Red skin below dd's eyes

[Fenty1]

My daughter aged 8 has had red skin under her eyes, where we would have eye bags, for about 6 months now. The skin is not dry or sore at all. It almost looks like blood vessels underneath the skin. She previously had very good skin with no history of eczema etc. Has anybody else had this? The doctor and pharmacists don't seem to want to know.

Does she wear glasses?

No she has never worn glasses

So, dd age 8 has red skin below her eyes which a doctor has now said looks like visible blood vessels. They have been there for months now. Doctor said it could be hormones but hasn't really done anything about it. Any advice?

Hi @Fenty1

My 4yr old has an almost identical issue. No soreness, looks like blood vessels, been there since mid winter (so 6 months ish), seems to flare up at random times, not a glasses wearer, no history of skin conditions…

Did you get to any kind of answers?

Nick1939,
We finally saw a dermatologist who diagnosed it as telangiectasia, basically spider veins. Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done about them. Childhood spider veins can often disappear but this can take several years ☹️ The only way to remove them is laser treatment. I got our doctor to refer us to a laser specialist and am currently waiting to hear back from a hospital who specialises in this kind of thing. It is taking a long time though.

@Fenty1

Thank you for responding, I appreciate it.

our little girl has had it for over year, we have discovered looking back over photos, but it is barely present on some days, some days not there at all, and others it’s very prominent and in the last week has at times covered lower onto the cheek… is that your experience or has yours always had it as strong? Sorry to ask further questions, I googled Telangiectasia and there are some quite concerning versions of it. The images seem more spider like too, whereas ours is more a general redness / maybe pinprick type redness.

Does she have any signs of allergies, whether food or seasonal, or maybe to animals? This does look like the classic "allergy shiner"

That was one of my thoughts too. Alternatively, very occasionally children can develop rosacea.
if’s an odd one and the diagnosis of spider veins doesn’t really explain why they’re symmetrical.

No known allergies at all. No history of skin conditions. It certainly seems to come and go, but is almost identical on both sides. Typically it looks just like the photo posted by @Fenty1 . She has had tonsillitis 4x since December, though, and has therefore had 4 bouts of penicillin, finishing the last of a 10 day stint last week. The medication didn’t seem to influence the redness on her face, and wouldn’t explain why it’s been there for over a year. Anticipating a vague, non-committal response from a GP, appt booked for Wednesday.

Nick1939
My daughter's redness has always been in the same place- directly below each eye. It can be less red at times but has never spread further down the face. Good luck with a doctors appointment- they really did not want to know when it came to our first couple of appointments and we were sent off with various creams to try, none of which ever worked. However I kept on till I was given a dermatology appointment and now hopefully some time soon, a hospital referral. It's so tricky because you know it is not a "major" issue and yet something is not quite right. Let me know if you have any further questions because I could find nothing about this when it first flared up 14 months ago.

Thank you @Fenty1 , you’ve hit the nail on the head saying you know something is amiss, but it’s seemingly nothing to worry too much about.

I suspect it may well be the same issue you’re facing, our Daughter’s comes and goes a bit but is always in the same place (I think when it appears larger it’s because she is flushed / has a fever or whatever). We’ve found nothing online, as you say, when I saw your photo and showed it to my wife, we both said “that’s exactly it!”…

Nick1939
Let me know how you get on at the doctors and I'll keep you posted if we ever hear back regarding our hospital referral 🙂

@Fenty1

As suspected. Appointment lasted about 2mins, doctor said it was dry skin and to put an emollient on it. Done. I mentioned childhood spider veins, he just shrugged at that and showed us the door. Great.

I’m so glad to have come across this feed. Thank you for posting! My 4 year old has had this for approx the past 6months. It started once we started a mold protocol for her. I thought she may have been starting to react to food but now I’m thinking maybe it’s the herbs. I’m constantly trying to work out what flares it up and why it almost disappears some days only to be super bright the next morning. Any leads on working it out? I should mention hers isn’t symmetrical this eye is always the more intense in colour and how often it is under this eye. The other sometimes flares but this one seems to be the main culprit

My DD had this for a while. It turned out to be a reaction to A1 milk protein. I now just buy the A2 milk. She doesn't get it if she has that. Any time she has milk when out (which tends to be A1), she very quickly gets it again. Then and only then. It's very noticeable.

My 3 year old has this! I’ve searched the internet and this is the only thing that looks similar. I’ve been worried that it was sun burn but we haven’t really have any sun 😆 thanks for sharing. Hope you all got some answers

My daughter has this. We have checked with dermatologist and they have given some cream but it's not working. He asked us to revisit after 15 days. Let's see but looking at the comments above it seems there is no treatment