What ever can this terrible rash be?...............

[AdelaideS]

.......on my poor ds2, 7months. It started in december, around his mouth, very red dry skin. Thought it was just "dribble rash" to start with, it flares up several times a day with no discernable pattern. Doc thinks it may be related to the crusty (not wet) discharge that has been coming from his left ear for about 4 months. But he's on his 2nd lot of antibiotics and no improvement at all. It bothers him, he tries to scratch his ear and rubs his face. Waiting for swab test results.....taking ages. Am wondering whether it may be fungal, have googled my brain to oblivion.
Anything similar anyone?

eczema? DS's definitely has cycles during the day when it's more red.

Be careful with too much antibiotics while you don't know what it is - that's paving the way for a thrush infection (which it might be?)

When will the swabs be back?

It sounds like eczema, which both my ds's had at exactly the same age and starting in the winter (and hv told me it was dribble rash to start with). But maybe not if you have seen the doctor aleady and he/she hasn't mentioned it?

Well the doctor thought not eczema, but I agree with you LC about antibiotics, they haven't helped at all so I've stopped the 2nd lot.
I've tried aqueous cream which seems to make it flare up, I'm just using vaseline as a barrier at the moment. Hopefully test results early next week, but you know how it is, the weekend's here and of course it's flared up and is worse than ever. It does seem to be getting gradually worse as the weeks go on.

aqueous cream makes my eczema worse - we use one called cetraben here and another called epiderm for more serious flare ups (it's more greasy). You can also get the cetraben as a bath additive.

In the meantime I'd stop using any sort of soap/bubblebath or any other scented products just until you know what it is. At 7 months you only really need to use water to clean them anyway - it's not like they have BO! The epidurm stuff can be used as a soap substitute in the bath too but it makes them slippery as eels.

I have to say this sounds just like what happened when my ds1 got eczema. In the end we had hydrocortisone cream with antibiotics in the cream, until the rash went down and stopped being inflamed. Then we had Epaderm (waxy stuff) to put on to stop the skin getting dry - and actually this was (still is) great. I found some of the things they give you for moisturising/prevention actually make it worse - Doublebase (I think this is like aqueous cream) was okay but not as good as Epaderm.

Having said all that, your GP doesn't think it's eczema so perhaps I should keep quiet...

This is why i'm a bit despairing LC, as I've never used anything in his bath, well just the odd and rare occasion and not for ages. I just can't seem to discern any pattern to the flare ups. Interesting about the aqueous cream though, if the swab tests don't show anything I'll try some of the stuff you recommend. Is it usual to get eczema around the mouth though, and nowhere else? (dd had the merest hint of it on the backs if her knees just once in her babyhood.)

Thanks Mollyhawk, I am beginning to think it may be eczema

You can get it anywhere as far as I know. DS1 only had the tiniest patch too - then DS2 comes along and it's everywhere. We're exploring the dairy allergy route with him.

Hope he swabs show something. It's awful to see them suffer like that.

btw my spellings are probaly wrong for the creams - but you get the idea!

We were also told by HV to bath DS2 every day with the cetraben stuff as eczema babies need all the old creams and dead cells washing off. Since we started doing this it has been significantly better.

Aah, interesting, I've been avoiding bathing him. Might get some of this epaderm tomorrow, bit scarey though, but I don't think it could be worse than the aqueous cream.

Thanx you two, off to bed.