Member Comments are provided by individuals and reflect their personal opinions only. Under NO circumstances should you act on any advice or opinion posted in this forum. ALWAYS check with your personal physician before taking any action regarding your health! MedHelp International and our partners, sponsors and affiliates have no obligation to monitor any comments posted on this site, or the content and/or accuracy of such exchanges. MedHelp International does not endorse the views of any user.
Dermatology (Expert Forum)
6 month old- tinea or eczema?
Answered by
Alan Rockoff, MD - dermatology, Child Skin Problems
The Rockoff Dermatology Center
Brookline - MA
This forum is for questions regarding Dermatology issues, such as: skin rashes, acne, birthmarks, skin infections, rosacea, and general skin care.
6 month old- tinea or eczema?
by nadine_shrivas, Mar 18, 2008 11:20AM
HI, my husband and i are at our wits end!
Our son develop a dry spot on hisforehead and we weretold byour pediatrician that we should apply aqua4, and hydrocortisone on it, shampoo with dandruf shampoo and switch soaps to dove. they said it was likely from cradle cap. we wanted to be sure so we saw a pediatric dermatologist. she prescribled nizoral cream once a day followed by lotion and vaseline (we chose to use lanolinh since he puts everything in his mouth, we also bought a humidifier). for the next couple months that rash would come and go. each time it would start as little white bumps and then turn red and then become patches and my son would itch. as it healed it formed roundish circles where it would be smooth skin with a couple of bumps surrounded by a raised bumpy sometimes scaly red border. when the rash was gone the skin would be raised and whiteish. becase it would come and go we began to get worried, we also noticed that the rash was not just on his forehead but also on his cheeks and temples. last month noticed that it was taking longer to heal then before so we went back to the derm. she said stop medication, and just lotion. so for a week we watch the rash get redder and our son get itchier. we noticed thatthe second we applied lanolinh/lotion the patches would redden and when he woke up in the morning hisface seemed less red. so we stopped lotions.. and saw the derm the next day. now she said she thinks it is fungal - and took a scraping but it would take 6 weeks to determine. she prescribed him griseofulvin 7ml a day - no lotions or anythingelse. we watch our son get progressively worse the patches spread throughout his face and became dry, thick and flaky all the wayup to the beginnings of his ears, eyebrows, and into his scalp. we called the derm and she said it was to be expected. ................... on our routine 6 month visit our pediatrician was insistant that it was possibly atopic dermatitis. and prescribed keflex, zyrtec, hydrocortisone, and elanil. so we went to the derm so she could see what our pediatrican saw on the same day, and she gave us cutivate and told us to continue griseofulvin. my sonnow seems much better, his face is no longer scaling or red. areas on the skin wherehe had the patches are now whitish and pink in some areas................ the problem is my pediatcian is insistant that we take him off griseofulvin explaining that it would not have been thereason for his skin to heal because it takes longer for it to take affect and therefore he has eczema and not a fungal infection. also that we should take him off the cutivate and put him on zyrtec and keflex to control the itching so that we control theeczema.
please advise as we dont wantour son to be on medication thatis unneccessary but afraid to take him off it as we read early discontinuation of griseo can the infection immune to the drug.
wouldn't his skin healed during the week without nizoral when we were lotioning him and keeping the air humid instead of it getting worse?
Our son develop a dry spot on hisforehead and we weretold byour pediatrician that we should apply aqua4, and hydrocortisone on it, shampoo with dandruf shampoo and switch soaps to dove. they said it was likely from cradle cap. we wanted to be sure so we saw a pediatric dermatologist. she prescribled nizoral cream once a day followed by lotion and vaseline (we chose to use lanolinh since he puts everything in his mouth, we also bought a humidifier). for the next couple months that rash would come and go. each time it would start as little white bumps and then turn red and then become patches and my son would itch. as it healed it formed roundish circles where it would be smooth skin with a couple of bumps surrounded by a raised bumpy sometimes scaly red border. when the rash was gone the skin would be raised and whiteish. becase it would come and go we began to get worried, we also noticed that the rash was not just on his forehead but also on his cheeks and temples. last month noticed that it was taking longer to heal then before so we went back to the derm. she said stop medication, and just lotion. so for a week we watch the rash get redder and our son get itchier. we noticed thatthe second we applied lanolinh/lotion the patches would redden and when he woke up in the morning hisface seemed less red. so we stopped lotions.. and saw the derm the next day. now she said she thinks it is fungal - and took a scraping but it would take 6 weeks to determine. she prescribed him griseofulvin 7ml a day - no lotions or anythingelse. we watch our son get progressively worse the patches spread throughout his face and became dry, thick and flaky all the wayup to the beginnings of his ears, eyebrows, and into his scalp. we called the derm and she said it was to be expected. ................... on our routine 6 month visit our pediatrician was insistant that it was possibly atopic dermatitis. and prescribed keflex, zyrtec, hydrocortisone, and elanil. so we went to the derm so she could see what our pediatrican saw on the same day, and she gave us cutivate and told us to continue griseofulvin. my sonnow seems much better, his face is no longer scaling or red. areas on the skin wherehe had the patches are now whitish and pink in some areas................ the problem is my pediatcian is insistant that we take him off griseofulvin explaining that it would not have been thereason for his skin to heal because it takes longer for it to take affect and therefore he has eczema and not a fungal infection. also that we should take him off the cutivate and put him on zyrtec and keflex to control the itching so that we control theeczema.
please advise as we dont wantour son to be on medication thatis unneccessary but afraid to take him off it as we read early discontinuation of griseo can the infection immune to the drug.
wouldn't his skin healed during the week without nizoral when we were lotioning him and keeping the air humid instead of it getting worse?
Doctor's Answer
by Alan Rockoff, MD, Mar 18, 2008 08:02PM
, Mar 18, 2008 08:02PM
To: nadine_shrivas
If Cutivate made your son's skin better, he probably has eczema or seborreha--both inflamed skin conditions--not fungus. Therefore he probably doesn't need griseofulvin. Please check with the pediatric dermatologist before stopping it, though. Seborrhea and eczema both come and go, you you have to keep treating the skin when it scales up. If you put lotion on it, the skin gets redder, but that doesn't mean anything and is nothing to worry about. After a while, rashes like these often quiet down on their own, so you won't have to keep treating.
Take care.
Dr. Rockoff
Take care.
Dr. Rockoff
also i noticed that his eyes/eye tends to get watery and gunky, the other day there was even a little blister on his eyelid which went away... according to his pediatrician it's common in eczema... sounds about right?
and lastly, he may be developing a cold and a fever, is it safe to use tylenol if needed while he's on both griseofulvin and cutivate?
Thank you sir very much !! This helps in knowing what questions to ask his doctor!
how long ago did this happen to your son? because elidel is now prescribed to children less then two, we havent tried it yet but if he gets itchy we will surely be using it! thankyou!! its good toknow first hand from another mother!
hope this is it for our little guy!