 2 times a day to see relief of symptoms.
Folk remedies for tinea versicolor in children are often simple and easy to do. Moreover, it rarely causes side effects in patients. However, parents need to pay attention to clean the skin of their children before taking the medicine to avoid infection. Also, it doesn’t work as quickly. Therefore, mothers need to persistently apply to their children for a long time before seeing the effects.
III / Measures to prevent vitiligo in children
Vitiligo is an easily acquired disease and is also highly contagious. Therefore, taking proper care and taking the right precautions will help the disease heal quickly. At the same time, it can limit the risk of disease for your child. Here are some measures to consider:
- Keep your child’s skin dry, you can use baby powder to apply in areas prone to sweating such as neck, armpits, groin …
- Bathing and cleaning skin for children every day. Children should be dressed in cool, sweat absorbent clothes or let them play in cool places on a hot sunny day.
- Before dressing your child, use a soft cloth to dry first.
- Your child’s personal belongings should be washed with mild soap. Besides, to dry them in the sun, iron before use. Do not let children wear wet clothing.
- Avoid letting your child sunbathe for too long to avoid irritating the skin
- Do not let your child come into direct contact with or share clothing or personal items with an infected person.
Further information: What is 7-color drug for? (Treatment of tinea versicolor, fungus …)
Although vitiligo does not cause much danger to the child’s life. But if the disease lasts for a long time, it will affect the baby’s health and aesthetics. Therefore, mothers should not have a subjective attitude but need to seek early treatment to avoid having more serious problems.
