peeling skin on fingers???

[moonmama22]

I noticed about a week ago that ds had the skin peeling off the tips of his thumb and first finger - didn't think much of it - he said it was from "pulling apart Legos", but then over the next few days, it was really peeling from all his fingers - large pieces of skin - really grossed me out! It spread down to the palms of his hands near his wrists as well. The ped. had us come in to make sure it was not a staph infection(?), but it wasn't. Anyone seen this, or know what it might be from?
Thanks for any suggestions!!!

[nursingmom]

I'm not sure if this applies to your son.

But my son, starting his Kindergarten year, started to bite his fingers to the point where his skin on his fingers were peeling. I rarely notice him biting his fingers. I thought it was something else other than biting at first. I realize later that he was biting his fingers at school or in the bathroom when I'm not looking.

[snuffles]

My dd had this once. It was really weird. I never figured out what it was.

[kkfum]

Originally Posted by nursingmom

I'm not sure if this applies to your son.
But my son, starting his Kindergarten year, started to bite his fingers to the point where his skin on his fingers were peeling.

i started this, myself, when i was 5 years old and, unfortunately, still do it today at age 34. it's horribly embarrassing and i sorely wish that my parents/pediatrician would have taken it more seriously when i was young. it's a true addiction now and most times, i don't even realize i'm doing it.

i was also a long-time thumb-sucker (until age 8) and was not breastfed, so have always wondered whether or not it had anything to do with it. i believe it began when we moved into a new house and i remember trying to fall asleep, alone, in a new, large bedroom after just moving--i also think i had just started kindergarten.

i'd just pay close attention to see if your son is, in fact, doing this to himself, secretly. and then try to figure out what he is feeling insecure/out of control about. good luck.

[moonmama22]

THanks!
He doesn't really ever put his fingers in his mouth - and it's actually moved down to close to his wrist - it is seeming to go away slowly. I'm not really concerned so much - they are not infected and not causing him any discomfort - I'm just baffled!!

[nursingmom]

As for our family, I have my boys take a bath or soak their hands in water with lots of sea salt and baking soda. Sea salt and baking soda somehow always seems to help with skin irritation, inflamation, and peeling in my household. You can get a big bag of natural coarse sea salt in any Korean grocery for really cheap.

[A&A]

It can be an allergic reaction to something.

For my mom, though, it was migraine-related. Her fingers would peel when she'd get a migraine.

[mbravebird]

It's one of the symptoms of kawasaki's disease. But you'd know if he had that -- one of the other main symptoms is a fever over 105 for several days.

[bec28]

My husband has had that happen to him twice now. At first I was thinking maybe an allergic reaction to something, but we hadn't changed laundry detergents or anything like that.

It started out just looking like dry skin, then it would start peeling a little, and then it looked like he was just shedding the skin from his hands. It was pretty awful! He would apply lotion to his hands multiple times a day and it didn't help at all. And we still don't know what caused it....

[Mosaic]

My husband has something similar, though it has never been formally diagnosed. It may be keratolysis exfoliativa, aka harmless peeling of skin on hands? If you think it's eczema or a fungal infection, you could try cortisone cream or a heavy moisturizer and an antifungal cream, plus adding zinc to his diet if he's a little low.

[seemfrog]

I just came on here to post the same thing!

ds is 2 1/2 and we recently noticed several of his finger tips are peeling.
Thought it was weird, but figured perhaps he was peeling them, he can get pretty interested in his cuts, hang nails, bites, etc, but THEN the other day we noticed his toes are doing it too! (and then later noticed heels too)
Really strange...

He has always had rather sensitive skin (and is an all around sensitive kid), had more diaper rashes as an infant, and now has eczema/psoriasis (I have never identified which) on his knees, elbows, feet that will get better/worse depending on what I haven't figured...

We all kind of figured it was his "skin condition" that was causing the peeling.

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread in case there are other ideas!

[moonmama22]

AARRGGGHHH
I thought it was getting better, but the fingers that we thought were healing are starting all over again!!!!
Ds has always had skin issues too - he used to get hives really bad - we went through allergy testing over and over again - there doesn't seem to be any cause to that either - that disappeared a little over a year ago, and I thought we were all set, but now something new!!! He gets heat rash really bad too, and has scratched the back of his neck really badly.
Strange things...