Parents often ask:
Found that the child has small white spots on the face, is it vitiligo?
In fact, there are a variety of diseases that can cause white spots, white spots, or white patches on children's skin. The most common is pityriasis albicans (also known as pityriasis simplex), and only a few cases are vitiligo.
So how to distinguish between these two diseases?
1. Pityriasis white
Pityriasis albicans is a mildly desquamation of white flaky skin inflammation that is mostly 0.5 cm to 2 cm in size. It can occur individually or in multiple cases, more common in children, rare in adults, and not contagious.
Its performance is generally slightly whitish, the boundary is not very clear, there are some small debris on it, most of which occur on the face, but also occur in the upper arms, torso, neck and other places, in the dark skin of the child, will appear particularly obvious.
Pityriasis albicans is generally free of abnormal sensations and does not require treatment to heal itself, usually ranging from a few months to several years.
2. Vitiligo
Vitiligo has a smooth surface and no desquamation, which is the main difference between it and pityriasis white.
Vitiligo in children is defined as vitiligo that occurs before the age of 12 years and accounts for about 32% to 40% of all vitiligo patients. A common starting point is the head and neck, especially the eyelids.
Children's vitiligo is often accompanied by white hair, most of which are non-segmental vitiligo, reflecting the involvement of the melanocyte reserve of hair follicles, which can be manifested as scattered white hair, flaky gray hair, or even full head of white hair, in other areas of hair, hair whitish can appear not only in the white spot area but also in the clinically normal appearance of the skin.
Vitiligo is a chronic disease with a long treatment cycle. If the diagnosis is confirmed, it is necessary to carry out active treatment according to the doctor's recommendations, such as drug therapy (topical drugs are generally hormone-based), light therapy, decolorization treatment, etc.
Because the child patients are often prone to the head, face, neck, which not only affects the appearance, but also may cause adverse effects on psychology, as a parent, in addition to actively treating children, but also to do a good job of children's psychological counseling, they should not show too nervous, anxious, full of worry, so as to help children improve their quality of life, alleviate the psychological pressure caused by the disease.
In addition, there is another kind - tinea versicolor (commonly known as "sweat spots").
Tinea versicolor is a chronic fungal infectious disease in the superficial parts of the skin caused by malassezia, which is normally parasitic in the human body.
It tends to occur in moist and sebaceous areas such as the forehead, neck, upper chest, and groin. Typical manifestations are small pale white patches of round or nearly circular shapes, diffuse and symmetrically distributed over the above-mentioned prone areas, covered with thin desquamation, with clear boundaries, and some can be fused into larger patches.
Tinea versicolor has no effect on children's growth and development and intelligence, and can generally be left untreated. Usually pay attention to cleaning and change clothes frequently.
Kangaroo Ma Ma has something to say:
If the child's skin is abnormal, if the judgment is not accurate, it is necessary to seek a doctor in time to clarify the cause, do not blindly guess or self-medicate, so as not to add unnecessary anxiety and delay treatment.