Butt rash on potty trained toddler

[patchouligirl]

Hello!
My 2 1/2 year old son has recently potty trained. (about 2 weeks now) i started off giving him M+M's for using the potty. He very rarely ever gets any candy, so this was a huge treat.
So a few days into it, i start noticing an eczema type rash on his check. It's red and very dry and flaky. i though it might possibly be a reaction to chocolate...since he'd never had it before. So i switched to reeces pieces. The rash appeared to be clearing up.
Then yesterday i notice he has a huge rash on each butt cheek. He's wearing underpants not diapers or trainers. The rash is red, slighty raised, covered with bumps and itchy. It's on his upper buttocks. At night i have been putting disposable training pants on him, and he wakes up dry 99% of the time. Last night i put diaper cream on his bum, and the rash is almost cleared up..but now the eczema looking patch on his face is back.
Would this be a reaction to sugar? Any thoughts? Does the butt rash sound like ezcema too or is this maybe from the disposables? we used cloth before. Help!

[lexbeach]

The butt rash defnitely sounds like it could just be from the disposable diapers. My guys get a rash whenever they're in sposies. . . even the "good" kind that supposedly don't have chemicals in them. They don't seem to have particuarly sensitive skin otherwise, and never get rashy in cloth. I wonder if babies who are in sposies from birth just develop a tolerance for them early on. They do make cloth overnight training pants if you're interested, or maybe you could just have your ds go without since he's dry so much of the time anyway.

Regarding the exzema, I would doubt that the sugar is the culprit, but I don't know for sure. I think it would more likely be a reaction to something else that's in the reeces's pieces (some coloring or preservative. . . in which case you could try giving him a more "natural" treat instead, something organic and in a relatively pure state) if it's related to that at all. It's true that exzema is generally related to an allergy of some sort, but this is a time of year when exzema can flare up just because it's getting so dry out (at least where we live). Both of my boys have developed really dry skin in the last couple of weeks.

I would also just scrutinize your ds' diet and see if there's anything else that he could be reacting to. It could be something that's he's had before, but that he's suddenly eating in larger amounts or more frequently. Or a new soap, laundry detergent, etc.

HTH, and congrats on the PT!

[dawnk]

My oldest went through the same thing after I put him in underpants. The culprit seemed to be the underpants. He was in the regular fruit of the loom type undies, and at first I thought it was the dye in the undies, so I got plain white ones and that wasn't it. So I searched high and low and I found some undies with natural fibers from sarasprints.com and that seemed to do the trick. Before I found these, I went through every brand/type of undies.
I wouldn't think it is the sugar for this kind of rash.