What to do if a child has a rash on the body?

All parents know that a rash on a child's body is a danger signal. Indeed, many infectious diseases are accompanied by skin rashes on different parts of the body. How to understand what happened to the baby, how dangerous it is and what to do, we will tell you in this article.

What is a rash?

To understand the reasons for the appearance of a rash on the baby's body, many factors should be taken into account: the age of the child, living conditions, especially hygienic care, because not always a rash on the body can speak of an onset disease.

Therefore, all skin rashes are usually divided into:

infectious (caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi);
non-infectious (caused by external factors not related to diseases).

It can be quite difficult to distinguish one from the other by eye; additional symptoms must also be taken into account.

A rash in itself is also a voluminous concept. It may look like red or pink spots, colorless or red bumps, blisters with fluid content, pustules, pink spots with scaling fragments.

The rash may be surrounded by inflamed tissue, erythema. When examining the child, the mother also needs to note whether the rashes are single or tend to merge with each other, to combine into large lesions. A rash on the child's skin can appear suddenly, in the absence of other signs of a possible disease, and can complement the picture of an existing disease. So, with a certain type of sore throat, a herpetic rash may appear on the body.

Features:

Many mothers of babies have noticed that the rash can appear suddenly in the crumbs. Just as unexpectedly, it can disappear. Indeed, the readiness of the skin to respond to internal and external stimuli in childhood is great. This is due to the fact that the skin of children is much thinner than the skin of adults, it is more saturated with moisture, better nourishes with blood.

Due to such vascular permeability, scratches and wounds in a child heal faster, but various lesions of the epidermis and deeper layers of the skin also appear much faster and easier.

For the health of baby skin there is nothing insignificant. Dry indoor air, too aggressive soap used to bathe a baby, and synthetic clothes, and even to food allergens, children most often react with skin rashes can play a role.

Children's immunity is imperfect. In the first six months of a child's life, maternal innate immunity protects to some extent, but after this age, any viral or bacterial disease becomes more than likely. This does not mean that babies do not have an infectious rash up to six months. Maternal immunity is also not one hundred percent guarantee of protection.

Own immunity, including local skin immunity, develops gradually, as you "get acquainted" with certain pathogens. It's good if this acquaintance takes place in a treatment room, where the child is vaccinated against the most dangerous infections. Otherwise, the immune system is trained "in combat conditions" during illness.

Due to weak immunity, vulnerable thin skin, rashes in children are frequent. Not every rash is a disease, but it is important to be prepared for a negative turn of events.

What to do when detected?

If you woke up and saw that the child's body was covered with a rash, you should carefully examine the skin, assess the size, distribution and location of the rashes, note the presence or absence of pustules, blisters.

Next, they begin to assess the general well-being of the baby. They measure his body temperature, examine the tonsils, check whether the nose is breathing, whether the throat is sore.

If painful symptoms are found, then you should immediately call a doctor at home. It is irresponsible to go with the child to the clinic, because most of the infections that start in this way are very contagious, and children who can become infected will sit in line to the pediatrician

If the child is not one year old, and in addition to the rash, he has a temperature above 39.0 degrees, you should call an ambulance without reasoning.

If no painful symptoms are found, and apart from a rash nothing suspicious happens, then the parents you should watch the baby a little. Whether the rash itches, or whether the child itches.

If there is itching, then it is likely that he has an allergic reaction. This is where the diary of young mothers comes in handy, in which they write down everything that the child ate for every day.

You should look at the baby's diet approximately for the last week. The fact is that the allergy develops for the most part in a delayed mode, in other words, the child could eat something, drink this or that drug a few days before the rash appeared.

Knowing the exact allergen will greatly facilitate treatment. If the diary is not kept, and you cannot remember what the baby drank and ate, you should limit all allergenic foods - oranges and tangerines, lemons, red berries, nuts, some varieties of sea fish, cocoa, chocolate, smoked meats and fatty dairy products.

Parents should start normalizing the climate in the room where the baby lives: the optimum air temperature for skin health is 19-21 degrees Celsius, and the relative humidity is 50-70%.

If the rash is prickly heat, then this will contribute to its rapid disappearance without a trace, if an allergy or infection - it is such a climate that will help the child recover faster, reduce the likelihood of drying out the inflamed areas of the skin, and therefore the likelihood of a secondary bacterial infection, because microbes are only expect the baby's skin to be damaged.

