At HappySkin, our eczema garments help children to overcome the misery of atopic dermatitis by restoring the skin’s ability to regulate moisture. We regularly bring you blogs like this one about alleviating the symptoms. However, with World Autism Awareness Day approaching on April 2nd, we thought we’d ask the question – is there a link between autism and eczema?
Autism represents a developmental disability that affects 1 in 100 children around the world, impacting many behaviours relating to social communication, learning, and concentration. World Autism Acceptance Week also runs between 27th March-2nd April, but not many people ever even consider a link between the two conditions.
So, Are Eczema and Autism Related?
While eczema relates to skin health and autism on the mental and cognitive side, there does seem to be a link between the two conditions. However, before we do that, we’ll provide some context by looking a little closer at each one in isolation.
What is Autism?
Attempt to explain your child’s autism to someone else, and you soon realise that it’s a very complex condition. Often accompanied by sensitivity and sensory challenges, it’s characterised by difficulties in interacting with others and repetitive/obsessive behaviours.
The hardest part for parents, initially at least, is that autism manifests differently from child to child, with some being impacted much more than others – hence why the term spectrum is used. Is there a link between autism and eczema? If so, it’s not easy to spot, although 17% of kids with autism also have eczema (compared to 10% for typical children).
Eczema Explained
As regular readers of our blogs will already be aware, atopic eczema in children presents as dry, itchy and inflamed skin. Some children only have the problem over small areas of their skin, whereas others may have it all over their bodies. Typically affecting the hands, face, arms and knees of children, it’s typically treated by doctors with emollient creams and steroids.
The reason why HappySkin garments are so effective on childhood eczema is that they’re super-gentle and their DreamSkin coating is proven to restore the skin’s ability to sweat, allowing it to regulate its temperature.
Studies Have Found a Link
Is there a link between autism and eczema? Well, it would appear that there there is, yes. A new study has found a link between eczema and increased autistic traits on the autism spectrum. Australian researchers led by Professor Adam Guastella from the University of Sydney have stated that autism is “often accompanied by skin disorders”.
The study found that children with immune disorders displayed a higher degree of overall autism, including social skill problems. Prof Guastella also talks about a shared ‘skin-brain’ connection in the ectoderm of human embryos, saying that “skin development at birth could provide important clues to inform on brain development & that’s what we’re testing now”.
Here to Help Parents Deal With Eczema & Autism
Does autism cause eczema? Are they linked? These may be questions that we won’t be able to fully answer for the time being. It seems that research is still ongoing, so we may not know those details for a while yet, but the link between the two does seem to be there, and it is just a matter of time until science understands the subject better.
If your child is living with either eczema or autism (or both), we’re here to tell you that you’re not on your own. The HappySkin team is here to help support the parents of children with both conditions. Resources like our Facebook group community are there to be enjoyed, so why not get involved and learn something new?
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If you’d like to know more about HappySkin garments and what they can do for your child’s skin, please take the time to browse our website www.happyskin.co.uk. There you’ll find everything you need to know about how our eczema body suits and sleep suits can gently restore your child’s skin health where other treatments fail.
All that it leaves us to say is that we hope you spend Autism Acceptance Week adding to your knowledge of the disorder and mark Autism Awareness Day celebrating everything that’s amazing about all children around the globe. We appreciate you reading all the way to the end and we hope join us for our next blog in which we bring you more from the home of healthy skin.