Dr. Komarovsky about red cheeks in a child

Promotional photos often contain images of red-cheeked laughing kids. However, in fact, when the baby’s cheeks turn red, parents usually don’t get excited. Immediately begin to suspect that something is not eaten or drunk, the child begins to limit in the lure, the breastfeeding mother immediately sits on a strict diet. But often the reason for this phenomenon lies not even in the diet. Yevgeny Komarovsky, a well-known practicing pediatrician and author of books on children's health, says about why babies have red cheeks and what to do to parents if this happened.

Redness of the cheeks - the complaint is so frequent that this problem can be safely put on one of the first places among the problems of the first year of a child’s life. Evgeny Komarovsky advises to consider several main causes of this skin phenomenon.

The most common cause of red cheeks in a child lies not in an allergic reaction to a particular product, as moms and grandmothers think. Redness - the body's response to overfeeding. Komarovsky argues that this is an external manifestation of the internal process that takes place inside the baby, when he is given more food than he is able to digest.

There are not so many enzymes accumulated in the children's organism, and therefore the food that has not been digested simply rots in the intestines and comes out with feces. In the process of decay, decay products enter the blood through the intestinal wall, which paint the baby's cheeks red.

Artificial children are most susceptible to overfeeding. While their peers who eat mother's milk diligently suck out their lunch from their breasts, they naturally have a feeling of satiety. A child who eats from a bottle does not make so much effort to suck the mixture, and therefore eats faster. The feeling of fullness will come only 10-15 minutes after the end of the meal, as a result, the child will always suck out an extra amount that he cannot digest.

If the cheeks turn red with enviable regularity and the food product is not tracked down, the “guilty” person in this trouble fails, Yevgeny Komarovsky recommends considering the option of contact allergy. Naturally, not independently, but in friendly tandem with an allergist. With such an unpleasant phenomenon, the cheeks can not only blush, but also become covered with a rash or crusts. In this situation, the worst enemy of the mother and the crumbs - chlorine. It is necessary to sort out the entire stock of household chemicals and, without a doubt, throw away everything that is even the slightest hint of chlorine.

More information about allergies will tell Dr. Komarovsky in the video below.

Remember that the water in the faucet is also chlorinated for disinfection, and therefore the child prone to contact allergies should be bathed in boiled water. All washing powders, including adults, should be replaced with hypoallergenic detergents for washing baby clothes. They should wash everything - from children's T-shirts to bed linen of parents. Always keep ready the dressing gown of their natural fabric, washed with baby powder, which should be asked to wear anyone who wants to take the baby in her arms (it’s not known what your grandmother or your girlfriend erase your clothes at home!).

The influence of food on the red cheeks, too, should not be underestimated, says Komarovsky. So often manifested allergy to cow protein. In the mixtures, especially adapted, manufacturers "neutralized" him. But pasteurized milk, which children sometimes start to give after six months, may well be the cause of an inadequate response of the body. The protein, which is initially foreign to the child’s immunity, is called a protein antigen. It is not just not digested, the body begins to produce antibodies on it, resulting in red cheeks.

Respiratory allergies are most often manifested by a runny or allergic conjunctivitisHowever, sometimes it is accompanied by redness of the cheeks and chin. In this case, you need as soon as possible to eliminate the source of allergies and contact your doctor for an explanation of further actions. As a rule, according to Yevgeny Komarovsky, it is enough just to eliminate the allergen.

If the cheeks turn red and other parts of the body turn red as well, and this happens often, then atopic dermatitis can be suspected, which people mistakenly call diathesis. It is usually manifested as a result of exposure to both internal and external factors. In other words, the protein-antigen acts from the inside, and some irritating factors (such as chlorine in water) - from the outside.

According to Yevgeny Komarovsky, diathesis takes place with age in an overwhelming number of young patients. As the formation of immunity, as the "debugging" of the digestive system and metabolic system.

• Do not overfeed. Let him eat less, it’s better learned.
• Avoid contact with chlorine and “adult” detergents and washing powders.
• Use medications when contact allergies should only be prescribed by a doctor, so as not to harm the child even more. If the red cheeks do not bother much, it is better not to use drugs at all. If the itch is very itchy and the child scratches them all the time, you can use Fenistil or undergo a course of hormone treatment, if the allergist has completed a classic test, he deems it appropriate.
• Do not give cow and goat milk.
• A child with such a problem does not need to buy bright T-shirts, hats and pants. Textile dyes often cause contact allergies in particularly sensitive children. The best choice in this situation is white shirts and pants.
• It is necessary to create in the house optimal conditions for the child. Air temperature - 18-20 degrees, air humidity - 50-70%. It is necessary to air the room more often, to do wet cleaning. Do not allow the child to overheat and sweat. Sometimes these measures alone are quite enough for the cheeks to stop blushing.
• Children who are prone to red cheeks should not be given a lot of medication.. Antibiotics antiviral remedies, drops from a cold and cough syrups - all this can provoke a drug allergy.Therefore, medicines for such babies are given only in exceptional cases, strictly according to the informed prescription of the doctor.
• If a child has red cheeks, and all of the above reasons are not confirmed, it can only mean that the allergen could not be found. ABOUTTake care of this: fish food, aerosols, mom and dad perfumes, insect repellents, domestic cats and dogs, house dust, plants, especially flowering nuts, raisins, furniture in the apartment.
• It is necessary to monitor the bowel movement. A child with a tendency to redden the cheeks should not be constipated. Empty intestines greatly alleviate the condition for any kind of allergic reactions. If constipation occurs (especially children who are on the bottle feeding), you should definitely consult with your doctor for a joint determination of the most gentle and safe way to solve this delicate problem.
• In no case should we treat the child’s red cheeks with folk methods, Komarovsky says. As already stated above, the child’s body itself is able to restore the ability to balance all the processes in it, and therefore this problem is not for life, the child will outgrow it. But the “incidence”, which parents and grandmothers are able to achieve in the process of finding a remedy for reddening the cheeks, can “come around” in an adult state. Not to mention some folk remedies, which in themselves will cause far more harm than any atopic dermatitis.