Vitiligo in children

[Rosieposie97]

Hi,

My 6 year old has started developing white patches and the gp has confirmed he thinks it is vitiligo and advised us to just keep an eye on for now.

Does anyone have experience of this in children?

I'm not sure if I should be pushing to try any treatment or a referral to a dermatologist.

Sorry, I don't have any answers but was just searching for this topic as my 19mo DD has a patch on her leg so I have similar questions. My DH has it and doesn't seem to think there's any treatment available but I'd be interested to know if anyone has accessed anything that helps. Hopefully this will bump your post so someone with experience will see it.

DD, who is now 16 has had it and we first noticed it when she was around 3.
The main thing is to be careful to put on lots of sun-cream as the non-pigmented skin will burn easily.
She also takes a vitamin D supplement in winter as her skin gets less sun because of the suncream.
We have not pursued any treatments as DD has just learnt to live with it- she's had periods in school where others pointed and asked what it was but by and large she just got on with it. DD is mixed race so it is quite obvious especially in the summer when her skin darkens; but it might not be really visible at all in a paler skinned child. DD did go through a period (maybe around age 12?) where she got very self conscious about it, so we helped her cover up the visible patches on her face with make up. She quickly got bored with doing that and just decided that she wasn't that bothered though. I think it does help that there are now more well known people with the condition, so it's not seen as just a weird thing.

We were told that steroid treatment might be an option but I wasn't really happy about doing that for a child unless necessary, so we've just gone for the living with it/covering up options. Obviously you might feel differently if it's very extensive/obvious.

Where are the white patches? Could it be something else like pityriasis alba? I think a dermatologist can shine a special light in to know for sure.

Thank you for the responses, she currently has them behind and over her knees, both hips and under her arm. The patches are completely smooth so I'm thinking the doctor is probably right in thinking it's vitiligo

We have it for my 6 year old son too - and my husband has it so it is genetic in our case. Very small spots as of now two near eye lids and two on knees. We did see a dermatologist mainly to confirm it is vitiligo and he has given us a non steroid cream to try mainly on the face as I want to arrest the spread on the face at least. Other than that he told us to look into gingko herb as there are studies that prove it can be helpful. I have also heard of homeopathy working for some, but we havent tried that yet. DS isnt at all bothered by it as of now, but I think he is too young anyway.

The Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 had a very interesting article on this today if you would like to listen to it on BBC Sounds.