White patches of skin that won't tan

[redskyatnight]

DD has white patches of skin on her elbows, knees, ankles and a few other random places that just won't tan. The rest of her tans very easily so at the moment most of her skin is quite a golden brown colour and they stick out like a sore thumb.

They don't bother her in any way but I am worried that she will get self concious about them when she is older so wonder if anyone knows what might be causing them and whether they are likely to "go away"? I used to think it was where she'd fallen and cut herself and it was the scar tissue that wasn't tanning, but this year they seem too widespread for that.

DD is mixed race (white/asian) but her natural (non-tanned) skin colour is pretty "white" if that's relevant.

I have vitiligo which is when you lose your pigmentation in patches leading to the sort of thing you are describing. It also started with me on jointed areas (knuckles, elbows, knees) and spread. I wouldn't want to profess to being a vitiligo guru so I would suggest you see your gp who may refer your DD to a dermatologist or may just diagnose it themselves.

There are other things that could cause this though, such as fungal issues, so rather than bore you with loads of vitiligo info yet, get her checked by a gp. If they do say vitiligo, I am more than happy to chat to you more about it. I developed it when I was 12.

Hope that helps just a little (probably not as all I've really said is go see your gp!! sorry).

I also have vitelligo and had it from birth. I agree you need to get a GP to check if it is vitelligo you need to be very vigilant about sun cream as the white areas will burn really badly. Vitelligo gets worse as you get older as your body destroys more melanin it covers around 75 percent of my body now. I was unfortunate unusually it went crazy when I was pregnant.
Vitelligo is linked to several other immune mediated conditions some of which I have including pernicious anaemia and mixed connective tissue disease.