Moisturizer for babies can block allergies
Print Edition
APPLYING moisturizer to a newborn baby’s skin could help prevent eczema and even food allergies in later life, possibly offering a cheap and easy way to combat a growing global problem, a Japanese institute has said.
A small-scale study carried out by researchers at the Tokyo-based National Center for Child Health and Development suggests regular lotion in the first few weeks of life helps keep a baby’s immune system intact.
Scientists divided 118 newborns into two groups of 59 each, applying an emollient — a glycerine-based over-the-counter moisturizer — to one group of babies for 32 weeks and no treatment to the other group. As a result, 19 in the intervention group developed atopic dermatitis — eczema — against 28 in the control group.
The study, a global first, tentatively shows moisturizing reduces the risk of developing eczema 30 percent.
The institute said in a release yesterday that emollient prevents skin from drying out and cracking, which exposes immune cells and allows irritants to get in. This, in turn, boosts the body’s production of antibodies to combat the irritant, resulting in over-production. It is this over-production of antibodies that produces the symptoms of an allergy.
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