Managing Dry Skin
Tips and Tricks on how to support your child take care of their dry skin:
- Wash your hands before applying the cream
- Apply it to the whole of the child's body rather than only the dry patches.
- Don’t rub it in
Practice on a toy: If your child is not ready to apply cream to themselves, they could start by practicing on their toys. Children love to role play - you could incorporate this into doctors or playing mums and dads. This can help them feel more confident to apply the cream to themselves.
Be creative: Help your child to decorate their cream bottle with stickers. Then you can call the cream fun names like 'Magic Unicorn potion' or 'Caterpillar Goo'.
A song: Together you could make up a song about applying cream and sing it whenever it’s applied.
Keep it fun: When waiting for the cream to dry you can dance a silly dance or create a special, funny walk.
Reward chart: Praise your child for applying their cream. Use our reward chart to document how well they are doing.
Applying cream to themselves: When your child is ready, allow them to apply the ointment to themselves to a small part of their body. Doing their whole body can feel daunting. Once they are more confident, then slowly add more areas for them to cream.
Get involved: Getting the whole family to join in with creaming themselves can normalise the whole process. This is most effective when an older sibling can help encourage the child and show them how it is done.
Explaining why: Children are more likely to go along with a skin care routine if they understand why it is needed. Discussing to the child in a way that they can understand is hugely beneficial or reading That's Me's My Skin book will help them understand the importance of creaming their skin.
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