Health

Difference Between Drool Rash and Eczema 

Confused between Drool Rash And Eczema? Can’t figure out whether your infant is facing rashes or eczema!!! The solution is here.

The excessive saliva that begins to come after salivary glands start producing saliva and cover the baby’s skin, chin, and sometimes neck area; that is the term when we can say your baby is having drool rash.

On the other hand when your baby starts having red and itchy skin for a longer period then it is considered as a sign of Eczema. With time it grows and leads to many other critical problems as well like hay fever and asthma.

 Understanding The Symptoms And Reasons

Mentioning below the symptoms and reasons of drool rash and eczema to make it more clear the differences of both the terms.

Symptoms Of Drool Rash

  •  Covers only the mouth, neck, cheeks, and chest area.
  • Red bumps appear on the skin of an infant and make the skin wet.
  • Limited ability to swallow.
  • Patchy skin
  • Irritating behavior of the child

Reasons for Baby Drool Rash

  1. This happens due to the coming of teeth known as teething.
  2. While feeding when the food is left on your baby’s face for a long time.

 Symptoms Of Eczema

  • Covers most of the body parts including the hands, feet, ankles, wrists, neck, upper chest, Eyelids, knees, face, and scalp area.
  • Brownish-grey patches all over the body and makes the skin sensitive and swollen.
  • Itching
  • Red Rashes
  • Red bumps
  • Fissures
  •  Infection

 Reasons for Eczema

  1. Due to food, maybe some allergy arrives, as a result, making the infant’s skin red and itchy.
  2.  When the baby is not able to sleep and the skin becomes cracked and thick.

Mechanism Of The Disease

 Mechanism of Drool Rash

A baby’s skin is far more delicate than how sensitive even that baby is. And It is this fact only that makes a baby’s skin so vulnerable to allergies and infections. One such infection very prominent in infants is drool rash. While eczema is due to too much exposure to water (read acidic) to the child’s skin. When the child’s skin is exposed to too much saliva, there rises the risk of the child suffering from drool rashes. The cause of excessive saliva might be teething, pacifiers, or simply the feeding schedule of your baby, but it’s the saliva that causes damage. When the delicate skin of the child experiences constant saliva, the skin cells tend to soften up and separate away, giving away to external microbes to act upon the child’s skin. This action of bacteria gives rise to slight inflammation and due to the action of bacteria the child experiences irritation and itching on the skin.

Mechanism of Eczema

It is the largest organ of the body, the defender against all external miscreants, which is affected by Eczema disease. For a better insight, let us look deep into the skin as to how eczema is spread within the skin. Our skin has three layers: epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis. The outermost layer of the skin is responsible for the evaporation of water through our skin cells at regular intervals. But when there is too much loss of water through the skin, a risk of the skin cells dividing and ultimately death due to lack of hydration arises. Whenever such a condition arises and a division between the cells of the skin is observed, it becomes easy for microbes such as bacteria to penetrate through the skin and do the damage. After the ingestion of such bacteria through the skin, the dried and dead cells of the skin get even more separated, and when a collection of cells shows this behavior, we observe blisters on the skin which cause itching and irritation due to the action of bacteria. So much so for the loss of excessive water.

How Can Prevention Be Taken?

If we talk about drool rash, then coconut oil is the best natural way to cure rashes. Coconut oil will not only help in healing the rashes but will also cool down the affected area. Another remedy is vaseline for drool rash. After the baby has had his meal then after cleaning the skin with soft wipes you can apply Vaseline jelly around the mouth of the toddler. These two are the best drool rash treatment.

Next comes eczema, which is caused by a genetically inherited problem that grows with time. Another name for eczema is atopic dermatitis. Eczema on the hands can be cured by eczema cream, to name a few: Atorep Barrier Cream For Atopic Skin, Ecziderm Cream 100gm. Here, food allergies play a significant role that causes eczema to appear.

Also Read: Foods to Avoid during Pregnancy

How Long Does It Stay?

For a maximum, 2 years drooling will remain and disappear with time as soon as the baby is 18 to 24 months old. Babies tend to drool when they are teething as well as when they are sleeping. A common condition faced by all toddlers is what we call Drool Rashes.

Eczema depends on the age of the infant. As it is a genetically transferred disease. It is better to treat with home natural remedies so that your baby can get rid of it permanently. It gets better with time and also goes away in most cases.

Footnotes

Nothing to worry about as both of them are normal conditions that every infant suffers from. By taking small measures you can treat drool rashes as well as eczema. The First can be by using mild soap on the gentle skin of the baby. Second, bathing with warm water will soothe the affected area and will cure irritation too. The Third is massaging the baby’s body with a good moisturizer. Fourth, cleaning the baby’s face after every meal with soft wipes and applying Vaseline or coconut oil to the skin.

With all the information mentioned above, I hope now, you all are well versed with the differences between drool rash and eczema that are somewhat similar but in reality different terms. By reading out the symptoms and reasons you can easily make out whether your baby is suffering from drool rashes or eczema. As it is said prevention is better than cure, then you must apply it and take all the preventive measures for your newborn.

Have a lovely journey of parenthood!

Also Read: Infant Dyschezia

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Shawn Rong

Shawn Rong is a published author of mamadailydose and a content writer also. He is passionate about helping people understand child health issues, mother problems, and more.

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