Allergic diseases in children: poison ivy, poison sumac, and poison oak dermatitis

ALLERGIC DISEASES IN CHILDREN: POISON IVY, POISON SUMAC, AND POISON OAK DERMATITIS

The poison ivy plant is a vine which climbs on trees, hedges, or stone walls and has a leaf composed of three leaflets, two of which are opposite each other. The leaf is about three inches long, and its edges are either smooth or have notches. The plant is green in summer and turns red in the fall. In May and June it bears small clusters of greenish-white flowers which turn into white berries (not poisonous to eat) the size of a raisin during the fall. Its flowers and fruit clusters may remain on its branches after the leaves have fallen.
The poison sumac plant is a coarse woody shrub (which is known as swamp sumac) that never assumes the vine-like form of poison ivy. Its leaves are divided into from seven to thirteen pairs of leaflets, with a single leaflet at the end of the stem.
Poison oak (otherwise known as oak-leaf ivy) is a low-growing shrub which has slender, upright branches that bear leaflets similar to those of the oak tree and fruits similar to those of the poison ivy plant.
An unseen oil which coats the leaves of all of these plants may stick to the hands, shoes, or clothes of the person who touches them and may remain there for many months (strongly enough to revive the dermatitis). Smoke from a burning poison ivy plant may carry enough of this oil to cause irritation in the nose or eyes of a person standing in the vicinity of the fire.
The symptoms of poison ivy dermatitis are a slight redness in the skin followed by a mild itch which slowly increases in intensity. The redness may turn into tiny watery blisters after a few hours. These may burst, ooze, dribble over the skin, and become infected. The oozing material, however, does not spread the disease to other parts of the body or to other people. The blisters take about two weeks to heal without any medication.
Treatment of poison ivy dermatitis consists of washing the affected skin immediately with soap and water (to stop the oil from reaching the deep layers of the skin). If blisters have already formed, dressings of normal saline should be applied. If the blisters have become infected, the application should be tepid soaks of 1:10 Burrow's solution. Antihistamines may also be used if local applications fail to bring relief. In severe cases, the only treatment that may help is prednisone taken by mouth.
A child should be taught the following:
a. To identify poison ivy, poison sumac, and poison oak leaves
b. That he should immediately wash the area that has touched the plants with soap and water
? That poison ivy dermatitis may occur at any time during the year by contact with twigs of the dormant plant, but that the danger is greatest in spring and summer when the oil of the plant is abundant and lively
d. That poison ivy dermatitis is not necessarily an allergic disease and that any child may get it
e. That he may get poison ivy dermatitis by touching clothes or animals that have been contaminated with it, by inhaling the smoke of the burning plant, or by eating the buds of the plant

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