You cannot wash a child with a rash with hot water. It is better not to use soap and detergents at all during treatment.

After the fact of the rash becomes obvious, you should watch for so that the child is dressed only in things made from natural fabricsso that the clothes are loose enough, do not rub, do not touch the elements of the rash, do not cause additional mechanical injury and irritation.

If during the day without temperature the rash does not change or begins to intensify, new elements appear, you must also call a doctor from the clinic or go to an appointment with a pediatrician yourself. It is possible that the child will need counseling dermatologist or allergist followed by the appointment of special therapy.

Probable causes

Non-infectious

Allergic reaction

An allergy rash can be found almost all over the body. It is most common in children on the face, chest, back, arms and legs. Outwardly, it is heterogeneous - there can be nodules, and tubercles, and even vesicles.

A nearly colorless rash that resembles stinging nettle burns is called hives, and most often it goes away quickly. Red, pink, inflamed rash with allergies prone to increase in size... Individual elements can merge. A faint, pale rash makes the skin rough.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, such rashes are the result of eating allergenic foods, medicines, contact with something potentially dangerous, such as pollen (meadow grasses, for example), animal hair.

If a child has a genetic predisposition to allergies, then washing powder, which is used to wash the baby's linen and clothes, and body cosmetics, and mother's new perfume and even a toy, which was presented the other day, if it is made of unsafe toxic materials, can cause rashes.

Allergy rash usually accompanied by itching, itching, the skin becomes rough. Additional symptoms may appear, indicating sensitization of the body - headache, fever up to 37.0-37.5 degrees, nausea, diarrhea.

These symptoms are not considered necessary, and in 90% of babies, allergic dermatitis occurs without the described clinical signs.

Prickly heat

Do not assume that this is a problem only for babies in the first year of life. Miliaria can also occur in older children, since up to 9-10 years old, the child's skin does not look like an adult in structure.

The ducts of the sweat glands in children are narrower, sweat removal, if it is produced a lot, is difficult. This clogs up the sweat glands and causes inflammation. To save a child from such unpleasant rashes can only measures that reduce baby sweating.

The rash with prickly heat is small and medium, red, white or pink, quite often it looks like red spots, large erythema. Individual rashes tend to quickly combine, creating large inflammatory fragments.

Most often, prickly heat is manifested in those places where there is an increased production of sweat and its accumulation - in the scalp, in the cervical folds, in the armpits, in the folds of the skin, in the perineum.

If the child is sweating a lot, then similar rashes are not excluded on the chest, on the upper back. Under the influence of fresh air, the elements of prickly heat quickly fade and disappear.

Various diseases

A rash on the body can also be caused by various pathologies of internal organs and systems. So, with regular indigestion, frequent diarrhea, the child may develop a rash.

Some autoimmune diseases, such as psoriasis, are always associated with rashes. That is why it is important to analyze the general state of health of the child, to note the peculiarities of his well-being, and if the rash is not associated with prickly heat and is not related to allergies, you should definitely visit a dermatologist with your child, who will help establish the true cause.

The rash, which becomes an external manifestation of internal pathologies, is not contagious, it is not dangerous for others.

Infectious

The cause of the appearance of a rash on the body in children is often different viruses and bacteria, and the share of viral lesions accounts for up to 90% of all childhood diseases. It is clear that not all viral diseases and do not always cause rashes, but there are typical childhood diseases that cannot do without a rash.

Chicken pox

This disease is caused by the herpes virus and is highly contagious. At first, the rash on the body (anywhere, since the rash is quite extensive) looks like pink spots. But after a few hours, nodules form in the center of the spots, and then vesicles - watery bubbles. The bubbles burst easily, leaving a dry crust in their place.

New rashes appear "in jumps" - every 12-24 hours, the cycles of existence of elements are renewed, new red spots appear, and then everything repeats with the formation of vesicles and their opening.

Guessing chickenpox is not so difficult, the rash has a fairly characteristic herpes course. In addition, the child has a fever, muscle pain and joint aches, and general malaise.

A runny nose and cough may appear, in general, all or part of the symptoms of an acute viral infection may well be present.

