Contact Dermatitis in Children

Allergic contact dermatitis is increasingly being recognized as a disease that affects children in addition to adults. Historically, irritant contact dermatitis such as ‘diaper dermatitis’ was a frequent diagnosis made in children, while allergic contact dermatitis was not considered a significant disease in this age group. Clinicians may have attributed this to children’s lack of exposure to allergens or to the belief that pediatric immunity was not vigorous enough to result in sensitization. Some suspect that the infrequent diagnosis of this condition was due to scarce patch testing in this age group. It is true that contact allergy has not been studied as intensely in children as in adults and data from adult studies may not always reflect results in children. By means of many reports and epidemiological studies in the literature, it has become clear that allergic contact dermatitis is a significant diagnosis to consider in young children, and even infants, with eczematous disease.