New Pediatric Atopic Dermatitis Updates for 2026, With Dawn Eichenfield, MD, PhD

At the 2026 Maui Derm Hawaii conference, Dawn Eichenfield, MD, PhD, of Rady Children’s Hospital–San Diego and the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, spoke on-site with the HCPLive team regarding the rapidly shifting pediatric dermatology landscape, highlighting both therapeutic updates and various types of practical clinical considerations.1,2

In her previous interview segment, Eichenfield emphasized the expanding set of potential systemic options now available for children, especially biologics for psoriasis.1 In this interview segment regarding additional sessions Eichenfield participated in, she pointed to the value of understanding a biologic’s mechanism of action, ongoing questions around disease modification in atopic dermatitis, and various practical pearls, including strategies to reduce injection-related anxiety and discomfort among children.

The following transcription summarizes Eichenfield’s on-site interview with HCPLive at the 2026 Maui Derm conference:

HCPLive: We would like to know more about some of the biggest takeaways from your Maui Derm workshop, the master class in pediatric dermatology.

Eichenfield: Today, we did a workshop where we got to talk a lot more about taking care of kids. I actually talked about hair disorders, and based on looking at kids with telogen effluvium as well as alopecia areata. Actually, rarely, we sometimes get scarring disorders in pediatric dermatology as well. Then it was really nice, because we had a round table discussion with the other folks who were talking during the pediatric master class workshop. We got a chance to kind of see how other people approach really bad cases of androgenetic alopecia or alopecia areata, and how they dose their minoxidil. What do they do? First, topical minoxidil, then oral minoxidil. So it was a really, it was a really great, intriguing discussion that we had.

HCPLive: Would you go a bit more into depth on the dosing of minoxidil that you discussed there?

Eichenfield: You look at the pediatric literature…there was actually a recent PD study where they looked at it, and it was an international study looking at androgenetic areata. It was really interesting because in that study, most people were on topical minoxidil. Nowadays, we're starting to use a lot more oral minoxidil. So I would say, if you looked at things like five, ten years ago, people were probably just doing topical minoxidil. But now, [we use oral minoxidil more], just because we feel like low-dose oral minoxidil is a lot safer and we have a lot more evidence for its use.

Also, we're definitely using it more in our pediatric and adolescent populations. So generally, for a girl, we probably would start with a quarter of a tablet. A tablet is like 2.5 milligrams. So a quarter is like 0.625. Then for males, we would start probably with 1.25, and of course, this is in kids who don't have other medical issues. No heart issues, no issues with their blood pressure, not on other concurrent medications that would interfere or have other side effects that are related to the minoxidil.

I think the big [takeaway] is really just the fact that we sometimes underdiagnose pediatric androgenetic alopecia, and sometimes we can misdiagnose some of our pediatric hair disorders. It's also very important to come to the correct diagnosis so that we can facilitate the correct management.

HCPLive: What are some of the key takeaways about HSV that you hope clinicians walk away with?

Eichenfield: I think the case that I presented is a very interesting case in that the clinical presentation is of an immunocompromised patient. It's always when you're looking at blisters, hemorrhagic blisters, hemorrhagic crusting, or ones that look punched out when you definitely want to consider HSV. Sometimes it could be something you're not even thinking of, and it can mimic some other diseases as well. So, that's definitely something to think about for the measles case. I think in our in this day and age, when some parents are not sure about vaccinations, and when it's kind of political and controversial, I think it's important for healthcare providers to know what measles looks like, and to really consider that in their differential where they're approaching pediatric patients with rashes.

Then, finally, we covered Leishmania. It's really interesting because I live in San Diego, and we definitely get a lot of patients who kind of come across the border. We've had a number of refugees who come through, who've actually had more kinds of tropical or exotic diseases. Leishmania is one of them, because they kind of came through the Darién Gap, while we were getting some refugees from that area.

HCPLive: Moving to a broader subject, what are you most excited or intrigued about in the field of dermatology in 2026 and beyond?

Eichenfield: I think there's a lot that's in development, both in science and in clinical medicine, that we're going to be excited about for pediatric dermatology. Anything genetic-related is always exciting, because we always want to be able to better diagnose our patients before we start treatments. Then finally, as I had mentioned before, our patients don't like shots. So, some of the oral biologics coming out that will be very exciting to us, there are companies that are working on looking at biologics where you're going to be able to space out how often you get the shots. That, of course, will be very interesting to our patients, because no one likes shots. I think we have so much to look forward to this year and the coming years in dermatology.

The quotes used in this interview transcript were edited for clarity.

Eichenfield had no relevant disclosures of note for this discussion.

References

1. Eichenfield D, Frieden I, Treat J, et al. Fallon Friedlander S, Treat J, et al. Master Classes in Pediatric Dermatology. Presented at the 2026 Maui Derm Hawaii Conference, January 25-29.

2. Eichenfield D. Spotlighting Pediatric Dermatology Updates for 2026, With Dawn Eichenfield, MD, PhD. HCPLive. January 29, 2026. Accessed February 13, 2026. https://www.hcplive.com/view/spotlighting-pediatric-dermatology-updates-2026-dawn-eichenfield-md-phd.