red rash on arms and legs.... any clues?

[MerlinsBeard]

DS1 has a red rash on his arms that goes half way up his upper arm and on his legs that goes up to his knees. He says its not itchy or sore but its hot and his arms are slightly swollen. ANy clues what this is?
He is nornal in himself, has had nothing unusal to eat and we haven't changed washing powder.

(by the way i am googling as well but figured i would get a less scary answer here!)

google not really helping much

sorry, should mention that he is 4.5 - if that makes a difference.

google coming up with slapped cheek but its not that. need to know as i am PG and we are going out this afternoon so don'tw ant to pass on anything that may harm someone esle!

Could be an allergic reaction. I get a similar rash on my arms after drinking some wines and vodka, the top of my forearm and base of my upper arm go hot and red and slightly swollen, a bit like blushing/teething cheeks iyswim. Is that how he gets it, or does he get bumps, blisters or scabbing?

He has never had it before so am baffled! Its just like his arms are red - a bit like sun burn. He is itching it now but still says that its not itchy . I wonder if they have changed the ingredients in the winter berries hi juice since the last time we had it...

If his ankles or wrists are swollen or stiff too I'd be worried it might be henoch schonlein pupura. My dd had this ealier this year and it seems it is a bit more common at the moment. It can be really nasty as we experienced, but we noticed no other symptoms initially. Just watch out for any pain/swelling/stiffness in joints. But hopefully its nothing to do with HSP, good luck.

he doesn't have swollen wrists or ankles although it is still there and hasn't lessened during the day. He is quite hot where the rash is and am now contemplating DP taking him to out of hours GP (i don't drive and its quite far away)

How is he? Have you taken him to see GP? Its difficult to know what to do isn't it, I guess if he is otherwise well in himself it can't be anything too bad.

just as i was having a last proper check before ringing the Dr, it seemed to have gone down. Bathed him and it seems to be going now. Its still there but pinker and has normal blotches. Was truley bizarre. His normalness was puzzling for a rash like that. Have covered him in diprobase to soothe them for him going to sleep.

My DD has a rash a few weeks ago that started on her feet legs and arms. Had me puzzles as I thought most nasties started aroud the chest area (shows what I know eh!).

Interesting thing the doc taught me was that if you look closely at individual spots in a rash and you can see a halo of white around the outside of the spot (you have to look closely) then it is a classic viral rash.

DD had no symptoms at all, just as rash - lasted 4 days

both my ds and I have a rash at the moment. His started as red cheeks so we thought it was slapped cheek as there had been a number of cases at nursery but then it spread to his stomach and is no longer red just very bumpy! Mine has come up on my arms. We took ds to the dr and he said that it was a rash resulting from a virus and that it was nothing to worry about .. just the body's way of trying to deal with the virus.

there were no individual spots, just a huge blotch all the way up his arms and legs. looked a bit like heat rash or sunburn and was hot to touch and itching him.

He does get a viral rash but that starts off a bit like the kind of rash that has you rushing for a glass. We are used to that now.

not bumpy either - unless the entire thing was bumpy. Just red and swollen.[baffled]