Mystery Rash

Hi there,
My kids sometimes develop mystery rashes such as this too. I have been told that it can be due to a virus--a viral rash. But, many times there may not be a lot of other symptoms. I have often thought...maybe it is their bodies response to a virus and they are trying to fight it off.
It will probably disappear on its own in less than a week.
A.

Hi. I know this is probably coming waaaay too late but I haven't been able to check mamasource in a while. I went through pretty much the exact experience with my daughter (now 3) when she was that age. Same rash, same frustrating responses from doctor and advice nurses, same wondering whether it was food, pets, or what? Rash went away within a week and my daughter didn't even seem to notice. Never did know what caused it or what made it go away. I hope your son is better. I now have a 7 month old son ( in addition to my three year old cutie) and I'm resigned to the fact that sometimes they get stuff and no one can help you understand why and it goes away and you just wait for the next thing
: )

Take care,
S.

Any chance he had his chicken pox vaccine just before the rash? I didn't know that babies could get a mild form of Chicken Pox from the vaccine until my daughter developed a rash just on her torso. She was crankier than usual, but didn't develop a fever until several days out. We only diagnosed it based on the timing with the vaccine.

I think it could be the blueberries. My son is also 9 months old, and the pediatrician has mentioned to NOT give him any type of berry yet, I'm assuming in case of an allergic reaction.

Did he eat more of the homemade blueberries now that he is older? My son first broke out after eating a slice of tomato. After I knew what hives looked like on him I was able to "see" when he had enough. About a month after the tomato incident my mother-in-law was snacking on blueberries and feeding them to him. As the day progressed and he kept snacking I saw a bump on his arm and had her put the berries up. He only got a couple hives unstead of being totally covered. I would cut out the blueberries for a couple days and see if it goes away. Then don't give him very many fruits at any one time. Many fruits are too acidic at this age.

My son (at 9 mo he is now 13) developed a similar rash and after thinking it was food allergies, detergent, cats, etc. I took him to his doctor and we decided together it was a virus. We put him on antibiotics and it cleared with a couple days. He also had congestion (mild) and watering eyes. If it persists for more than a week even 3 or 4 days I would get another appt with doctor. Just recently my grandson developed the same rash he is 6 mos and my step daughter took him in and he was also diagnosed with a virus.

I had this issue with my (very fair) son last month. He's 15 months. I took him to the pediatrician and she said the rash was his body's reaction to fighting a garden-variety virus, like a cold. She said she sees these kinds of rashes frequently and not to worry. It disappeared after 3 days or so. During that time, he had a very low appetite and was not sleepy as well as usual either. Because he is so fair, things "show up" easily. We often see little red spots here and there and like you, I associate these with something he ate or something his skin was exposed to in that area. Aquafor is great stuff for diaper area, but you may want to ask your doc if it's OK for general moisturizing. It blocks pores, which can be good in some instances (preventing diaper rash) but not in others. Ask doc about Cetaphil, Weleda baby lotion or something super mild for general moisturizing.

Hi A.,

Our middle child has very severe food allergies. He did get a rash like this on his torso a few times when he was a toddler. When I brushed my hand across his skin, it felt like fine-grade sand paper. But the bumps weren't red, they were the same color as his skin. So the rash was not visible unless you looked really closely. Our ped and allergist blew this off as nothing to be concerned about. It went away (within a week) without any special treatment (med or moisturizer). It happened a few times, but I never figured out what triggered it (food or otherwise.)

It sounds like the rash matches the skin touched by a shirt? Did he wear a new shirt around that time? That's another possibility. If you haven't changed laundry detergents, then perhaps a new shirt had been treated with something that he reacted to.

Hope this helps,
D.

My son had the same thing a few months ago. It wasn't itchy, and he acted totally normal, but I still took him to see 2 pediatricians. First one wasn't worried but unsure what caused it. Second pediatrician thought it was dry skin and asked me to not use soap on his body, and apply aquaphor within 3 minutes of taking him out of the bath everyday. It took awhile for the rash to go away, but it did eventually. Give it another week and I hope the rash will go away too! Good luck!

