Pimply diaper rash - not yeast? What is it?

[kerosine13]

I have had three kiddos and never seen this one before.

My 18 mo. old has small pimples on her genitals/bottom/thighs. The pimples aren't really pussy or blistery, just little red bumps, some larger than others. They seem to pop up in different places but are always there and seem to be multiplying.

When regular diaper rash treatment didn't help I treated it as a yeast rash, even using 2 types of antifungal creams (lotrimin etc.) as well as vinegar, probiotics, lots of bare air time. Diaper creams (even "natural" unscented ones) seem to sting her.

From googling around online it seems others with similar symptoms have gotten a diagnosis of yeast or staph! Could these pimples be staph? Or some other rash? Something in the diet? Anyone have anything similar?

[redvlagrl]

Eh. Sounds awful. We battled yeast for 13 months so don't discount it. What eventually killed it was bleaching the diaps (like 2 c of bleach in hot hot water, switching to Tide F and C, 1 mth of sposies with antifungal cream every change and for 2 weeks after symptoms disappeared.

DD's rash looked like you described most of the time. Did you try diluted GSE on her bum or diluted (olive oil) TTO?

ETA: or gentian violet?

[kerosine13]

Thanks for the input!

Yeah, I'm thinking it may just be a stubborn yeast. She's had yeast rashes before and so that makes the most sense, but usually if I catch it early it clears up quickly with air time/vinegar and sposies plus antifungal cream. I usually don't have to use that much antifungal cream even, but this time I guess it is just being stubborn. I think it's getting better. It definitely doesn't seem like anything that could be staph. Maybe I'll switch from the vinegar to the GSE. I've never tried gentian violet because it's kind of a pain to find here.

[redvlagrl]

I was doing the same thing as you and just using the antifungals until the rash went. You need to use it every diaper change for two weeks *after* the rash clears up.

Make sure you dilute the GSE. You should be able to get it at a health food store.

We can get Gentian Violet at our local Shopper's Drug Mart - it's a really big drugstore. Maybe a large CVS would have it? You'll have to ask for it.

[peainthepod]

Have you tried using plain unsweetened yogurt as a topical? This was the only thing that cured our DS's stubborn yeast rash. Lotrimin only seemed to make it worse, and bare bottom time wasn't practical. The yogurt is absorbed by the skin fairly easily and just leaves soft little dry curds that brush off during a diaper change. I swear by it now (and had him eat yogurt every day for the probiotics).

Good luck! Yeast rashes are miserable.

[summersmama]

same thing just happened to my 2 year old.

it started as a rash in the diaper area, and i treated it as diaper rash, using tea tree oil remedy, diaper cream, all of it. then i tried the yeast treatment. nothing worked. then i took her to the doctor, who said strep was going around and diagnosed it as a strep skin infection. we got antibiotics, and it seemed to improve somewhat. after the meds were gone though, she still had the bumps(not so red and inflamed) left on her legs, belly, diaper area. so we went back to the doctor, who suspected that the whole thing started as a histamine (allergy/sensitivity) reaction to something in our environment, that she itched at and then the strep bacteria got it. so once the strep was gone we still had to deal with the original rash. doctor thought it must be a soap or baby product that she was hypersensitive to, and put her on anti-histamine for 30 days. the only product change in our house that could have coincided with all this was a switch in laundry soap, so we went back to our original soap, and after a few weeks on the anti-histamine, the pimple like bumps are almost all gone.

good luck and i hope you can figure it out. it sure is hard to watch your sweet little ones suffer.

[CookAMH]

Sounds like the rash DS had and it was yeast, it crept up the creases of the thighs. Only thing that got it take care of for us was nystatin cream. It got worse after a day or two before it got better, fyi. But then it cleared up and I used it for maybe a week past it being cleared up.

[CookAMH]

How is the rash, what have you been doing?

[Jessnet]

My boy sometimes gets the same thing. I have no idea what it is. One doctor diagnosed it as yeast (although for reasons that don't need to be explained here, I have no trust in the competence of that doctor AT ALL). The Rx cream for yeast didn't help at all. What seems to helps is for us to treat it as eczema.