Anyone any experience with perioral dermatitis

[gigantosaurusisreallyenormous]

After a few calls with gp and one face to face visit, my just 2 year old has been diagnosed with perioral dermatitis. He has this awful rash on his cheeks, chin and across his top lip. Sometimes it fades and then an hour later it's back to bright red again. He's had it on and off now for about 3 months and tried various different creams.
Gp has now prescribed Zineryt, which is antibiotic and normally used for acne. It stings his poor little face when I put it on and he rubs it straight away. We've only started this a few days ago but gp said can take 6-8 weeks to go.
I suppose I'm looking for light at the end of the tunnel. I wish I could just take it away for him. It looks awful sore then really dry and he itches his chin a lot (using piriton)
Has anyone's child had this and it's gone away?



Hopefully this has added a photo...

I have perioral dermatitis myself, not all the time but it flares up every now and again. I can't advise for a child, obviously, but as an adult, my only solution is taking a 28day course of Lymocycline tablets (sometimes takes 2 x courses to clear up fully). Might be worth exploring with the GP?- I have no idea if Lymocycline is suitable for children, or if there is an alternative?

I have tried lots of topical creams in the past; some (strong) steroid creams will keep it at bay short term, but don't ever get rid of it. (Also, using steroid cream on your face is actually a terrible idea, so definitely don't do that with your DS!)

My 12 year old daughter got this a year or two ago. I found a Facebook support group and this cream was recommended. I thoroughly recommend it too. It cleared up her face in a matter or weeks. She still uses the cream every few days to keep it at bay as the jar lasts a lifetime! It’s natural too which I was looking for.

This stuff

Yes my two year old had it too. Vile. Several courses of ABs, saw a dermatologist who was quite dismissive...we eventually worked out that celery was a trigger. Not the celery you eat, can’t imagine many self respecting two year olds would be seen dead with the stuff! But celery hidden in food. Ketchup being the main culprit. Realised it flared every time she had Heinz...but not MacDonald’s ketchup. After a fair bit of research twigged it’s celery. Buy a celery free ketchup from
Waitrose amd she hasn’t had a flare up since

Thank you so much for the replies. Will have a look at that cream @ImaHogg !
I'm trying my best to figure out the trigger at the moment- he hates most 'saucy' things so doesn't eat ketchup, beans etc. He eats a lot of fruit but not sure how to figure it out other than stopping different stuff 1by1.
It's just so horrible I feel so awful for him. I might start a diary of food and what his face is like after eating them.

In our case we could literally see it getting redder and angrier as she ate it. We assumed it was ketchup as a whole and the dermatologist was adamant it couldn’t be that and told us to keep giving it as it wouldn’t be that 🙄 we obviously stopped when we knew it was! She accidentally had some at maccies with a family member and was fine which threw us. Gave her the Heinz again and she flared instantly. Realised it was an ingredient and eventually with a fair bit of trial and error realised it’s celery.
A food diary sounds a great way to go. Good luck it’s horrible to see them plastered in that rash xx

@ImaHogg
How long before you started seeing the cream work. I've ordered it online and started using it on Wednesday (obviously not expecting a miracle) and wondering how long it took.
It's really flaky and broken now and I just can't bring myself to put the stuff off the gp on it cos he screams and it must sting like hell :(

[quote gigantosaurusisreallyenormous]@ImaHogg
How long before you started seeing the cream work. I've ordered it online and started using it on Wednesday (obviously not expecting a miracle) and wondering how long it took.
It's really flaky and broken now and I just can't bring myself to put the stuff off the gp on it cos he screams and it must sting like hell :( [/quote]
Oh bless him, it’s not a nice condition. I would say it took about 7-10 days before it calmed down. Dd still uses it now as in all honesty it flares up quite quickly if she stops using it. It did go quite red and flaky for a while and I did start to wonder if it wasn’t doing much but it really has helped.
We did have to cut back on dairy and sugar for a while too.
There is also a support group on Facebook which has helpful tips. It’s Perioral Dermatitis Support.
Hope it helps him

@ImaHogg
Thank you so much. It's definitely gone very flaky but I will stick with it. I struggle to get dairy in him! But will defo try cutting back on sugar.
Hopefully I'll be back in a couple of weeks with an 'after pic'
Thanks for you help!

We had this and eventually realised the trigger was apple flavour xylitol baby toothpaste. Swapped to an organic kids orange one and it soon faded and has totally cleared up. Good luck with yours!

Perioral dermatitis can be difficult to treat.

I get it occasionally and antibiotics do not clear mine at all. Antifungal stuff does, however. I use daktarin, but there are a few different options.

I'd try and figure out any triggers, use something very light to moisturise (LA Roche Posay toleraine ultra) and try an antifungal cream.

If the prescription stuff is hurting him, I'd stop. Is it an azelaic acid? Because that stings like hell.

I get this. Certain toothpastes cause it, I’m not sure why (Oral B - within a day my mouth is split and sore) and when I’m run down it flares up as well. B vitamins help, eating Marmite also seems to help for some reason and when it gets really bad Daktacort/Daktarin cream fixes it. Best of luck x

@DonLewis yes I think it is something like that but I have stopped using cos it obviously really hurts him.
Does anyone with it experience flares throughout the day. I'm keeping a food diary with pictures of his face but I can't pinpoint anything at the moment. One day it will be really dull and dry and I think yay it's working. Then the next it's bright red and spread!!
I'm wondering if being outside could make it worse? I think it may seem better on days we haven't been out anywhere ?

And have switched to orange organic toothpaste already 🙂

Try switching from tap water to bottled

@user1488722687
Thank you! Added to the list to try!

I don't have food triggers for mine. Being tired and run down will do it for me. And it can come and go during the course of a day. Although when I'm in a flare, it never properly goes.

Like I say, it can be very hit and miss. Some people find the azelaic acid brillaint for it. I didn't. It made it worse. Oral antibiotics too.

Sometime people find a combination of antibiotics and antifungals work. For me, I only need the antifungal stuff. And I need to use the daktarin periodically when I'm not having a flare up to keep it at bay.

What general moisturiser are you using?