Reaction to sun cream?

[SuperDuperTrooper]

My DS is 17 months old and has woken up this morning with a pin prick rash round the back of his neck, all down his back and on his feet. He is also red around the mouth but in more of a blotchy way.

Yesterday we put sun cream on his face,back of his neck and on his arms. He also tried a couple of new foods as we were at a function but as yet has never shown any sensitivity/allergy to foods. He is of perfectly well in himself and I've done the glass test and the rash does disappear.

Could this be a reaction to the sun cream or does it sound like more of a food issue - or even neither of the above? What surprises me either way is how it seems to have come up so many hours after sun cream was applied or the food was eaten.

Any thoughts please?

Sounds a bit like heat rash - dd had similar yesterday & it was quite warm yesterday. Just try keeping him cool & it should go

Sounds like heat rash to me or poss a viral thing. If he is well in himself and you have no other concerns I wouldn't be too worried, if rash doesn't go after 24 hours maybe take to gp tomos.

MyDD gets this every time I put sun cream on and it's always the next day that she gets the rash. I've tried different sun creams but the same thing happens. It doesn't bother her so I think it just must be heat rash.

Is it prickly heat?

My dd gets this if we use a sun cream which had a too high factor - we switched to factor 30 last year and have had no issues since.

Thanks all.

He still seems well in himself but the rash isn't fading yet. Trying to keep him cool and have bathed him to try and get rid of the sun cream residue.

Will try a different brand next time and am interested to hear that factor 30 was milder so that's an option too.

Might take him to the doctors in the morning if it hasn't improved but he was all set to go on a day out with his childminder tomorrow so would be such a shame to miss that!

I know of other children who can't use factor 50 for the same reason - i was told its to do with the pores or sweat glands being blocked? Not sure how true this is but a friend and I have switched to factor 30 and found a difference in our children so we assume there must be some truth in it. I just make sure that dd is well covered in the cream and apply it a little more often

Hmmmm the rash seems to have for worse as the day had gone on. I'm going to take him to a pharmacy and get some advice in case he needs antihistamine.

My dd had a reaction to suncream on friday, a rash over her arms, neck and shoulders, worse on her face where I topped it up at lunchtime and definitely the suncream (she also had a rash down her parting in the hair where i put some). Patch tested her with a different brand yesterday on her back and that's come up in a rash, so have tried a third type today, i shall see what tomorrow morning brings. School aren't gonna be happy that she will not be wearing cream tomorrow but not a lot else I can do. I never had this problem last year.

My dd is horribly allergic to Nivea and M&s win creams for chikdren but is ok with Lidl. Haven't tried ant others yet. I get prickly heat with all of the waterproof ones.

Like the other have said, maybe try a lower factor next time

Was it Soltan by any chance? I am really allergic to one of the chemicals in it can't remember what but I know its quite common.

DD has come out in a rash every time we've put suncream on her to date. We just got a new one, which is 81% organic and is a factor 25. Tried it yesterday and no rash. Hopefully with careful use, sunhats and shading we'll have no issues.

Just reread my post, think I need to cut done on the

OP how is Lo now? Mrs which one have you bought?

Well actually things have progressed considerably to the point of ending up in A&E!

Yesterday we took him to a pharmacist who thought it seemed like a food allergy. The rash had completely covered his back and chest and was also visible on hands, feet and face. She gave us antihistamine which made no difference at all. Before putting him to bed we took his temp and it was 38.4.

We called 111 after putting DS to bed and they asked us to take him to the out of hours doctor which we did. The doctor was slightly perplexed and referred us to the paediatrician in A&E. She was equally confused and after gaining another opinion was sticking to the safe "it may be a virus" diagnosis. It's ever so odd as he's not displayed any signs of illness other than a temp and the rash which has virtually taken over his body. She wasn't convinced it was an allergy as the antihistamine hadn't helped and the rash wasn't itchy to DS. She also gave precautionary antibiotics as her colleague suggested scarlet fever but she wasn't convinced by that as, again, no other symptoms. Finally got home at 1am!

During the course of today the rash has started to improve on his back and chest but has come out worse on his arms and legs. His temp was normal during the day but went up to 38.4 again just before bed. All very odd!!! Thanks for your concern.

Hope he gets well soon whatever it is!

I used to work for the scientists who test sun cream. The official line is as high an spf as possible. However, they never put on more than factor 15 on their own children. It's really easy to make factor 15 but once you pass that you need to add all kinds of strong chemicals.

Yes, hope he's back to normal very soon.

So sounds Unrelated to the cream after all.

Hope your ds is ok and gets better soon

Tiggy that's really interesting about factor 15+

Jilted ours is a brand called 'Green Kids' - DH got it in Waitrose. I'm sure it's generally available though, probably bigger boots and so forth.

It was hideously expensive though - about £14.

A friend referred me to this thread. DS is 10 months old, on Saturday night he developed a high temperature and vomiting. We obviously checked his skin in case of rash. He was still feeding and settled down for
the night.

In the morning he still had a temperature but was feeding well and no more vomiting. He started to develop spots which we suspected were the beginnings of chicken pox but called NHS 24 to see if he needed seen. The nurse reckoned it could be the beginnings of Pox but felt it was too early to tell as the spots hadn't developed CP style blisters. We were told to keep giving calpol to help control his temperature and make him more comfortable (and obviously to get in touch if he deteriorated).

By Sunday evening his temperature was normal, but the spots were seeming more rash-like, and by the morning he was covered - worst on his thighs, and sides of his body, and the back of his neck. Friends thought the rash was more like hives/allergy/heat rash.

Went to GP. He agreed that it looked like an allergic reaction. Oranges were a new food he had on Sat so we're going to avoid them until he's older.

I suspect though, that it may have been a reaction to whatever virus gave him a temperature and vomiting on Sat night. When I looked up hives online (good old Dr. Google), reactions to viruses was one of the main causes, other possible causes were allergies to foods (including citrus fruit).

But we will avoid oranges/orange juice for a while to be on the safe side. His rash is now fading. :)

Although he had sunscreen on on Sat, it was the same sunscreen we've been using for ages, and the rash wasn't particular to where we'd applied it (his face and lower arms weren't the worst areas at all).

My ds had a horrendeous allergy to sun cream, or so we thought, it was actually a reaction to almond oil IN the sun cream.

valiumredhead could you please elaborate on the type of reaction your DS had please? I'm still not completely convinced that's its not an allergy.

Within minutes he had swollen eyes and nettle rash/hives all over his face, it was very quick. His eyes were still nearly swollen shut 3 days later. Now he Carries an epi pen with him and avoids nuts and anything with nut products in. With any new creams we do a patch skin test on the inside of his elbow and watch for 24 hours.

Ok, thanks for that. Poor little guy!