Do you ever feel paranoid in public places when you’re with your flaky skinned child and constantly wondering whether people around are judging or not?
This thing happens with me a lot, I go out with my 3 year old eczema prone kid and people start glaring and asking questions like did he burn himself? Is he alright? Is he sick? What’s wrong with his skin? Is his condition contagious?…
At the beginning these questions didn’t bother me much but as my baby grew older and he started noticing his skin and the attitude of people around him, then it got a little perturbing; as it became obvious that he’s getting conscious of the marks and scars on his body.
I’ve come across many people who have this misconception that skin related issues are mostly contagious.
This one time I took my 3 year old to a playground and he got so excited as he watched other children play (That day his arms and hands were fully covered with eczema spots and they were really prominent). The moment he came closer to them, they immediately took a step back and started noticing his arms, and later ran in the opposite direction. Their mothers also had this condescending look on their faces. This broke my heart into million pieces but my darling baby looked at me with an endearing smile and started playing on his own.
I don’t blame the children or their parents. If I was in their place, maybe I would have had the same reaction. But at the same time we should be more empathetic towards others and not make them feel different.
We should realize not every disease is contagious. If it was contagious then no sane person would take their children to public places.
It’s our duty as parents to teach our kids empathy, and how to be compassionate towards others. As for my boy and I, we’ve learned to cope up with this horrendous skin condition. In fact he’s a very optimistic 3 year old… And the moisturizers we have settled upon by trial and error – seem to be working, at least to some extent.
Doesn’t matter if people see your child differently – the important thing is we should teach them to love themselves no matter what. Once they’ll start embracing themselves, people will naturally start loving them.