"Doctor, why have I been giving my child vitamin tablets for so long and still have barbs on their hands?"
Xiao Li is a novice mother, accidentally found that the child has a lot of small barbs on his hands, because he heard the neighbors say that "children lack vitamins will grow barbs", so they directly bought a large bottle of vitamin tablets for the child. However, after eating it for almost half a month, the barbs on the child's hand were still not relieved, so the child was brought to the hospital for an interview.
After the doctor's diagnosis, he said that the long barb is only a slight superficial skin damage, not a big problem, not because of the lack of vitamins, the root cause is to ignore the moisturizing of the skin, so blind vitamin tablets are useless.
In fact, like Xiao Li's mother, there are many people who think that long barbs should supplement vitamins, in fact, the barbs on the baby's hands are reminding us to do this for the baby - moisturizing.
First, the child's hand barbs must be a lack of vitamins?
If you carefully observe the children around you in life, you will find that many children will inevitably grow barbs, but the living habits of these children are not the same, some children are more nutritionally balanced, and some children have less vitamin intake, so it is very one-sided to judge the lack of vitamins by only long barbs. There are many reasons for the long barbs on the hands, let's take a look at them together.
First of all, we must correctly understand the barb. Barbs, scientific name "periungolary barbs", medically known as nail margin inversion, are a common skin problem in both adults and children. It is common on both sides and lower ends of the fingernails, and is triangular due to dry and cracked skin.
Due to the small area and narrow shape, it can cause tears during friction, so although barbs are not a big problem. But for children with tender skin, rubbing barbs can cause tingling.
Many parents should have heard that "when the human body lacks vitamin A, the surface skin is not nutritionally sufficient, and there will be peeling, dryness, barbs and so on." This is also the reason why many parents find that their children have barbs on their hands, and their first reaction is to supplement their children with vitamins. But are the appearance of barbs only related to vitamins? The answer is no.
Many children's daily diet is more balanced, the body does not lack the necessary trace elements, but there will still be barbs on the hands, at this time parents should observe whether the child has the habit of eating hands. Most children will subconsciously suck their fingers, and generally as they get older, they will change this habit.
However, in the process of sucking fingers, it may not only cause bacteria to enter, but also promote the production of barbs. If the fingers are infiltrated by the child's saliva for a long time, they will become sensitive and thin, and if the fingers are exposed to a dry environment for a long time, they are particularly prone to skin damage, because the dryness leads to dry and cracked skin, which in turn produces barbs.
Some children are active and active, and they have more time in contact with toys, so the skin of their hands is also more rubbed. At this time, if you do not take timely skin care or take protective measures, then the child is also more likely to have barbs.
Barb is a superficial skin damage, not a big problem, but if not handled well, raw and hard tearing, it may lead to a larger area of skin damage, severe skin infection, even sepsis, many people in the barb after pulling out, there will be finger skin redness, swelling and pain symptoms, this is actually the early reaction to infection. Therefore, it is crucial to handle the barbs on the hands correctly.
With barbs, the most taboo is to tear by hand. When the baby's hands appear barbs, the scientific approach is to let the baby soak his hands in warm water, wait for three to five minutes, wait for the barbs to be soft, apply an appropriate amount of iodine wine, and then use sterilized scissors or nail clippers to cut off the root of the barbs, and then help the baby dry his hands and evenly apply hand cream.
If the child's barbs have appeared painful, red and swollen, then parents can wash and dry the child's hands, and apply a little chlortetracycline or erythromycin eye ointment to the red and swollen area, which can not only moisturize the skin, but also inhibit bacteria and anti-inflammatory, and relieve swelling and pain.
From this we can find that the appearance of barbs on the child's hands is not a sign of lack of vitamins, the reasons for its production are diverse, but the most important reason is that the dry skin of the hands needs to be moisturized, so in order to avoid barbs on the child's hands, parents should work the child's moisturizing problem.
Second, the season is dry, pay attention to skin moisturizing
Children are prone to barbs on their hands, and the main reason is dry skin. As a parent, many people ignore the moisturizing of children's skin, some people think that children do not need moisturizing, and some people think that cosmetics such as moisturizers are not suitable for children. This view is completely wrong. In fact, if parents strengthen their protection of their children, there will be significant relief for barbs.
Since children's skin is more sensitive than adults's, it is even more important for them to choose the right moisturizers and moisturizing methods. Many young moms and dads don't know what kind of children's moisturizers to buy. Through advertising or network publicity, blindly buy some Internet celebrity products. In fact, although many Internet celebrity products are under the guise of non-toxic and harmless, their ingredients still contain allergenic ingredients.
