(June 30) -- You can use it to make your whites brighter, but a study confirms you can also use bleach to give relief to children with eczema.

The results of the research, published in the May issue of the journal Pediatrics, found that bathing kids with the skin disease in diluted bleach can greatly reduce the itching, rashes and discomfort that it causes, USA Today reported.

People with eczema often get patches of the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus on their skin because of scratching, and it can make their symptoms worse. The bleach kills the bacteria, lessening the symptoms in children with moderate or severe eczema, Amy Paller, the study's lead investigator, told the paper.

"This is a study that was based on the fact that we've known for many years that diluted solutions of bleach can be antibacterial," she said.

Although this is the first scientific study to find that bleach can help, many dermatologists have been recommending it to their patients for 20 years.

In the study, 31 patients were split into two groups. Half were given a bottle with bleach and the other half were given a bottle with water. They were told to wash for five to 10 minutes twice a week in a bath with a half-cup of the solution they were given, and doctors weren't told which group was given bleach and which was given water.

After a month, doctors said they saw a "significant decrease" in eczema symptoms in the group using bleach.

"It is a component that helps a bit, but it's not God's gift to eczema patients," Robert Brodell, a professor of internal medicine and dermatology at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, told USA Today.

The study was done at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.