Rash on Cheeks

FutureHKmom

Registered User
My 15 week old baby often has this rash on his cheeks - it's red, rough and sometimes a little bumpy. He's had it on and off for more than a month now. At first it was mild and my pediatrician recommended using a moisturizer called Ezerra on it. Then it got really bad and I took him back to the pediatrician and the pediatrician gave him some medicated cream (triderm) which contains antibiotic and steroid. She said that the rash was getting a little infected since my son was probably rubbing it. WIth the medicated cream, the rash got better in 3 days. But after a few days of being better, the rash came back and will only go away after I put on the medicated cream for a few days. The cycle continues to repeat itself and I am getting very distressed about it! I already moisturize with Ezerra many times a day and wipe his mouth and face immediately after each feed (I breastfeed). I also keep the house extra cool for him and change his sheets twice a week to make sure they are clean. I really don't know what to do anymore as I am afraid of putting too much of the medicated cream on. Any suggestions on what to do that can help the situation? Thanks so much!
 
My daughter was like that- I think it was due to all the drooling and the saliva on their senitive skins. I used vaseline on the red areas all the time and it finally cleared up after 2 months- how long has the rash been there?
 
My 7 weeks old son also has similar skin condition like yours. It concentrated on his right cheek. It started around 3 weeks ago. It stays and became a little better last week. It always turn redder and worse when he cries and gets angry. and he still has it on his face. We were at the pediatrician and she also gave him some medicated cream which contains antibiotic and steroid. She suggested not to use it continuously for more than three days.

She said the cause could be that I was eating a lot of "nutritious food", things like herds and other thing that's high in protein--The Chinese said that those food could give your body "fire" yet it is good for nursing your body back after delivering. Since I am giving him breast milk, the "heat" pass on to him.

I am not sure if this apply to you since you probably don't eat things like ginseng and other kinds of Chinese herb.

I have only applied the cream once and rash on his face was fading already. Yet, I planned not to apply it due to the concern for steroid.

So, I started to cut down on oily food, and Ginseng and soup that is prepared with Chinese herb.
 
Cici - The rash has been coming and going for the past 5 or 6 weeks. Sometimes it gets better but a day or two later it comes back. You're right, I think it has to do with saliva. For my son, it also has to do with the heat and if he rubs the rash with his hands it also gets worse. I"m wondering if it has to do with my diet and what comes through in the breastmilk. My son also takes one meal of formula a day and we recently changed to Pepti-Junior which somebody suggested to us is good for babies with skin problems.

Carey - I think our sons have similar conditions. I haven't used the medicated cream more than three days at a time either. However, I have had to use it for 2-3 days each during the past 2 or 3 weeks because once the rash gets better, it comes back again and when it gets too red, I just don't know what to do except to put it on. I actually haven't been eating too much of the Chinese herbs for the past month and the food that I eat is not oily either. So I'm not sure what it is...I'm trying to cut out as much as possible dairy, eggs and citrus fruits too which I heard can cause allergic reactions. I should cut down on wheat too - but it's too hard to do that!
 
My daughter has the same eczema-like condition. She ahs it all over her neck, chest, behind the ears and cheeks.Our doctor recommended keeping the areas dry and use Lubriderm and it's been helping her tremendously. She's also drooling like a faucet and started eating carrots only as her first solid food, so the culprit is probably the drool.

Hope your little one's rash will be better soon.


Michelle
Baby, Maternity, Children & Family Photographer
Welcome to Garthe Photo Arts, Hong Kong
 
my son has the same issue (as musicalmama). except it appears all over his body. have no idea what the cause is. doctor say it is allergic reaction to another medication he is taking for cold sore. i worry it is allergic reaction to something else. still have no idea what the cause is. has happen twice now. we use a medical cream to rub on him. the medicine is in chinese so i have no idea what we are putting on him since i don't read chinese.

the rash is not affecting his health though. just makes him very cranky.
 
I'm just going to copy what I wrote on another thread, as it sounds like the same thing. Yes there is that 'milk rash' they get but yours sounds the same as what we had: it was never where he dribbled, didn't stay dry like the baby spots they can get and got nasty & came & went on his face and patches on his body.

