Welcome to the managing eczema at nursery and school section!
This section will look at:
- How can I help care for my child's skin when they are at nursery or school?
- How can I help my child look after their own eczema when they are at school?
- Will my child fit in?
Starting nursery or school with eczema
Many families of children with eczema worry about their child starting nursery or school.
This worry is normal as your child may need special care for their eczema that in the past you have taken care of.
The next few pages will suggest some things you could do to make sure your child’s skin is looked after at nursery and school.
Talk to your child's teacher
Most families would agree that it is very important to talk to nursery staff or your child’s teacher as soon as possible. They may not know much about eczema. They may not know some of the things needed to keep control of your child’s eczema.
You can find out more about what might help your child’s nursery or school care for your child’s skin in the next few pages. At the end of this section there are also some things you can print for your child’s nursery or school to help you explain eczema to them.
Top tip!
Some things that can be helpful are to explain:
- What eczema is and that you cannot catch it
- What treatments your child needs and when
- How eczema might affect your child
- How your child’s nursery or school can help
Explaining what treatments your child needs and when
It is helpful for teachers, school welfare assistants, or nursery staff to know how often your child needs moisturising creams and flare control creams during the day.
It would also help to tell them if your child needs moisturising cream on their body, hands, or face before activities like swimming, eating, painting, or going outside in cold weather.
For younger children, the teacher or nursery staff will also need to know whether your child can put the moisturising cream on themselves, or if they need help.
Top tip!
If your child’s eczema needs a lot of care in school then you could ask if you can speak to the school nurse. They may not be based at your school but in many areas they are available by phone. They may also visit your school to help draw up a treatment plan with you and your child’s teacher.
Explaining how eczema might affect your child
It can be helpful explaining how eczema might affect your child. Click on the boxes to find out more.
Sleeping habits
Your child’s teacher may not realise that itching from eczema can sometimes keep your child up at night.
It may be helpful to explain this to them so they understand if your child is tired during the day, or needs to come in late from time-to-time because they had a lie-in after being up all night scratching.
Activities
It is good that your child takes part in as many activities as possible, but it may be helpful to point out some activities that could irritate your child’s skin or make them itchy. These might include:
- Painting
- Working with clay
- Getting too hot playing games
- Sitting near a sunny window or near a radiator
- Getting too cold outside
- Sitting on carpet
- Helping with school pets
Physical exercise and swimming
It is also important to let the school know of anything that needs to be done before physical exercise or swimming, such as loose clothing or putting on moisturising creams. See ‘swimming and physical activity’ section to find out more about this. You can get to this section from the ‘what can make eczema worse’ menu above.
Washing
Washing their hands with soap often makes eczema worse. It may be helpful to point this out and tell your child’s teacher what your child can use instead. You can find out more about washing in the ‘bathing, showering and washing clothes’ section, which you can get from ‘what can make eczema worse’ menu above.
Practical tips for when your child is at nursery or school
Containers:
- Pump action dispensers for moisturising creams are easier and less messy to use in the classroom
- Look for small sizes of moisturising creams your child can keep in their bag
- You may need to buy travel sized bottles and put some moisturising creams in there yourself using a clean spatula or spoon
Care plan:
- Give your child’s nursery or school a simple written care plan they can follow or support your child to follow
Top tip!
Nurseries and schools will not take treatments that have not been prescribed to your child. Make sure you keep the prescribed label on the container or give them a letter from your health professional.
Teach your child how to care for their eczema
When your child is old enough, you may want to teach them the basics for looking after their own skin.
You can find out more about this in the ‘teaching your child how to care for their eczema’ section, which you will be able to get to from the ‘help your child manage eczema’ menu above.
Since he started looking after his own eczema it’s been a lot easier at school as he can put the creams on when he needs to. So after washing his hands he just goes to the school office and gets his cream. One of the Teaching Assistants had to remind him at first, but he can do it on his own now.
Will my child fit in?
Some parents worry about their child fitting in at school, particularly if their eczema is visible. Other children might be curious and ask your child questions about their eczema, so it might help to discuss this with your child’s teacher so that they are prepared to answer such questions.
It is very helpful if the teacher explains that eczema is not contagious and explain to the other children that they can’t ‘catch’ eczema. It can also help to talk to the other children about what living with eczema is like. It’s very important that the other children understand that a child with eczema is a normal child who has sensitive, itchy skin.
Talk to your child about explaining eczema to others
It may also help to talk to your child about other people’s reaction to their eczema from a young age.
It might help them to understand that other children usually don’t know what eczema is and help them find ways of explaining it.
Sometimes other children will ask my little boy, “What’s that on your face?” He’s used to it now and it doesn’t seem to bother him. He just says, “It’s eczema,” and then they start talking about something else altogether. It doesn’t seem to bother him.
How can I talk to my child's teachers about eczema?
Here is some information that could help your child's teachers understand their eczema better. You can print these to take to your child’s nursery or school.
Some important points that the teachers might not know about eczema. It can be helpful to print or write this down to give teachers.
A plan you can fill in about what care your child needs at nursery or school. You can adapt this by crossing out points that don’t apply to your child or adding further points that you feel are important. You could also write a sheet of your own using some of these ideas.
An eczema school pack that could be passed on to your child's school. This has lots of information about eczema, triggers, treatments, and class activities. This is a PDF file and is also available from the National Eczema Society website