General information about the disease
Increasingly, young children are developing allergies in their legs, depriving them of their usual mobility and causing discomfort.
Children's immune system is not yet formed and is not able to adequately respond to all kinds of irritants. Even the most seemingly harmless substances can cause an aggressive reaction in a child’s body.
Often, rashes on a child’s legs appear within the first hours after the allergen enters the body. To detect the disease at the very beginning, parents should closely monitor the child’s health, examining his skin daily.
It should be remembered that almost invisible blisters on the legs can lead to serious consequences for a small patient.
If rashes appear on your legs, you should visit a medical facility as soon as possible. The specialist will carry out a series of diagnostic measures and, having thus found out the cause that provoked the allergic reaction, will prescribe suitable therapy.
Any kind of rash is a sign that the baby’s body is malfunctioning for some reason. Before prescribing treatment, doctors determine the cause of the allergy.
Rash on the legs of a one-year-old child
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Quite often, children experience all sorts of allergic reactions, affecting their hands, face, buttocks, and other areas of the skin.
It should be noted that allergies in a child’s legs bring especially a lot of anxiety to parents and discomfort to the little patient.
Content:
Reasons for appearance
There are many known adverse factors that cause rashes on children's legs.
The main ones:
- Wearing poor quality shoes. However, it happens that the most expensive leather sandals or woolen socks cause itching and redness of the feet and toes.
- Insect bites in the warm season, when children are wearing open sandals. Midges, mosquitoes, spiders and other insects.
- Animal waste products are themselves allergens.
- Synthetic tights, socks and other items of clothing can provoke severe allergies, especially on the bends of the legs.
- Plant pollen.
- Exposure to heat or cold. For example: after bathing in too hot water, a rash appears between the child’s legs. And prickly heat occupies the folds of the lower extremities, manifesting itself as redness.
- Food products: eggs, fish, red berries, chocolate and cocoa very often cause diathesis on the legs of a child, beets, nuts, citrus fruits, honey.
- Dust and dust mites living in the atmosphere of a children's room.
- Fungal diseases.
- Use of phosphate household chemicals. Red itchy spots form on the butt and legs.
- Medications.
- Genetic predisposition.
- Stress.
- Predisposition to colds.
- Low immunity.
- Poor diet during breastfeeding.
- Unsuitable formula for feeding infants.
- A red rash on the legs appears in babies suffering from infectious diseases.
- Diaper rash.
- Dermatoses.
- After using low-quality diapers or hygiene products from dubious manufacturers, red spots form on the child’s legs and bottom. If the diaper is not changed in a timely manner, the baby will develop diaper rash between the legs.
Having noticed flaky red spots on their child’s legs, most parents consider two options: an allergic reaction or lichen. Few people know that such signs usually occur in children with a genetic predisposition.
Possible causes of leg rash
The most common causes of a red rash on the legs of a child include the following factors.
Food allergies
Irritation occurs not only on the skin of the face. With a strong allergic reaction to an irritant, red spots spread to the skin of the torso and limbs.
Drug allergy
Skin rashes in the form of red spots with itching can be caused by taking vitamins, antibiotics, and herbal medicines.
The rash affects the skin of the body, after which it spreads to the face, arms, and legs.
As the reaction intensifies, the spots become more intensely colored, enlarge, and merge with each other. This form of allergy is very dangerous; it can cause swelling of the tissues of the neck, affect the larynx, and cause Quincke's edema.
Contact dermatitis
A rash on a child's legs can be caused by a reaction to household chemicals, in particular laundry detergent or fabric softener. If red spots appear regularly, you should change the powder for washing children's clothes to a hypoallergenic one, and rinse the clothes more thoroughly.
To care for your child, you need to use only special baby hygiene products - shampoo, bathing foam, soap.
Cold allergy or urticaria
The appearance of skin rashes is caused by general hypothermia or prolonged contact with a cold object.
Due to their immature thermoregulation system, babies are very sensitive to low temperatures. An allergic reaction may occur after playing in cold water or walking through puddles.
Hives appear as bright pink blisters or small red rashes on your child's legs and body. After a few hours, the affected areas begin to peel off. The child becomes restless and irritable due to itching and burning of the skin.
Prickly heat
This is one of the most common causes of red and itchy skin in young children. It occurs if the child is dressed too warmly or the clothes are made from synthetic fabrics. During the summer months, heat rash is especially annoying in the upper legs - the skin between the thighs becomes swollen, red and itchy.
No special treatment is required; medicinal baths with chamomile decoction are recommended to eliminate discomfort.
Treating the affected areas with regular powder will also help.
Forms, types, stages, signs
Primary signs of allergies include:
- rough skin;
- redness;
- dry skin of the feet.
Rashes are divided into several types:
- spots of pale pink or red color that appear on a certain area of the leg or are distributed over its entire surface;
- cold, hives on the child’s legs or prickly heat lead to the formation of large blisters with peeling and severe itching;
- barely noticeable redness consists of itchy, scaly spots;
- pimples on a child's legs look like small red dots with pus underneath. Over time and without proper treatment, acne becomes covered with a dry crust;
- swelling.
