Vitiligo in children: how to help your child, or impact the struggle for healthy skin

Vitiligo in children: how to help your child, or impact the struggle for healthy skin
Diagnostics
Causes

Vitiligo children

Diagnostics

Light skin of the child, or the dark, as a rule, it is the same all over the body. This applies to all except children with vitiligo. If Vitiligo is a sudden and unexplained loss of melanin, the pigment that colors the skin in a certain color. According to statistics, half of the patients with vitiligo - are teenagers and children.

Vitiligo skin disease is not dangerous. It is not a form of skin cancer is not an infectious disease and is not contagious. In fact, children with vitiligo as healthy as children who are not suffering from it.

If vitiligo skin white spots appear. They differ only on healthy skin color and ability to protect themselves from the sun. For protection from ultraviolet radiation responsible melanocytes cells, because they appear on the skin tan. These cells give the skin a certain color. The color of human skin is not determined by the number of melanocytes cells (all people are born with the same amount of cells), but rather on how actively they work. We produce a lot of black melanin cells Which foods contain melanin - skin care And melanocytes fair-skinned people produce them much smaller. If vitiligo melanocytes do not produce melanin and melanin without the skin becomes white.

Sometimes children with vitiligo have other symptoms, such as premature graying of hair, or loss of pigment on the lips, as the pigment cells are found on the surface of the lips.

The risk of vitiligo What is Vitiligo: What are the white spots in children is high, if in a family or personal history of the disease have thyroid disease Thyroid disease - when to start worrying? , Diabetes mellitus, and some problems such as hair loss (autoimmune disease that causes loss of hair). Vitiligo - it is not an infectious disease, and children can not "catch" it from someone.

At the doctor

Typically, a dermatologist can diagnose vitiligo in the ordinary examination of the skin.

If your child has a very light skin, he is diagnosed with Wood's lamp (black light). This lamp uses ultraviolet light in a dark room to illuminate the affected areas of skin, so they are difficult to see with the naked eye.

Also, the doctor can collect the necessary information from the child's medical history and family history, including burns, sunburn or stress until the symptoms of vitiligo.

It will be analyzed to identify the baby's blood thyroid problems and diabetes, as these diseases can increase the risk of vitiligo. In rare cases, the doctor may do a biopsy (take on the analysis of a small piece of affected skin). A biopsy allows the doctor to check the presence of the pigment cells in the skin. If you do not have pigment cells, this confirms the diagnosis of vitiligo.

Treatment of vitiligo in children is not different from the treatment of vitiligo in adults.

Parents need to remember that because of the possible risk of vitiligo melanoma (skin cancer). To reduce the risk of skin needs constant protection from the sun. The child must wear closed clothing and use sunscreen. Be sure to watch out for, so that a layer of protection from ultraviolet radiation on the skin has been constantly.