Red marks on baby: Allergy or bug bites?

In the last 24 hours, my 9 month old son has developed huge red patches under his arms and all around his groin area. It's so bad now that for an adult male with this problem, they would probably have a heart attack before consulting a doctor or mentioning it to anyone.


Initially, it just appeared to be SMALL bug bits on his legs, but now the red blotches are spreading and HUGE. Even worse, a few small marks have now reached his face.


We started to apply some steroid (hydrocortisone) cream on his neck 48 hours ago for atopic eczema. Not sure if that would cause a negative side effect like this. We keep a mostly clean flat, but there is the occasional bug flying around. His diet hasn't changed to be a food allergy, unless there was a bad shipment of veggies from the mainland. Only other possible cause I can think of is that a bug found his way into the lining of one of his cloth diapers.


Now, it also appears that his foot is starting to swell (or is it my/my helper's imagination?). He is still smiling and cheery though.


Our usual pediatrician is on vacation. I took my son to a different recommended doctor two days ago for the eczema but the red marks weren't present.


Being an early Sunday morning (and most doctors taking the day off), I'm not sure if I should go back to a GP or look for a specialist. If a specialist, in what field? I would rather not just walk into a hospital (from personal experience, it is really hit an miss here in terms of the quality of the on-call doctors).

I wouldn't risk it - especially if you think his foot is swelling - I would take him to a hospital and take the steroid cream with you to show them. I am sure babies would get priority in terms of treatment in the hospital.

Something like this happened to my daughter the other day, she's had an allergic reaction to a sunscrean I used.


I went to the doctor as it was all over her face and neck, cleared up very quickly with a dose of piriton.

Big red marks….hard to say what it is without seeing it. If your baby is fine, probably not too important. Bugs (mosquito’s etc) would leave typical marks. This sounds different.


Urticaria (allergy rash) springs to mind, but is just a guess. Best to see a GP or paediatrician.




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