Home remedy and antibiotics for eczema.(Brief article)

A small, preliminary study published in the journal Pediatrics showed a combination treatment can alleviate symptoms of the painful itchy skin disease called atopic dermatitis, which is the most common of the many forms of eczema. It combines a home remedy--soaking in bath water diluted with laundry bleach--and antibiotics.

Jennifer T. Huang, MD, and colleagues at the Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, acknowledged that, along with other pediatricians, they had been advising the diluted bleach baths for some time because they appear to alleviate symptoms and cut down on infections. Their study is the first to include this home remedy.

In an effort to reduce the most troubling complication of atopic dermatitis, all 31 children with eczema who participated were given oral antibiotics for 14 days prior the start of the study. This was to combat the bacterial infection, most often staphylococcus, which can occur when children scratch themselves hard enough to draw blood.

The participants, ages 6 months to 17 years, were then randomly assigned to sit submerged in a bathtub full of water mixed with 1/2 cup of bleach for 5 to 10 minutes twice a week over three months, or a bathtub full of plain water. Only the children in the bleach-bath group were given an antibiotic ointment (mupirocin), which was applied intranasally.

At three months, the children in the bleach-bath group showed greater decrease in the severity in their symptoms and in symptoms of bacterial infections. Huang and colleagues wrote that the next research step should be more studies that assess the efficacy and long-term safety of diluted bleach baths without the addition of antibiotics.

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