Why do children's lips turn red?

Children are very greedy and like to eat sweets or spicy foods. Some spicy foods may cause children's lips to turn red, but some children may even have pathological red lips. Parents often worry too much and send their children to the hospital for examination, but the hospital usually just performs minor treatments. In order to help parents better understand this phenomenon, here is an introduction to why children’s lips turn red.

The red area around the human lips is called the "vermilion border". Its moisture is maintained by the local abundant capillaries and a small number of underdeveloped sebaceous glands. Due to the low humidity and strong winds in autumn, the blood circulation of human skin and mucous membranes is poor. If you eat less fresh vegetables, the body's intake of vitamin B2 and vitamin A will be insufficient, and the skin and mucous membranes will become dry and cracked.

Some people like to lick their lips with their tongue to moisten them. In fact, this is a bad habit, because licking the lips can only bring temporary moisture. When the moisture on the lips evaporates, it will take away more moisture from inside the lips, causing your lips to fall into a vicious cycle of "dry - lick - drier - lick again". As a result, the more you lick, the more painful it becomes, and the more cracked your lips become. What's more, saliva contains substances such as amylase. When the wind blows, the water evaporates, taking away the heat and making the temperature of the lips lower. The amylase then sticks to the lips, causing the deep connective tissue to contract and the lip mucosa to wrinkle, making the lips drier. In severe cases, it may cause infection, swelling and pain.

The question of why children's lips turn red is a very complicated one. There are pathological reasons as well as external environmental factors. Therefore, it is very important to distinguish the reasons why children's lips turn red. Generally speaking, children's lips turn red due to hot climate and rapid water loss. Therefore, giving children proper hydration can prevent their lips from turning red.