How right bathing soap keeps doctor away

        After several visits to her dermatologist, Abriella has developed a strict concern over what kind of bathing soap she can or cannot use.

At a tender age of four she refused to use any toilet articles unless they had baby images stamped on its wrappers.

Her heightened sense of caution comes from being born with atopic dermatitis which surfaced for the first time at six months of age.

Atopic dermatitis is a chronic relapsing inflammatory skin condition. Although it has a wide range of symptoms, the mild cases are typically characterised by red itchy skin.

Genetic and environmental factors can trigger what we call ‘atopy syndrome,’ a condition characterized by a tendency of being very allergic. A person with this condition will often have to contend with hay fever or allergic asthma and eczema.

It affects infants and children mostly with a 20 per cent, prevalence compared to 3 per cent prevalence in the adult population worldwide. Treatment aims to control symptoms rather than cure the condition and this puts weight on why preventive measures are most important.

Since her first attack, Abriella has had over ten visits to dermatologists and in one occasion she was hospitalised due to blood infection through wounds on her skin from scratching. With time she has learned the “itchy way” to say no to her favourite chocolate brand because it has some fresh gourmet nuts. She also knows better now than to try and wear mama’s perfume.

A poor choice of soap is among the most common triggers of eczema attacks among children. In fact a poor choice of soap is a cause for many skin allergies among children with or without eczema.

Contrary to baby soaps, adult soaps are formulated with additional ingredients like deodorants to kill bad odour and perfumes to improve scents. Infants and children do not need these additives in their soaps. If anything it puts them to avoidable risks of skin allergies

Dermatologists advise parents to avoid beauty bars for infants and children below five and some dermatologists put the safe bar at 12 years. Below that, clean water and a mild soap should do the job.

Most soap products in the market today are labelled “natural” or “organic” but this should not be enough to reassure their safety.

It is important to check ingredients for chemicals like alcohol, propylene or glycol in choosing soaps for baby use.

Keep away from strongly scented soaps and soaps forming a lot of lather and if it becomes tricky to identify what is best for your baby, then, you are better off with a regular bar soap.

Once she found the convenient soap for Abby’s skin, Abby’s mother, Joyce says that their visits to the hospital have been less frequent.

The author is a pharmacist based at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH).