Moisturizing your babies may promote skin sensitization and development of food allergies, study finds.
According to a recent study, regular use of
moisturizers in infants may promote transcutaneous sensitization and the
development of food allergies.
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| Photo: Baby | InStyleHealth |
Researchers surveyed families about their use of
moisturizers and corticosteroid creams, and about dry skin or eczema, for a
total of 1,302 exclusively breastfed infants. Subsequent food challenge and
skin prick testing were utilized to assess allergies among the subject.
There are 24.4% (317) babies had clear and visible signs
of eczema, while the remaining 75.6% (985) did not show any signs of skin
problem. Among babies without eczema, 654 of these babies were being moisturized
at least once a week, parents who reported that their children had dry skin or
eczema (even without signs of the skin problem) were more like to moisturize
more frequently.
Except those with a history of eczema and/or
parent-reported dry skin generated a final group of 712 babies who phenotypically
appeared to having healthy skin. Moisturization was still considered high in this
group, with 66% being moisturized at least once a week.
Moisturization frequency is significantly correlated
with the likelihood of having food allergies in a dose-dependent manner. This
stayed true even when classifying babies according to those with and without
visible eczema at the beginning.
While considered as a continuous variable, each
additional moisturization per week correlated with an 18% increase in the odds
of developing food allergies for the babies without visible eczema during the
start of the study.
The effect was slightly stronger among those with
visible eczema at the start, such that each additional moisturization per week
enhanced the likelihood by 20%.
Researchers of this study stated that, “ Taken together,
our findings and those of prior studies suggests that emollients may facilitate
transcutaneous sensitization to both food and aeroallergens.”
“These findings are potentially of great significance,
and further research is required to understand the mechanism of action,” added
the researchers.
For complete details of the study, click here.
Source: J Allerg Clin
Immunol 2021;147:967-976.e1