Advice About a Rash

Sounds like fifths disease to me by the way you are describing it. It is also known as slap cheek rash, and it is viral. Is the rash warm to the touch. My kids went through slap cheek rash last summer. Its only contagious BEFORE they get the rash, and most of the time they have no symptoms before the rash appears. Sometimes kids will get a slight fever or headache before the rash appears. My doc just told me to give benadryl if they seemed uncomfortable. There is really nothing that cam be given to them. I have pics of when my kids had slap cheek. If you want to email me so I can email them to you I would be happy to do that. ____@____.com
Hope this helps!

A friend of mine has a daughter who had fifth disease. It is viral and usually the rash appears after the child has had a cold. The rash can last as long as three weeks. The doctor told her to put vaseline on her the rash on her face when she went outdoors to keep it from drying out and itching. Since it is viral there is no treatment.

My son, Will, is & has always been very allergic. We had to be
so careful with him as an infant. He is now 13 on Friday & is
doing so much better. Please e-mail me or call me so I can
give you some information on what helped us!
P. Elting - stay at home mom
____@____.com
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You might want to call your pediatrician and talk with a nurse. My son came down with little bumps all over his leg the other day and it turned out that he got a mild case of the chicken pox. It was mild because he had already been immunized. Are the bumps little red bumps? Have they crusted over? The other thing it could be is a reaction to some food, perhaps a new allergy to an old food? Could it be eczema? Hard to say!

Hi J.--My 1 year old woke up a couple of weeks ago with what sounds like a similar rash. His pediatrician said it was hand, foot, and mouth disease. It is a virus that just comes on. It was made worse by the fact that my baby was taking amoxicillan for an ear infection and apparently the virus reacted with the antibiotic and made the rash worse. Check your child's palms, feet bottoms and inside the mouth to see if the rash is there. If not, then it is not the same. We have had fifths disease and it presents similarly (but not on hands & feet)and is also a virus. There is nothing you can do with a virus except wait it out. It took my son about a week to get rid of the rash completely. Hope this helps some....B.

My son has incredibly dry skin. It looks as if he has a rash all over his body, but it is just dry skin. I lotion him up at least 2 times a day. I have found that the Huggies Shea Butter lotion is the only OTC lotion (baby lotion) that is rich enough to really work. I don't know if this is the case with your son, but this is what has worked for me!!! Hope this helps!!

My daughter had fifths disease, and the rash is a lacy rash -- it really looks like lace on the body. When I took her to the doctor, the nurse practitioner recognized fifths disease immediately because of the lacy characteristic of the rash. Sometimes, I think, the rash itches but it didn't seem to be bothering her at all. Also, I know fifths is going around in the area, so maybe that's what it is.

Sounds like a viral rash. If he still has it in a week, call th dr. All you can do is treat the symptoms. tylenol for fever/ pain.

Hi J.,

I don't know if this will help, but my oldest son has gotten something like this two times and he is 5 now. It turnes out to be a virual reaction. He didn't have any other symtoms really during the first week or so while the virus was "incubating" except for the rash. Then, slowly, everything started to show up. It was kind of weird. Both times we ended up at the Doctor's office due to me, the over reacting mother. But, at least I knew what it was. Hope this helps!

I would take my child to the doctor immediately; it could be contagious. Did he take medication prior to getting the rash. I only ask, because my kids broke out in a rash after taking medication they are allergic too. I have only recently heard of fifths disease and really do not know what it is. I have an 8 yr old son.

Hi Jody,

My daughter is like this and some of my daycare kids are but what has helped is putting Eucerin cream on them after every bath and we have cut baths 2 every other night since it has been cold.
The Eucerin cream really helps. You should give this a shot as it is probably Excema.

check with your doctor, but last year my daughter had a rash that was just viral, not contact. I just had to wait for it to go away, like you do with a cold. Good luck and make sure to ask your pediatrician!

My son had a rash that sounds very similar that started at his belt line and moved across his entire body except for rear and genital areas. After a lot of creams, antibiotics, formula changes, soap changes, etc...we were told he had exzema. He uses a cortizone ointment when it flares up and it's under control. We use Dove Unscented soap on his body and vaseline for lotion. It never bothers him- just for me to look at it!

I would take him in to the dr right away. Only because he can then tell you if he can have benadryl and that helps with rashes and if it is the fifth desease. Look it up on the computer and it will show a pic and you can see if it is the same as his. Good luck.

My 7 month old has that same rash. We took him to the doctor and they said that it was just a rash. My pediatrician said that it could be an allergy to something but it was most likely due to the weather and having the heat on. He did give us a prescription for some cream and that did help. It still comes back every now and again. Our doctor also said to try cetafil (I don't know if I spelled that right). You can get it at wal-mart. Just ask your pharmacist where it is. Also we switched soaps. We now use baby aveeno bath wash because it doesn't have soap in it. Try an aveeno oatmeal bath. We use the equate version because it is ton's cheaper. Draw a luke-warm bath and put the oatmeal in it and let your little one sit in it. After his bath apply the oatmeal lotion. When I say apply I mean slather that stuff on. Our son loves it because we massage it in. That's all I've got to give you. I hope any of these suggestions have helped. Good Luck!

-K.