Rubella

With this viral disease, a rash appears a few days after the end of the incubation period, which, naturally, no one knew about. Rubella can be suspected by the migration of the rash - first, elements appear on the face, and then quickly pass to the body.

Visually, the rash looks like pink flat spots, which hardly change for several days, and then begin to fade and eventually disappear, without leaving marks on the skin. Small elements tend to merge and form larger flattened fragments.

Other symptoms may include a high temperature - above 38.0 degrees, sometimes - cough, runny nose, headache, feeling of "weakness".

The rash does not itch, does not itch, does not hurt, does not bother the child at all.

Herpes infection

This category includes several diseases that are caused by various types of herpes viruses. Chickenpox was discussed separately because it is extremely common in childhood. Other diseases should also be mentioned.

Pimples, which turn into watery vesicles, occur with genital herpes - herpes of the second type, with cytomegalovirus infection, Epstein-Barr virus, as well as with the defeat of herpes viruses of the sixth and seventh types.

With genital herpes, the rash is common in the lower body, affecting the buttocks, inguinal folds, external genitals.

With cytomegalovirus infection, the rash can spread throughout the body.

Often in children, herpesvirus of the sixth type remains practically unidentified, which becomes the cause of the onset roseola of childhood or sudden exanthema.

A rash with this disease appears strictly three days after the onset of the disease, which proceeds against a background of high temperature (above 39.0 degrees), sometimes with a cough, a runny nose, but more often without them.

On the third day, the temperature drops sharply, and 12 hours after the temperature, the baby's body is covered with a severe rash that looks like pink or reddish specks of different sizes. The rash fades and goes away after a few days.

Even pediatricians find it difficult to diagnose "baby roseola" due to the fact that the appearance of a rash is usually attributed to the manifestation of a skin allergy to antipyretics, which caring parents gave the baby with shock doses all three previous days.

Rash typical of herpes in the form of stripes can only appear on the back, and then it will qualify as shingles.

In any case, parents should not panic - herpes sores and infections, although contagious, are not as dangerous as many are used to thinking.

Measles

This is another viral disease that can cause a rash on the body of a child. The "culprit" of the infection is paramyxovirus. First, the child begins to have a sore throat or a runny nose, as the virus enters the body by airborne droplets, then a small rash affects the mucous membranes, and only then quickly showered the whole body.

At the initial stage, the rash looks like white dots, then it changes color, after it disappears, pigment spots remain, they eventually disappear without a trace.

Bacterial infections

If rashes appear on the child's body, which at first look like nodules, and then acquire purulent heads, it is very likely that a staphylococcal or streptococcal infection develops.

At the same time, the rash can be located in any part of the body, a certain place of dislocation is not characteristic of it. Pustules deliver unpleasant sensations, they itch, and deeper elements hurt. Bacteria can also cause the development of scarlet fever, also accompanied by a rash, as well as erysipelas of the skin.

Almost all bacterial infections are severe and have high fever.

A tip for parents

Doctors use a lot of personal experience to diagnose, and many types of rashes can be distinguished by eye.

In difficult cases, when the answers to the questions are not obvious, laboratory diagnostics come to the doctor's aid, which makes it possible to establish in the blood and contents of pustules and vesicles on the skin one or another type of virus or bacteria.

A doctor should be called in all cases if the rash is accompanied by a fever and signs of SARS, if the rash appears after several days of fever and fever, if it is accompanied by vomiting or diarrhea.

It is also advisable to consult a doctor if any rash appears in a child who is not yet 3 years old.

For general information, so that mom and dad can imagine what exactly is happening with the child, you can use a short "cheat sheet" for the differential diagnosis of rash:

Erythema, the appearance of nodules and bumps, "crusts" - most often an allergy.
Red dots, spider veins on the body, a watery rash, inflamed papules - most often a viral infection.
External and subcutaneous abscesses are most often a bacterial infection.
Itchy bumps on the abdomen and thighs, on the hands - most often scabies.

Profuse red small rash with extensive erythema in the folds of the skin - prickly heat.
Spots with profuse grayish or silvery scaling on the outside of the flexor limbs - most often psoriasis.
A combination of red spots, watery blisters and small rashes in one place - most often eczema.
Solitary elements located far from each other, around which inflammation is observed, are most often a local allergy to insect bites.

