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Lichen Striatus Growth - Causes and Treatment

Introduction

Lichen Striatus is a skin disorder that is common in young children. What you will discover on the child’s body is small raised bumps and a rash. This skin disorder can affect any part of the body, but it is more commonly known to occur on the arms and or legs of a patient. This skin condition strangely does not cause the patient to feel the need to scratch the rash on their body. Also no other symptoms are known that makes this skin disorder cause any discomfort to the patient.

What to Expect

The main symptoms to look for are a rash and small bumps on
the body. It is not known why young children are mainly infected but when they are they should not have any discomfort on their body caused by the rash. The child will not feel a need to constantly scratch the rash like other skin disorders, nor will they lose any form of their personality as a result of this skin disorder. It seems also that the arms and legs of the child will be most affected, many children have contracted this skin disorder and it has shown up on their arms or leg. Although Lichen Striatus can appear on any part of the body the legs and arms are the most common areas to find this skin disorder.

Age Group

Adults are seemingly immune to contracting Lichen Striatus. Instead this disease will only be found in small children that are between the ages of five and ten years old. Obviously any child slightly under or over that age group is not immune to this skin disorder. In fact if they are showing the symptoms of Lichen Striatus at any age during their childhood, then it is highly recommended that you take them to your doctor immediately. Then a diagnosis will be made based on the child’s symptoms.

Diagnosis and Testing

Diagnosing this skin disorder can be very easy for a doctor to do. Many doctors are now familiar with Lichen Striatus and the symptoms that will be shown. Most of the time no blood test will be needed and a diagnosis can be made on the spot. However treating this skin disorder can be very hard, as no antibiotics will combat this effectively. Instead to try and speed up the recovery process of this skin disorder, the doctor may make a suggestion to you and ask you to try cortisone creams on the troubled area. This can help speed up the process slightly. But other times it will have no effect. If cortisone creams do not have an effect then it will take about six months to a year for the skin disorder to disappear.

Treatments for Lichen Striatus

The treatments available for Lichen Striatus are vast in number and will only occasionally work on patients. Not all the patients that have tried the treatments had positive results. The only treatment that you can administer to the trouble area is some cortisone creams. These creams are known to help sooth the problem area and the creams will try to speed up the process for recovery. The skin of the child will return to normal faster if the cortisone cream works, otherwise the child will have to wait for six months for the rash to disappear on its own. Sometimes recovery can take a little longer then six months but it will not be that much longer. Patients who have had this skin disorder for a longer time noticed that the rash and small bumps went away after a year. So six months to a year is the time that the rash should disappear on its own if the cortisone cream does not have any affect on the rash.

Complications of Lichen Striatus

Not much is known about how Lichen Striatus starts. And thankfully it is not known to be dangerous or contagious among children. Everyone who has had this skin disorder has always made a full recovery and no complications have been reported after the child’s rash has gone. This skin disorder is not nice to see on your child, but remembering the fact that it isn’t dangerous will always help you to know that your child is not in any danger.