Rash around mouth of 4 year old

[foreverchangingnappies]

My son has had a small rash appear around his mouth the past couple of days. It’s not spots, it’s a solid red rash around the bottom of his mouth and a little on the sides which he says is sore when you touch it. Any ideas what it could be please?

He had eczema as a baby but he’s 4 now and hasn’t had it since he was about 1. He never had it around his mouth. Doesn’t have any allergies that I know about, and there is no rash anywhere else, just here. It’s kind of red and slightly raised and feels quite rough, and he says it’s sore when I try to put cream on it for him.

Thinking a trip to the pharmacist tomorrow but wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts first please

It looks like he's been licking it/sucking it.

Have you seen him doing that?

I was just going to post that.

has he eaten alot of acidic foods? Tomatoes, strawberries etc

I did wonder that, but no I’ve not seen him doing it! Any thoughts on what to put on it if that is what it is?

It’s almost certainly self inflicted - I would just stick some Vaseline around it as a preventative for now

Wash it, tap water.. Vaseline as often as poss

Definitely due to licking. My 5yo ds does the same. Put Vaseline on and tell him to stop (not that it always works with ds) and he’ll eventually get out of the habit

My youngest gets this occasional normally in the cold weather. I put vasaline on twice a day and it goes in about 4 days.

Thanks all I’ll give Vaseline a try and tell him to stop! Weird as I’ve never seen him doing it but I’ll have to keep an eye out from now on 😂

I treated DD for lip lickers dermatitis for months.
Long story short, noticed it was worse after certain foods (cheap ketchup, sweets, pretend cheese on nachos) but never happened after a roast dinner. We went to an immunologist and she said it was mast cell destabilisation caused by chemicals in food (these were way worse 20 years ago than they are now)
Went completely to a whole food diet and it disappeared. Probably did us a a family a favour as I've carried on that way ever since.
She had the odd sweet occasionally after a couple of years and rash would come back a little but go rapidly. By about 12, it stopped happening but she's not really eaten much in the way of upf other than shop bought bread and table sauces( it was such a drag making bread tbh). She had school meals at primary that were all homemade but she avoided the pink custard/blancmange type stuff.

It's probably the common cause - lip lickers dermatitis- but if it doesn't clear up, it may be worth being watchful of any dietary factors.

Oh yes, our lad gets it if he gets tomato juice / sauce, even eg bolognese round his mouth.
Then it get sore and he subconsciously kicks it.
Same with snot on the moustache bit 😑