Have you tried changing his food?
We had the same thing in the Uk and it did seem to make him worse, cortisone creams, he was ALL weeping skin. We thought maybe he was allergic to milk, which ran in the family, but doctors said no and gave him all sorts of antibiotics etc, horrible stuff designed by idiots who never tried getting it IN a baby.

Then after months of tests my MIL visi8ted, took 1 look and said' he IS allergic to milk'- he was breastfeeding and I don't drink much milk so we were sceptical but tried it. Anything to stop having to practically tie him up and stop him waking covered in blood from scratching his face on his sheets. And it helped.

When we were in NZ I eventually stopped breastfeeding, as whatever I tried to cut out eating wasn't working, and put him on a special cow-milk- free formula (which we can't get in HK) and he is MUCH better. The annoying thing is, from 6 months on nearly every parent seeing his wee red patches (flare up now & then when he tries a new food that has milk in it we didn't notice) said' is he allergic to cow milk'. LOADS of babies have it.

Now he's 11 months we are using goats milk powder as we try to wean him, can get it in some supermarkets - its not formula but he eats/ drinks other stuff so is OK.

Also I found Bepanthen very good - the nappy rash cream? I put that on every few hours when he has a patch, with the cortisone 1x day as prescribed to keep infection down. Hes almost OK most of the time now...

good luck!
 
Then after months of tests my MIL visi8ted, took 1 look and said' he IS allergic to milk'- he was breastfeeding and I don't drink much milk so we were sceptical but tried it. Anything to stop having to practically tie him up and stop him waking covered in blood from scratching his face on his sheets. And it helped.

/QUOTE]

Thanks for your post Wildcatfin! When you say you "tried it" as above, do you mean you stopped drinking milk? Because I'm breastfeeding and just starting some rice cereal, so there really isn't much in his diet that I can change. I already don't drink a lot of milk as it is so I'm not sure if it is an allergy to milk.....
 
Let me share some of experience here but I am not sure if the situation of my son's rash is the same of that of yours.

My son's skin was perfectly smooth when he came home from hospital until about 2 weeks later when I noted some sesame-like spots started growing all over his face & neck. Up to 5 weeks, the situation got really bad as I started to worry about his skin condition. Asked different people (laymen, doctors, old mums, young mums, etc) and read two books for relevant information, I got a general explanation: they are infant rashes and will go away naturally after 2 or 3 months. Medical professionals said they are remains of mother's hormones so those babies are breastfed tend to have the rash longer than those are formula-fed. I breastfed my son for 6 weeks and thought about giving up on it because of his nasty rashes (kept wondered if I had eaten something irritated his skins...etc, always tended to blame myself for making my son's face so ugly!) I finally stopped breastfeed (because I couldn't bear the nipple pain anymore!) and put my son my formular. His rashes did not get well at all.

Plus, I've two books and they said about 60% of newborns suffer these 'infant rashes' and they are ripe when a baby is between 2-8 weeks but will go away 'naturally' afterwards.

As my son never showed any crankiess, fussiness; instead, he slept well, fed well, and was completely calm, I therefore chose to wait and see. And yes, his rashes gradually disappeared after about 10 weeks, and his face is now as smooth as silk! He's now 14 weeks.
 
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My daughter is having the same and i have been worried and plan to check with the doctor this sat.

Glad to read above on OX Jess's post that it could be infant rash. I was wondering if we haven't bathed her enough, the shower gel is causing this or the detergent is too strong etc. I am not breastfeeding so it's not my intake of food, and I was wondering if the shower gel/detergent is the culprit, why these sesame like bumps only appear on the face, neck and chest area close to the neck, but not the rest of the body.

I really hope that they will go away eventually..
 
My son had a rash when he was around 11mths old and it spreading all over his body. We took him to see a Dr we were told that it was a common skin problem. He was put on oral medication and the rashes went away in 2 or 3 days. Now when he gets hot, he'd come down with a heat rash and Calamine lotion seems to do the trick because it dries up the area. It's always good to have some Calamine handy.
 
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