How to Save Your Skin From Warm Weather Dermatitis

Warm weather and sweating often give rise to uncomfortable skin rashes. Maybe the irritation stems from increased friction in wet clothes or bites from outdoor bugs, but eczema or atopic dermatitis can also flare-up in the heat. No matter the cause, it's helpful to know how to prevent outbreaks, soothe the itch and burn, and help the skin heal.

Common Causes of Dermatitis

Dermatitis is a catch-all term for generalized skin inflammation and frequently seen characteristics include dryness, swelling, and redness. Irritant contact dermatitis and eczema are the most common types of dermatitis diagnosed by a medical provider.

Eczema

Eczema is a common skin condition that is caused by an underlying allergy. The broad term for allergy is atopy, and when it manifests in the skin, it is called atopic dermatitis, also known as eczema. The prevalence of this skin condition is estimated to be more than 10% of people, with children more heavily affected.

A tricky thing about warm weather rashes is often they look and feel the same despite the culprit—red scaly, itchy patches or bumps. How do you distinguish between environmentally induced dermatitis and allergy driven eczema?

The classic pattern seen with eczema is red, scaly lesions that vary in size and shape, but they are always quite itchy. When scratched, they often form raised bumps called papules and sometimes become weepy or crusted. In childhood, they are known to appear on the cheeks of the face, arms, legs, buttocks, and creases of the body. As an adult, they affect additional areas of the face and predominate in the flexure areas of the wrists, elbows, knees, and groin.

Contact Dermatitis

If you haven’t been diagnosed with allergies or eczema, your warm-weather rash is more likely a contact dermatitis. Contact dermatitis, as the name suggests, is a rash caused by contact with an external allergen or irritant such a chemical in sunscreen. An inflammatory reaction to the offending agent leads to redness and heat and sometimes compromises the integrity of the skin.

The location of contact dermatitis is seen primarily in the area that had contact. For example, if a baby is allergic to a chemical in a new diaper, the redness visible on his skin will be the shape of the diaper. Unlike eczema that tends to be symmetric in pattern, environmentally induced dermatitis usually is not.

The key to uncovering contact dermatitis is also in your history. Ask yourself if you had exposure to a new product such as sunscreen, lotion, soap, hand-gels, bug sprays, preservatives, and nickel from buttons and affordable jewelry. If so, does your rash occur where you put this product?

Poison Ivy

Also, don’t forget the dreaded result of contact with poison ivy after a jaunt in the woods or a day of landscaping in the yard. Your hands, forearms, ankles, or legs are most likely to brush the leaf. If a red, intensely itchy rash with small blisters and a linear pattern appears that night, you had exposure to this irritating leaf.

Tips to Heal Warm Weather Skin

Here are five common warm-weather skin irritants and tips to heal persistent rashes in the heat.

1. Rinse Right after Getting into the Pool

Anything that dries or irritates the skin commonly leads to an eczema flare, and chlorine does both. Simultaneously, the sun’s rays and sweating in the heat add to the dryness. So, wash off the chemical as soon as you can, and follow with a high quality, hypoallergenic moisturizer.

2. Keep It Simple

With warm weather, you may need to change skin products to a lighter facial lotion or a darker shade of makeup. When we shop for new things, we tend to buy the fun trend. It is better to stick with the “oldies but goodies” to avoid unknown allergens and chemicals. Also, when we travel, we often sample multiple products from hotels, travel packs, or other’s homes. Any of these can trigger a reaction, especially if you are prone to allergy.

For the allergy-prone, your skin will respond better to gentle liquid cleansers and hypoallergenic, fragrance-free lotions.

3. Don’t Reuse

At the end of summer season, we often put away our sunscreens, cosmetics, and sprays to reuse for the next year. This is always a risk. The products change chemical structure with time, light exposure, and heat. Also, bacteria can grow easily in the products, if they happen to sneak in the year before. If you have an old product that you have used, and you notice a red patch becomes a pustule (a bump with creamy yellow discharge inside), you may have a bacterial skin infection called impetigo. The best treatment for this is a triple antibacterial ointment such as neomycin-bacitracin-polymyxin.

4. Use Over-the-Counter Topicals and Oral Antihistamines as Soon as You Can

Any dermatitis is much easier to control if you attack the inflammation right away! If you feel an itch that is tempting to scratch, use an over the counter (OTC) hydrocortisone cream to lower redness and treat inflammation. Any time you scratch, you release histamines into the skin that make everything much worse. Also, common nondrowsy oral antihistamines such as Cetirizine Hcl help that itch significantly.

5. Let the Doctor Help with Eczema and Poison Ivy Exposure

If a dermatitis flare is moderate to severe, it is very uncomfortable and difficult to control. A medical provider and prescriptions are recommended and usually needed. Commonly used medications for an acute flare include a prescription-strength topical steroid used with a daily OTC oral antihistamine. If you cannot get rest at night, Benadryl is often recommended before bed.

Sometimes the bacteria of the skin causes an infection, and an antibiotic specific to skin organisms such as cephalexin is needed. For more severe rashes and usually with poison ivy exposure, oral steroid prescriptions are utilized instead of topical.

Overall, skin health is always better with consistent moisturizing, avoidance of chemical irritants and drying agents, and treating any allergies when present. Giving your skin a little extra attention in warm weather will help you enjoy the festivities to the fullest.