We had the same thing about 3 weeks ago. My son has very very sensitive skin. I had to slowly introduce different foods as a baby, he has had eczema since the day he was born, doctor said baths only every three days (but now he is almost 3 and I bath him everyday due to his outside activity). It started on his legs and within 3 days had spread to all parts of his body. Because he has such sensitive skin I have all kinds of lotions depending on the aliment. I tried everything with no luck what so ever. It was over the holiday so they couldn’t get him into see the doctor until Tuesday which left him with the rash for 7 days with no improvement. Coincidentally, my son got pink eye the morning of the appt. The doctor decided to put him on antibiotics for the eye and rash issue. She felt the rash was eczema but it looked more like a heat rash/pimples that never came to a head to me. Anyway, he took the antibiotics for 2 weeks. During that time I bathed him everyday with eczema soap and put the aquaphor on about 3-4 times a day. The rash showed improvement daily however, it did not fully go away until the antibiotics were completely gone.

Scarlet fever is a rash that can start on the face or neck, and usually spreads to the chest, torso, back, and arms. It is caused by bacteria. I'm not saying this is it, but it is a possibility.
look it up online. If you look for "images" you should be able to come up with rash photos as well.

One interesting thing about this rash is it will start to go away and then about 5 days later it resurfaces.

Hi A.,
Well, first of all, rashes truly are mysterious. Bottom line....if that is the only symptom, ignore it. Feel free to lotion up and all that, but if it doesn't seem to be bothering him, he's not running a fever, having a drop in appetite, looking lethargic, not eating or drinking, then don't stress about it. Rashes on babies overwhelmingly are essentially nothing. Just their sensitive skin's reaction to one of the gazillion things they come in contact with. Eventually it will go away, but if it doesn't within a few months, or if any of those other symptoms I mentioned show up, get in to see your ped. Most likely you never will find out what it is. I know, frustrating isn't it! And by the way, I was the same age when I had my first baby. Don't you think being a little older makes you appreciate every little milestone more than if you were younger? I've always been glad I started a little later. I think we just appreciate everything so much more. And by the way, there was an earlier posting about somebody's ped deciding her baby's rash was viral and getting antibiotics. Please don't go that route if the decision is viral. Antibiotics are for bacteria. Unnecessary antibiotics cause us to build up a high tolerance for antibiotics, and then they don't work when they need to. Anyway, good luck and God bless.

if the rash seems to itch wipe it down with a glob of cotton balls soaked in Witch Hazel. It could be an allergic reaction to the berries or other new food. Are there any new rugs or furniture in the house? New car seat or car?
Try washing all of his bedding is HOT water to remove dust mites and cover his mattress with an allergen proof cover if you don't already have one.
Are you putting sun block on him? I break out from sunblock - have to use plain zinc oxide.
I am the allergy Queen - if the rash is going away - just make him comfortable and wait it out. You might never know what it was!

Dear A.: How concerning! Here's a weird story from my own childhood. I started getting some huge hive like rash on my torso (I was a few years old) one day, and my mom couldn't figure out what was wrong, what changed. (Just like you!) She tried using mild itchy cream stuff, but it persisted. When she went to the Dr, he said to check for bird's nests near my bedroom. She did and lo and behold, there was a little nest right outside my bedroom window. Turned out it was mites! Gross! But thankfully, removing the nest and cleaning up around it solved the issue.

My daughter had a similar thing happen when she was about 13 months old. The doctor thought it was heat rash, but I figured out that it was the lavendar bubble bath and lavendar tide. We had been using it since she was a baby and then all the sudden it was irritating her skin and causing all kinds of red bumps. We stopped using the bubble bath and switched to sensitive skin tide for all of our laundry and it has never come back (she is now 27 months). It could also be the berries. I think you are supposed to wait on all berries until after a year, but I am not sure. The bumps under the chin sound like irritation from the pacifier and drool. My friends kid used to get it pretty bad and the doctor told her to get rid of the pacifier and bottles (he was a year old).