Understanding Childhood Eczema

This is an excellent resouce for parents of children with eczema. It not only talks about how eczema develops and the most common allergens, but also covers eczema management very extensively: e.g. itch and sleep management, day-to-day routine, and how to prepare the child for social pressure when they start going to school, etc.

Ernest Henri Besnier (1831-1909), French dermatologist, gave the name to the condition Prurigo Besnier or atopic dermatitis. Besnier became médecin des hôpitaux in 1863 and subsequently held positions at several Paris hospitals. In 1873 he succeeded Bazin as dermatologist at the Hôpital St. Louis, where he became director the same year. In 1881 he was elected member of the Academy of Medicine as hygienist due to his contributions to epidemiology. In his special field, dermatology, Besnier tried to balance the differences between the French school and the Vienna school. With Pierre Adolphe Adrien Doyon (1827-1907) he founded the journal Annales de dermatologie et de syphiligraphie. He built histopathology and parasitology laboratories at the St. Louis hospital, and we owe to him the term and technique of biopsy. He is not mentioned in this book.Atopic dermatitis (atopic means alien, dermatitis means inflamed skin) or atopic eczema (eczema is Greek for to boil out) shows an inherited tendency to develop one or more of different types of conditions, like asthma, eczema of atopic type, allergic rhinitis or acute urticaria of allergic type. It is a major problem with more than 10% of the population suffering. Many children and their families will suffer and the condition create distress. Atopic dermatitis primarily is caused by cellular immune deficiency and elevated immunoglobulin E (IgE). The pathogenesis can be traced to a genetically inherited, bone marrow-derived cell associated with chromosome 11q. Abnormal skin reactivity also plays a major role in the development of the disease. Irritants to the skin are believed to predispose an individual to develop dermatitis more often than simply exposure to an allergenic trigger. Nonetheless, patients frequently have a history of food or inhalant allergies or eventually develop them. Children most commonly are affected with 80% developing the disease before age 7 years. Less than 2% will have an onset after age 20 years. Most sources agree that persistence after age 20 years is uncommon. Only an estimated 10% of patients older than 20 years continue to be symptomatic. Wiley publisher has started a new book series on "Understanding illness and health" with this book on "Childhhod eczema" by Penny Titman. She is a clinical psychologist from University College in London, but now working in a community team for children and families in an NHS Trust. This book has eight chapters with information on the medical aspects of this condition, treatment aspects including alternative treatment methods and full of case stories and practical advice for families that includes useful addresses and contacts. We lacked a few pictures, but understand that this would have made the book more expensive. We found that this book could be very helpful for parents with an atopic child.Professor Joav Merrick, MD, DMScDirector, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and Medical director, Division for Mental Retar