Some net red products do not even have the logo of regular manufacturers, and they have not passed the industry quality inspection, and even have the problem of heavy metals exceeding the standard, lack of safety guarantees, and the harm and risk to the baby are completely unpredictable. Even if it is a regular product, as a parent, you must also see the ingredients, such as mineral oils, preservatives - phenoxyethanol is not suitable for children.
At present, there are many types of hand creams for children on the market, and they are also more professional children's moisturizing products. The main function of hand cream is to retain moisture in children's skin, especially in the outermost stratum corneum. It is characterized by not only maintaining the balance of skin moisture, but also replenishing important oily ingredients, hydrophilic moisturizing ingredients and moisture, thereby further nourishing the skin, avoiding cracked skin and even superficial skin tears, resulting in barbs.
In addition to the special children's hand cream, olive oil, which is common in the home, can also effectively help children moisturize their skin. Applying dry face or hands and feet with olive oil in winter can play a moisturizing and anti-cracking role. The chemical structure of olive oil is similar to the chemical structure of human skin oil, so it has a strong affinity for human skin. Rich in unsaturated fatty acids and vitamins A and E, they all help block free radical damage, which in turn promotes hydrated, healthy skin.
Parents should pay attention to when applying hand cream, you can apply thickly to your hands before your child goes to bed, and use sleep time to strengthen hand care, so that it will not delay the child's learning and activities, and there will be no problem of children not cooperating. And in the process of applying hand cream, you can massage and rub the child's finger joints to ensure that the hand cream is fully absorbed and works to the maximum.
Therefore, in the future, when parents encounter barbs on their children's hands, instead of thinking about how to supplement vitamins for their children, it is better to moisturize their children in advance, which can more directly and effectively alleviate skin cracks and fundamentally solve the problem.
Third, what methods can avoid the appearance of child barbs
Moisturizing work done in advance can better maintain the health of your child's skin and avoid barbs. After reading the previous article, everyone knows that the root cause of barbs in children is because of dry skin and lack of pre-moisturizing work. So what are the ways to keep the skin hydrated and get the child rid of barbs? Let's take a look at it together, shall we?
1. Get rid of the habit of eating hands.
As we said earlier, it is precisely because many babies have not yet changed the habit of eating hands, so the skin will become more sensitive and fragile under the infiltration of saliva for a long time, and after the growth of barbs, eating hands will aggravate the tearing of the superficial layer of the skin, and in severe cases, it may cause deeper and more serious skin damage.
Therefore, parents can make appropriate interventions and corrections, using the positive reinforcement reward method, so that children can get a small gift when they are not eating hands, and slowly quit the habit of eating hands.
2. Balanced diet and rich nutrition.
Severe deficiency of vitamin A, vitamin E, zinc and selenium and other trace elements can lead to dry skin, in the child's diet, parents should pay attention to the supplementation of these trace elements.
Carrots, cantaloupes, pumpkins, tomatoes, spinach and other foods are rich in vitamin A; Supplementing with vitamin E can eat more almonds, walnuts, soybeans, black beans and other foods; Egg yolks, peanuts, tofu, bean skins, milk, vegetables and fruits are rich in selenium and zinc.
3. Use weak alkaline soap and hand sanitizer.
Since our human skin is weakly acidic, soap is mostly alkaline, but the strength of alkaline is different. Alkaline soap can help me effectively remove bacteria, oil stains, and sweat from the surface of the skin, but for people with dry skin, alkaline soap will take away too much oil on the surface of the skin, resulting in fragile and dry skin. Therefore, for babies, it is best to use less alkaline soap and hand sanitizer.
The moisturizing work for the hands should not only be done after the baby's skin is dry and cracked, but also strengthen the moisturization for the baby in the usual way. Doing a good job in the care of the hands in daily life is conducive to the health of the baby's skin and has a better resistance to the external environment, so parents must not ignore the prevention work.
summary
Barbs are only a very superficial skin lesion, and parents do not need to worry too much about it, and do not need to supplement their children with a lot of vitamins because of this. The real cause of barbs is not a lack of vitamins, but rather that your child's hand skin needs moisturizing care, especially when changing seasons.
Therefore, in life, parents only need to ensure that their children's diet is balanced, help their children deal with it scientifically when they grow barbs, avoid tearing by hand, and do a good job in the later stage of nursing work.
Resources:
【1】Evaluation and care of skin barrier in infants[J]. YUAN Chao,HE Li. Dermatology Bulletin. 2017(04)
[2] Research progress on maintaining skin barrier—Secretion and composition of lipids[J]. CUI Le,JIA Yan,CHENG Zhiwei,GAO Ying,ZHANG Gaolei,LI Jingyi,HE Congfen. Chinese Journal of Dermatology and Venereology. 2016(06)