Heat Rash Treatment For Children

Heat rash or Miliaria are small red eruptions on your child's back, face, neck, stomach, hips, all over the body. Heat rashes are common during the summer seasons and in humid weather. This heat rash is caused when the body temperature becomes high due to the heat outside or due to the dresses worn by the children. This makes the children sweat and this sweat results in heat rash. As it can cause itching, its treatment becomes important. Let's look into some ways to treat heat rash.

Treating Children's Heat Rash

Follow the below steps to treat the child's heat rash and make your child comfortable.

• Skin irritation is one of the heat rash symptoms. If you find your child scratching and find that his skin is red and irritated, remove the child's clothing so that the skin can breathe freely.
• Don't use towels to dry the skin. Keep the child in a shady spot and let the cool natural breeze dry the sweat.
• Give your child a cool bath and apply ice packs. This is a tried and tested heat rash treatment.
• Use calamine lotion on the heat rash to cool it. Consult a doctor before applying the lotion. He may suggest some other ointments too.
• Do not apply the same ointments that you use on the child. These ointments may be suitable for adults and may irritate the delicate skin of the children.

Always dress your children in cotton clothes and let the body of the child breathe freely to avoid skin rashes in children. Children play and hence they sweat. These cotton clothes will absorb this sweat and reduce the chances of skin rashes and heat rash. However, even if they do get heat rash, administer the above treatment options.

Heat rash is not painful but it is annoying to the toddlers. As the novelty of walking and running is still new in toddlers, they get very cranky because of the irritation caused due to heat rash. Treat heat rash in toddlers in the following ways -

• Loosen or remove the toddler's clothes and let the little one's skin cool off.
• Use a mini fan to dry out the rash rather than doing it with the help of an air conditioner.
• Try these good home heat rash remedies. Crush some oats or some baking soda in your child's bath.
• If he/she is unwilling to take a bath, you can cool down the body's temperature by using some wet cloth.
• Use ice packs over the rash at least twice a day till the rash is completely cured.
• Put on only the bare minimum clothes on your toddler. Let him/her roam about freely without sweating.
• Consult your pediatrician for ointments and apply these ointments until the rash fades away.
• In order to prevent rashes in toddlers, always dress them up in light cotton clothes.

The best heat rash cure for your baby will be to give him/her a cool water bath. Do not use hot water because hot water may aggravate the problem. Add some baking soda to the water so that the baby gets additional relief.

• Keeping the baby hydrated by giving him a lot of fluids can help reduce the chances of heat rash in babies.
• To make the treatment effective, apply an ice pack on the baby's rash.
• Keep the baby in cool temperatures. Close the windows and switch on the air conditioner so that the room becomes cool.
• Use cotton nappies instead of the baby diapers because cotton nappies are washable and more comfortable for the babies.
• Use pure cotton clothes for the baby.

If your child, baby or toddler, suffers from fever, take him/her to the doctor immediately. If the rash does not seem to subside even after two days, it is also a cause of concern and should be treated with medical attention.

When we feel hot during the summer or when the weather is humid, children, toddlers and babies feel hot too. We dress up in shorts and cool summer clothes but we stuff them into clothing. Though our intentions are right, we unknowingly play a hand in making them uncomfortable. Remember when the weather is hot and humid, dress up the kids in suitable cotton clothing. Let them play in shade and always keep on giving them fluids to keep them hydrated. This will minimize the chances of prickly heat rash. In case the children still suffer from heat rash, the above mentioned treatment options will help you to relieve it.