If we are talking about hives, the skin on the legs becomes covered with bright pink blisters. The rashes quickly occupy the soles of the feet and, like any allergic rash on the feet, are accompanied by severe itching. The advanced form threatens life-threatening complications for the baby.
Children under 3 years of age sometimes develop atopic dermatitis on the legs. On the reddened, inflamed skin, blisters form, which, when opened, transform into weeping erosions.
Most often, signs of allergy appear on the feet or on the bend under the knee.
If you discover a rash on your child’s legs, you should immediately contact your pediatrician to protect your child from developing severe complications.
What to do if an allergic rash appears on a child’s legs?
If a rash is noticed on a child’s legs, it is necessary to carefully examine his skin, remember or photograph the locations of the spots. Before visiting a doctor, you should not lubricate them with brilliant green or any other means.
This will prevent you from establishing the nature of the rash and make diagnosis difficult.
You need to remember what new foods or medications the baby ate, drank, or took in the previous few days. If you suspect a food allergy, you need to give him an enterosorbent, dosage...
Symptoms
The symptoms of this pathological condition directly depend on the root cause, and therefore the type of allergy.
If the baby has become restless, is capricious and constantly cries, it is necessary to examine his skin. Allergic rashes involve severe itching and the child is not able to cope with it on his own.
In most cases, the pathology manifests itself on the feet, under the knees, in the calves, thighs, and legs.
As a rule, allergic rashes on the legs have the following symptoms:
- itching;
- the skin “burns”;
- bright red spots of all shapes and sizes;
- pimples on legs;
- rash in a child, in the form of blisters, pustules, etc.;
- violation of skin texture;
- roughness, peeling;
- dry skin, cracks;
- swelling of the legs or in the area of the rash.
The first “bell” about a developing allergic reaction is:
- peeling;
- dryness in the extremities;
- redness.
Unnoticed by parents, the allergy progresses, as evidenced by the following manifestations:
- dotted or diffuse spots that rise above the skin have a pale pink or reddish tint. Merging with each other, the spots can cover large areas of the skin, affecting the feet.
- raised reddish pimples of any size and shape. Very often pustules appear on them. With the development of pathology, acne becomes covered with a dry crust.
- swelling occurs due to the accumulation of large volumes of fluid in the subcutaneous tissue. It looks like a swollen, pale lump. Does not cause any distress to the child.
- Itchy blisters are a sure sign of hives or hypothermia. As they grow, they cover large areas of the skin. With the long-term development of the pathology, weeping spots form on the baby’s skin.
Often, an allergic rash on the legs occupies children's feet, manifesting itself in this way:
- bright red skin;
- itching;
- burning;
- dryness;
- bubble formation;
- swelling of the feet.
If an allergic rash has formed in the lower leg area, it manifests itself as redness, peeling, and dry skin.
Between the legs - in the form of red spots.
A rash on the butt and thighs - in the form of small itchy pimples and red, scaly spots.
As the pathology progresses, it can lead to serious complications. Any of the above symptoms is a good reason to visit a specialist. It should be remembered that immediate, competent therapy is the key to a quick recovery.
Complications
Allergies, manifested by skin lesions on the legs, cause discomfort to the child. It can become chronic, causing the child to suffer even into adulthood. Allergies are especially dangerous when skin symptoms are accompanied by other signs: for example, damage to the respiratory tract. But allergic reactions on the feet themselves can have unpleasant consequences:
- they can develop into dermatological diseases;
- scratched areas can cause infection.
Any allergic manifestations on a child’s body are a reason to consult a doctor. Allergies require timely diagnosis, including identification of the allergen, and effective treatment.
Treatment
Basic remedies for foot allergies:
- Antihistamines: Zyrtec, Suprastin.
- Hormonal: Prednisolone, Kenalog.
- Immunomodulators are used for children at least 3 years old.
- Corticosteroid ointments that relieve inflammation and unpleasant symptoms.
- Enterosorbents remove the allergen from the body: “Enterosgel”.
To relieve itching, use salt applications and special ointments. Ointments are prescribed exclusively on an individual basis, because have a lot of side effects.
During treatment, contact with the allergen should be avoided.
It is necessary to exclude foods that can cause an allergic reaction from the children's diet.
For bath procedures, use only hypoallergenic products.
Folk recipes
Make a decoction of chamomile, string, calendula and add it to the child’s bathing water (no longer than 20 minutes).
Can be used as compresses: take 1 tbsp. herbs, pour 1 liter of boiling water. Leave for 30 minutes, strain.
Wipe the affected areas with nettle infusion. 1 tbsp. leaves, pour 200 ml of boiling water, leave for 30 minutes.
There are many folk recipes for treating allergies in a child’s feet, but before you start using them, you need to consult your doctor. Only a qualified specialist can choose an effective, safe remedy. Otherwise, you can only harm the little patient.
Prevention
To protect your baby from allergic reactions of the body and rashes on the legs, you should adhere to the following rules:
- Strengthen children's immunity.
- Buy comfortable shoes of the best quality.
- To cure, and not to heal emerging pathologies.
- Eliminate allergenic foods.
- Dress strictly according to the weather.
- Be attentive to the baby's well-being.
- Use care products without fragrances or dyes.
