DS age 14 months has had bad rashes around his mouth since about his first birthday in October. It's red and very dry and rough feeling. It also sometimes looks a bit spotty. It seems to be from contact with food or his own saliva - it looks aggravated after mealtimes or especially when he gets up in the morning, as he sleeps face down so essentially in a puddle of his own saliva! The rest of the kind on his body is perfect, and we just use big standard Asda baby bubble bath and shampoo and normal clothes detergents without any issues.
I've taken him to the GP twice. The first time it was especially bad looking and she prescribed hydrocortisone 1% for a week, and 50-50 emollient. The hydrocortisone cleared it up beautifully but unfortunately stopping it made the rash come back. I tried multiple moisturisers - 50-50, Zeroderm, Aveeno, E45, Eucerin, various combinations of thinner moisturisers with thicker barrier creams on top - nothing seemed to sort it out apart from using the steroid again for a few days. I was reluctant to do this though because I know the problems with long term steroid use on the face, and also I thought that 1% was quite a strong concentration for the face.
So this morning we were at the GP again, a different GP, but I'm quite confused. She described it as perioral dermatitis. She said that 1% was not particularly strong for the face and they'd be happy to prescribe it even to a newborn. However she also said that it was best to stop using the steroid, because even though it may be clearing up the skin, withdrawing from it can cause bigger flare-ups. Fine, I get the logic. But she then prescribed Timodine, to be used 4 times a day, without explaining what was in it. When I read the leaflet I see that it actually has hydrocortisone 0.5% in it, and what's more it says not to use it for perioral dermatitis! 
I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on this - the use of Timodine on this kind of rash, and also any tips on anything else we could try to clear this up. I wash his sheets separately with Surcare. It's just occurred to me that changing his toothpaste might help, as the residue in his saliva might not be agreeing with his skin. Please help if you know anything about this!