My youngest son had a rash similar a couple of months ago. He had a little bit of a runny nose, but the rash came out of nowhere and was almost everywhere except the diaper area. When i took him to the doctor, they told me that some children when trying to fight off an infection develop a rash. I can't remember the technical term for it, but it was gone in less than a week. I din't think my child was sick at all, but he was fighting off something.

J.,

My 4 yr old son had fifths disease recently & looks kind of lacy. It is blotchy & worse when hot & especially in the morning. Fifths disease just has to run its course. You can find pictures on line. Good luck.

Not to worry you but one thing that you may need to check out is that maybe he could have strep throat?! Sometimes before any of the symptoms of strep show up a younger child may present with a rash first. Check his throat glands, are they swollen? Is he eating less? Your best bet is to get him in to see his doctor just to make sure everything is ok! Good luck

My daughter had a rash for about a year. We finally found out she had an allergy to nickel. The cause was the snaps in her jeans and buckles in her belts. This may not be your cause, but we were told to keep her lubricated. We were told to use Eucerin cream by her pediatric dermatologist. She slathers herself twice a day (when she has breakouts). As long as she keeps her hands clean her rash won't spread. That was a year ago and now she has a few breakouts, but not many. Sometimes the weather doesn't help, especially if it is really dry. Give baths in a mild soap also then afterward lather up with the lotion. If your regular pediatritian can't help, seek the advice of a pediatric dermatologist. Good Luck.

It could be roseola. If the bumps aren't raised, that sounds like roseola. When mine (all grown up now) had it, they had a little runny nose for a couple of days before the rash broke through. Then the rash appeared and the runny nose stopped. They didn't seem to feel bad or anything. If you have access to a 'Dr. Spock'book, that's what I used ALL THE TIME when my kids were little. When my first one got it, I asked my (then) babysitter to look at it. She told me all kids get it and not to worry. She kept him anyway. I'm not a doctor, and haven't seen your child's rash but from what you said, it could be roseola. It never seemed to bother my kids.. no itching. Just a rash. And then... it was gone. I had 5th disease, as a child. It itched.

My daughter is seven and she got fifths disease for the first time last week. It's a lacey rash all over her body and her cheeks get really rosey. I took her to her doctor just to confirm it.

Sounds like 5th's disease, but he would have had to have an exposure from somewhere like daycare or church nursery. I have twins and they both had it - didn't bother them as much as it did me!

J.,
Here is a link to a WebMD article on Fifth's. http://children.webmd.com/tc/fifth-disease-topic-overview

I am also aware, first hand, that things such as Strep Throat can be experienced as a rash instead of sore throat, but may still be contagious. (making me worry about your 6 year old who could get it as a sore throat).

I strongly recommend calling the nurse at your Dr's office for direction - they're usually VERY helpful and my first resource.

Hope that all helps.
T.

I would say if your child has had a rash for a week or longer it's more than time to get it checked. My rule of thumb is 3-4 days unless other symtoms are present. You never know, it could be nothing, but it could also be contagious.

yes, children can get rashes with fifths disease. I have heard of them lasting up to four days. Strep can cause a rash, allergic reactions to medicine, kids with fifths also have a slapped look on their cheeks....good luck

My son had fifths desease about 2 years ago. It only appears on the cheeks, as far as I know. It shows up and appears as if the child has been slapped across the face. Hence it's other name "Slap cheek disease". If your child has had a rash for a week and it is not getting better, I would take him to the doctor to be sure. I know my son had a mild case of measel (they called it something else, I don't remember what, but it was in the measels family) that acted like that. But the doctor said that was because he wasn't old enough at the time to have had all his measel vaccines.

Yes my seven year old son had it and there is nothing you can do for it, if you just go on the internet and put in fifth's disease it will tell you what you need to know. It looks alot worse than it is but there are rare severe cases. They also have pictures on the sites which are helpful as well.

It could also be a simple heat rash from warmer clothes my son does this off and on in the winter time from over heating with warmer clothes. S.

Hi J.,

My 10 month old son just had a weird rash on him for about a week too. So I decided to take him to the dr. because it just kept spreading more and more on his chest, tummy & back but no where else. The dr's never did figure out exactly what it was but they did give him some medicine. It did help a little; so you might want to consider taking him since it's been a week.

My oldest daughter has had fifths disease. It is just red blotchy spots w/ no actual bumps. But they usually run a fever with that if I'm not mistaking. I don't remember if they did anything for the fifths disease it's been a long time since she had that.

Good Luck!

My nine-month-old just got diagnosed with eczema a week or so ago. He had a rash on his cheek for a while but it started with cold, dry weather (which coincided with feeding him solids - and wiping his face a lot.) I got worried when patches started appearing on his legs, arms, and chest. Anyway...the doctor recommended cortisone and Eucerin cream. We didn't really like the idea of putting cortisone on him, so we tried Mustela's cream for eczema first, and it has been awesome! We use it twice a day. The only drawback is it is expensive, but it seems to go far.
I would say go to the doctor, and if it ends up being eczema you may want to try the Mustela. They also make a bath wash, but we have had luck with the Burt's Bees baby shampoo/soap.

We just had fifth disease. It lasts about a week and what you describe shounds EXACTLY like it. We did go to the doctor and he confirmed that is what he had.