4 month old-eczema or teething rash?

[sunfish21]

My 4 month old DS has a terrible rash on his thumb and first finger on each hand and to a lesser degree around his mouth. t looks very similar to what he had before, and I was told by a ped it was eczema.

We all had a cold with fever for a couple days and that is when his hand got much worse. The skin looks almost raw and like it is cracking. He is also drooling like mad and sucking/chewing like he is working on a tooth, although I don't see or feel anything on his gums.

Any way to tell what is going on? For now I am just putting breast milk on it....but it looks terrible and I would guess must hurt. I would post a pic if someone could tell me how.

TIA

[ladymeag]

My eczema on my feet does this, as does the eczema on my husband's hands. My ped has said that rashes, fevers and the like are not normal for teething and to be very careful about blaming these on teething.

Our eczema has different and varied triggers. Some of the "easy" ones are: scented/dyed products, synthetic fibers (in clothing, diapers, sheets), too much soap remaining in clothing when washing, ditto on too much soap after bathing, hormones in dairy/meat.

Eczema is an auto-immune issue, so anything like a cold, flu or other issue that your immune system is also dealing with will generally flare it.

HTH!

[sunfish21]

Thanks! I know many peds say that isn't common for teething, but I know way more mamas that say it does happen...and since it happened with my DD I wouldn't be surprised if it happens with DS. I wondererd about the auto-immune thing, but since saliva changes to help teeth break through gum tissue it makes sense to think if enough of it is on the fingers that could be the culpret too.

[freckledgirl]

my baby used to get that on his hands and still gets it around his mouth. our doctor said eczema aggravated by drool drying out his skin. we can keep it pretty well under control by putting aquaphor on it at every diaper change. i was putting it on twice a day but that wasn't nearly enough.