Facial rash - could it be excema?

[Sheila]

Hi all,

I have a red rash around my chin and from my nose to the corners of my mouth. It's itchy and flaky - nice. I've had it for a while and think it's getting worse (i.e. more noticeable) and I'm getting very self-conscious about it. Is it excema do you think? Can anyone recommend any creams/teatment for it? At the moment I wash my face with soap and water and just put normal moisturiser on - obviously that's not doing much good! I'd like to avoid a GP visit if I can.

my ds has just had this, I thought at first it was school sores but it wasn't we used oilatum bath wash diluted to clean it with cotton swabs, then aplied oilatum moisturiser at night and homepthic nelson graphites (dermatitis) cream in the morning
It cleared up in 2 days.

I'd say that the soap and water are not doing your skin any favours - too harsh and drying. Aqueous cream from boots is dirt cheap for a huge tub and can be used as a soap and/or moisturiser, you could try switching to that to wash your face with or using a cleanser for sensitive skin to see if that helps. Also check whether your mosituriser manufacturer has changed any ingredients which could be a factor as well.

I have this atm

my gp says dermatitis due to being a hormonal pg old bag

heavy moisturisers help and I have switched to using a tissue off cleanser instead of a rinse off one. It is 'under control'. drink plenty of water. Hydrocortisone will take redness out but you shouldnt really use it on your face.

Why not try hydrocortisone 1%? I might help. You can get it in Boots, I know E45 do a cream.
However, should the rash get worse you must stop the hydrocortisone because bacterial infections thrive on steroids, so might need a topical antibiotic if that is the case.
Otherwise maybe it's just chapped?

1% hydrocortisone would be okay Enid but no you shouldn't use anything stronger.

I'm suffering the same.
GP said it was eczema/psoriasis as had similar flakey patches in my hair/scalp and across my eyelids. Nice!
I found it was worse when I was lazy and just used soap and water to clean my face. I now use Eve Lom cleanser... which is fab.
I was prescribd a mild hydrocortisone cream 0.1% which cleared the scalp and eyes within a few days. I still use the HC around my mouth at times (2-3 days in a month perhaps) to keep things calm, but usually drinking plenty of water, using liberal doses of moisturiser and getting plenty of sleep do the trick.

1% is too strong on your face, only go with 0.1%. Boots wouldnt sell you HC45 for just facial use, I know, I tried once.

My neice has something that sounds identical, and my DD has had it too. The GP (in DD's case) said it was probably a combination of eczema plus either a mild fungal or bacterial infection, and told me to treat it with Fucidin H (which does have low dose steroid in it) and Daktarin as well as moisturiser. I tried Daktarin first, which did nothing - so moved on to Fucidin, which did the trick. Neice ditto.

Thanks very much for all these helpful messages. Rash is a little better since I stopped using soap and water on it and tried slapping on more moisturiser. Haven't made it to a chemist yet to get Aqueous cream and E45 but I'll give both a go. Think hormones (I'm pre-menstrual), cold weather and stress might all be contributing factors - what a cocktail!

Thanks again.