The Skinakin Story
Hi, I'm Claire Brannigan, and I set up SkinAkin® with our co-founder Tracy McComb. Our aim is to ‘make life better for children with Eczema.’
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The motivation came from our own experiences, as mothers of children who suffered from the condition. We understand the challenges, and the often underestimated impact of eczema for children, in hours of lost sleep, pain, and skin damage caused by inflammation and scratching.
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We have worked with parents, children, and leading experts to develop the SkinAkin Eczema Relief Clothing range. The suits have been expertly designed to minimise the skin damage caused by uncontrollable scratching, giving children and their parents some much needed respite. Learn more about how eczema clothing can help your child.
Eczema Relief
We want to help children like our own, get a better night’s sleep.
Our range has been carefully designed by parents who understand the challenges, with a range of options depending on your child's needs.
We set out to design clothing that would prevent children breaking their skin when scratching, easing the impact of eczema, and giving their skin relief and protection.
What is Eczema?
Eczema or atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic and growing problem,[1] which can often be dismissed as a trivial skin disease. It is characterized by rashes, skin redness, and itchy skin. People with milder eczema may only have a few patches of dry skin and minimal itching.
However, for a significant number of sufferers, the disease can be painful, hard to treat and have a disabling impact on their lives. In moderate to severe cases, a person may have widespread inflamed skin all over their body and the constant, unbearable need to scratch.
[1] Prevalence | Background information | Eczema - atopic | CKS | NICE
People experiencing a flare-up of eczema are often caught in an “itch-scratch cycle.” They scratch to relieve an itch, which in turn causes more itching, inflammation, skin damage, and even skin infections. This leads to more scratching and skin damage, and so the cycle continues, prolonging and worsening the eczema flare.[2].
[2] Atopic Dermatitis: Identification and Management of Complicating Factors - PMC (nih.gov)
Treatment for Atopic Eczema
The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) sets out the UK guidelines for recommended treatment for Atopic Eczema.[8]
Standard treatments to alleviate symptoms include steroids, moisturising creams, wet-wrapping, antibiotics and in severe cases, immunotherapy and phototherapy.
With advice from your dermatologist, garments for eczema can also be used alongside prescribed medication. These are useful as they can be worn at night or under clothes during the day, and tend to reduce scratching, aid emollient absorption, and protect the skin from environmental triggers.
[8] Overview | Atopic eczema in under 12s: diagnosis and management | Guidance | NICE
Impact of Eczema...
Eczema affects people to different degrees. Even at the milder end of the condition, sensitivity to a range environmental triggers, materials, and fabrics, combined with unbearable scratching and burning sensation, particularly at night-time, can have a major negative impact on wellbeing.[3] It can lead to sleepless nights for the child, which has a knock on effect on sleep quality, leading to missed days at school, difficulty focusing, and low energy and mood.
In fact, the profound impact on quality of life caused by childhood eczema has been shown to be equal to or greater than other common childhood disorders such as diabetes and asthma.[4]
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Parents often feel powerless in helping their children manage this condition. As such, the family can also suffer due to shared sleep deprivation, anxiety, and stress over the affected family members wellbeing. Disruption to parental sleep has correlated with higher maternal anxiety levels and higher depression scores.[5] The parental psychological burden can be even greater than the psychological distress experienced by the child.[6] This is all compounded by the feeling of powerlessness in trying to see the right specialist when it is needed and trying to find a treatment that works (often trial and error).
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Slowly, there is a growing recognition of the need for mental as well as physical supports to help the condition, for child and parent. Skin problems like eczema, create deep psychological problems that in turn exacerbate the skin condition, leaving a damaging psychological impact on children and their families.[7]
That's why Skinakin is here to help children and parents, live well with Eczema.
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[3] Mental Health and Skin Disease (2020) (appgs.co.uk)
[4] Guidance on the diagnosis and clinical management of atopic eczema (wiley.com)
[6] Ablett K and Thompson AR (2016) Parental, child, and adolescent experience of chronic skin conditions: A meta-ethnography and review of the qualitative literature. Body image, 19, pp.175-185.
[7] http://www.appgs.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Mental_Health_and_Skin_Disease2020.pdf