Treatment

Non-infectious rashes are treated by eliminating the cause of the rash. So, with prickly heat, the correction of the regime of hygiene procedures is performed. The child is bathed only with warm (not hot!) Water using a decoction of chamomile or calendula.

The affected skin is treated depending on the type of lesion - weeping erythema - ointments and creams with a drying effect ("Sudokrem"), and dry coarse crusts formed at the healing stage - emollients (baby cream, "Bepanten", "Panthenol").

An allergic rash will require nutritional correction, allergens should be excluded from the diet, at the same time parents are trying to limit the child's contact with any potentially dangerous substances from the point of view of the possibility of developing allergies.

Additionally, the child is assigned antihistamines ("Suprastin", "Tavegil", "Loratadin" and others) in the age dosage.

Topically, ointments with antihistamine action can be applied. In case of severe allergic rash, if relief does not occur within a few days after the start of treatment, hormonal preparations are prescribed in the form of an ointment ("Advantan"), or inside ("Prednisolone").

If a connection is established between the appearance of a spontaneous rash and some internal diseases, as well as helminthic invasions, the underlying disease is treated, and in parallel, the child is prescribed local treatments for the rash antiseptics and hormonal ointments.

With severe worm infestation, the child is prescribed antihistamines, since the rash in this case is usually nothing more than an allergic reaction of the body to the waste products of the worms.

Viral infections that cause skin rashes are usually treated with strict bed rest, drinking plenty of fluids, taking vitamins and symptomatic treatment - antipyretic drugs are used at a temperature ("Paracetamol"), drops in the nose with a runny nose, gargling with sore throat.

The rash does not need to be lubricated. An exception is chickenpox, in which the rash is so extensive that there is a risk of a secondary bacterial infection that will enter the child's body through open wounds on the skin. It is for this reason that it is customary to lubricate chickenpox eruptions with brilliant green.

Antiviral drugs, both in the form of drops and tablets, and in the form of ointments, do not have any pronounced effect on the disease, they do not accelerate recovery.

An exception can be considered herpesvirus diseases, in which ointment can be applied topically "Acyclovir", designed specifically to weaken herpes viruses. She, however, also does not greatly accelerate recovery, but helps relieve itching and discomfort in the area of herpetic vesicles.

Bacterial infections require treatment antibiotics. The doctor prescribes a specific drug after receiving the results of laboratory diagnostics, when it becomes known not only the specific microbe responsible for the rash, but also what types of antibacterial drugs it is sensitive to.

For minor skin lesions, local treatment with antiseptics and antibiotic ointments is sufficient. For extensive lesions, your doctor may prescribe oral antibiotics. Fungal lesions will require antifungal ointment, and often the simultaneous administration of antifungal drugs inside a strict course - 12-14 days.

A parasitic rash (with scabies, for example) will require the use of special ointments that destroy the parasites.

Prevention

The baby's skin needs special care, as does the immune system. Therefore, to prevent the development of a severe rash on the body in a child will help a set of measures that every self-respecting parent must follow:

The things and bedding of the child, with which he is in contact with a large area of skin, should be sewn from natural fabrics.
Laundry should be washed only with hypoallergenic powders approved for use in children.

The skin should not be allowed to become dry and vulnerable. To do this, the house should not be hot.

You can not bathe a child in hot water with the obligatory daily use of soap, shampoos, foams and other means for water procedures.
Complementary foods and new foods should be introduced gradually, in small portions, according to age.
The baby's diet should have a sufficient amount of vitamins A, E, C, B 6 and B 12, since it is these substances that actively participate in metabolic processes in the skin, and also help regeneration.
Any damage, abrasions and scratches in order to avoid the development of bacterial contamination should be immediately treated with antiseptics.

Any rashes on the baby's skin should not be mechanically removed or squeezed out. Treatments with alcohol, vodka and alcohol-based lotions are also prohibited in childhood.

Most viral and bacterial infections are vaccinated. To refuse vaccination is irresponsible to say the least. Vaccination does not guarantee, of course, that the child will not get sick with this or that infection, but the vaccinated child is easier, recovers faster and does not have complications. And all infections are dangerous in the first place for their formidable complications.