Measles?!

[tiredybear]

Hi

My 13month old son has been unable to have the MMR vaccination as he is waiting for an operation. He's been a bit under the weather the last few days, really snotty but nothing too serious. This morning, when I was putting him down for his nap his face had gone really blotchy and when I undressed him he had a big angry blotchy rash all over his thighs.He's not got a temperature though. He's had a lighter rash on his torso, front and back for a few weeks but the nurse has said it's just mild eczema.
Has anyone else had experience with measles? could this be it?

[PotOfYoghurt]

Could be a viral rash, but contact GP if you're concerned. Do you have a picture?

[BarbarianMum]

Contact a GP if you are concerned but it doesn't sound like a measles rash (google measles rash images maybe?) and my experience is that children with measles are really ill - very high temperature, in pain, not eating, very lethagic.

[damianlewislookslikeanoctopus]

There's a measles outbreak in London at the moment if you happen to live there.
I had it when I was 9 (no vaccine back then). I had pain behind my eyes for days before and was light sensitive. Then was very ill with v high fever, cough, and an extremely blotchy non itching rash. I suppose though it's possible to have it mildly. The rash spreads downwards from top to toe. Definitely contact doctor as they will want to see him and arrange for a way to check him over without exposing other people just in case.

[tiredybear]

Thanks, the nurse checked him out and it seems to be an allergy (not sure to what yet!).

[neolara]

I was about to post that 2 GPs thought my dd had measles when she was about 15 months. In retrospect and in the light of subsequent developments, I realised that the rash was almost certainly an allergic reaction to peanuts.

[AuntieStella]

I'm old enough to pre-date all measles vaccinations.

Measles rash classically starts behind the ears, then spreads over face and neck, down to the torso and down the limbs. It starts as individual spots, then coalesces into a kind of lacy pattern. It vanished in the order it arrives, and the patient is normally over it (and reckoned non-contagious) when it's gone. You'd expect a high temperature just before the rash appears and in the first few days it's there.

Obviously, there will be some atypical cases, just as there are other rash-causing viruses that can produce a spread that looks awfully like measles (which is why they lab test to confirm individual cases and those at the start of a clump).

If it is measles, all you can do is nurse attentively, and seek medical advice again if any symptoms worsen dramatically or if new symptoms appear. But I guess most people would do that whether they had an official measles diagnosis or not.