UK: Frequent hand-washing damaging children's skin

We have all learnt the importance of hand-washing during the coronavirus pandemic as one major way to avoid the deadly virus. 

In general, also, hand-washing is considered a good and hygienic habit to lead a healthy life.

However, a growing number of eczema cases in the UK has caused a concern for parents whether they should encourage this habit or not. 

Also read | Mexico City is struggling to enforce hand washing amid pandemic. Here's why

Jordan Ferris, from Grimsby, UK said that her five-year-old child is facing pain in her hand due to the reemergence of eczema caused by soaps and sanitisers, reports BBC.

Eczema is a condition in which skin becomes red and itchy and generally experienced by children.  

Ferris said her daughter who had eczema when she was two, faced itching and when the week was about to end her hands "really dry, red, cracked and bleeding slightly"

The British Skin Foundation said the number of children with hand eczema had spiked in the pandemic-period.

"It's a bit upsetting really seeing her come home from school in pain," Ferris said. 

"She's there to have fun and learn and she's coming back and she was really upset about it."

The skin foundation's consultant dermatologist Dr Mary Sommerlad said that children are more likely to suffer eczema because of a less-developed skin barrier. 

"Irritation from soap and water can make existing eczema worse, or trigger contact irritation eczema for the first time," she said. 

"This is because the skin's barrier is disrupted by frequent washing with soap."