In a recent interview, Melissa Joan Hart talked about a family struggle many can relate to, Eczema. She and her husband, Mark Wilkerson, took a while to figure out what was wrong with one of their sons’ skin. Their family doctor helped them figure out it was eczema, a chronic skin condition that’s often misunderstood. Hart’s mission now is to spread awareness and offer support to others.
Initially Melissa Joan Hart wasn’t quite sure what was going on with her son’s skin. Hart revealed it took her some time to identify the skin condition affecting one of her sons in an exclusive interview with People. “It took us a while to figure out exactly what it was,” the 48-year-old actress said, noting that as a parent, it can be challenging to differentiate between poison ivy and a rash.
“We visited our family doctor and it was diagnosed as eczema,” says the Sabrina the Teenage Witch alum, who has three children with her husband, singer-songwriter Mark Wilkerson. Their children are Mason, 18, Braydon, 16 and Tucker, 11.
A chronic skin disease, eczema causes “dry, itchy and inflamed skin,” and flare-ups, according to the Mayo Clinic. Flare-ups can range in severity, from dry, cracked skin to rashes to oozing. To educate and support those living with eczema and other skin disorders, Hart partnered with AbbVie to host the Science of Skin panel on August 8.
“I hope that it sheds some light on people who might feel alone,” says the former Nickelodeon star. People reports that she sees friends covering up psoriasis and eczema and that her siblings also suffer from the skin condition. “They’re constantly kind of pulling at their clothes to try to hide this thing, and that thing and we all do it with different things but especially around chronic skin disease, there seems to be the shame.”
As a caregiver, she says the “number one thing is to work together as a family, with your dermatologist, with your healthcare provider, to really come up with a plan because as soon as you can manage symptoms, you’ll be better in control,” she added, saying that “getting ahead of it is essential for our family.”
The worst time for her son, who suffers from eczema, is dryness and wintertime, so she makes sure to treat it before he goes to sleep. A plan is the difference between a controlled skin disease and a chronic skin disease, she adds. “We want to protect our families in any way we can.”
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