Mystery excema - MN advice urgently needed please!

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DD4, aged six, is covered in itchy patches: the skin on her torso is dry and bobbly with some inflamed roughly circular patches edged in red, patches on her arms and wrists, patches on her cheeks and forehead, her eyelids swelled and then went pink and flaky yesterday, and her neck is covered from the chin down. Piriton has helped the itching but not the flare up. Up until now she has only ever had very very mild skin reactions to soap etc, but IS allergic to ibuprofen and reacts badly to food addittive and colourings. I am certain that no soappowder etc hs changed and that her diet is roughly the same as usual. The question is, why has this blown up so severely out of nowhere? Any ideas much appreciated as the poor little mite had her friends staying away from her at school today because she looks awful......TIA

? fungal infection? Can you google some images?

I'd say fungal infection - ringworm possibly?

Was going to suggest ringworm - that is what it sounds like.

no, looked at Washer's site and it doesn't look as severe or ordered as that - it looks more like a severe excema, especially on the neck which is entirely pink and scaly from where she keeps itching it.......just can't inderstand why a six year old would suddenly have such a flare up when she has never really suffered before? Could the cold weather do it?

My children's eczema always flared up in the cold.

Not impetigo??

Mine always gets worse in the cold. I think it's the extreme changes of temperature going from outside to in all the time plus the drying effects of central heating.

What do you normally put on her? I just have to up the amount of emollient I use (at least twice a day) and put the odd bit of steroid cream on the really bad bits.

It could be the cold - it is known to be an eczema trigger factor - I know I'm not 6, but my eczema is soooo bad at the moment - my skin is dry, flaky and itchy, itchy, itchy. Not very nice! Am finding aqueous cream in the bath / shower (which you can buy from any chemist) is helping and slathering loads of diprobase cream on whenever I remember is helping. Dead boring, but I'd say moisturise like hell all weekend, make sure she wears soft cotton and nothing to exacerbate the itch, and try and see your GP on Monday. Keep up with the piriton, but don't forget it can make her drowsy. Maybe she's eaten something new with some dodgy colouring in? Alternatively, is anything worrying her at all? Stress can sometimes strigger it too - sadly, there's nothing quite as comforting as a damn good scratch sometimes! Don't forget you can always call NHS direct.. Hope this helps - good luck x

if its circular it could be whats known as discoid eczma. this is the same as normal eczma but as the name says, forms in round patches.
It can sometimes be caused by insect bites and stings (which i know is probably unlikely in this weather), or the temperature (my 16mo ds skin has flared up..im blaming it on the dry air from the central heating!) or sometimes from having reactions to food (most often dairy or certain additives, particularly orange colourings, so wotsits, orange squash, prawn cocktail etc).
the best thing i can suggest too is buy some emollient cream or a good unscented moisturisr (such as E45) and apply that at least twice a day! when you bathe DD make sure the water is tepid because too hot water dries out the skin, and try to avoid scented soaps etc, just bathe with water if possible. also if possible dress dd in natural materials to keep her skin cool to help with the irritation.
give it a while using the E45 (or whatever) then visit the gp..he/she may be able to prescribe a different type of emollient to lock in the moisture and maybe a bath additive too and if its infected (if its weeping or really red raw) he/she may prescribe a mild steroid, which will hopefully make a noticable difference within a day!!!
hope this helps... they are just a few things ive learnt from treating my sister and ds (and some people i look after at work).

have you checked out Psoriasis?
That said, it sounds like either one of the more severe sorts of eczema, or an allergic reaction - get her checked out by a doctor asap?! Have you tried antihistamine (medicine)?

Sounds a bit like something I had once - viral I think (?) called pityriasis rosea - oval patches slightly raised, pink, very itchy? I normally get mild ezcema and it looked at bit like that but more regular shaped patches. You could try googling it? No treatment other than antihistamines I'm afraid, just used lots of calamine cream and it went of its own accord.

Wow, thanks for that greenlawn - I'd just seeen this thread after bathing my dd and she has come up in an eczema-type rash all over her torso this week. every day more and more appears, and it looks just like the google pics for pityriasis rosea. It's a relief to read about it TBH, as I thought she may have a mystery allergy to add to food intolerances. Fingers crossed it is this - did your doc diagnose you?

Hi hobnob, this was some years ago, but I saw my GP and he said he thought it was just stress-related - when it didn't clear up, I got referred to a dermatologist who diagnosed it. It starts with a single patch I think called a herald patch? Larger than the rest - mine was just under where my bra goes - then the others start appearing in patterns round it.

It went after about 6-8 weeks, but was very very itchy. The dermatologist said it can be brought on by stress and being run down. Take your dd to the GP and actually mention what you think it is, as my GP had never heard of it!!

Wow - thanks for all the helpful advice . I have googled all suggestions and the likely culprit is allergic contact excema, particularly from the description of how it slowly spreads out across the body - problem is I cannot recall where the first patch was! As she had cousins here over Christmas she could have eaten anything/been bathed accidentally in something etc etc without me knowing. I am going to take all advice re emollients etc and try and get a GP appointment for next week.

I had a random patch of contact eczema that then spread over my torso of on my body last year that was totally different from any other eczema I had experienced (had regular eczema when a child) They gave me a mild steroid which cleared it up and advised to cut out all shower/bath products and just to use emoilliant instead.