Each parent is familiar with the situation when the baby suddenly has a rash on his body and at the same time the temperature suddenly rises. Such symptoms occur in so many diseases and conditions, some of which are considered quite dangerous for the child's body. Let's try to figure out what specific pathological conditions are characteristic for a particular disease, and how parents should behave when a rash and fever suddenly appear in a child.
Rash on the background of insect bites
One of the common reasons for the appearance of itchy redness on the child’s body is considered to be a reaction to insect bites: mosquitoes, bedbugs, and in some regions of Russia (mainly northern) poisonous midges. This manifestation may be accompanied by a slight increase in body temperature, since a reaction to insect venom begins in the baby's body and immune processes are activated. As a rule, such a red rash appears after an unprotected stay of the baby in nature, after a night or day sleep.
These rashes are most wary of early spring or late fall, when it is believed that insects should already or should not be. In these cases, acne appears in open areas of the skin, a rash on the hands, the temperature can be low. Before you panic, you should carefully examine the child’s room and bed for insects, not forgetting that in the basement mosquitoes can be activated in the winter. After ascertaining the presence of small pests in the room or furniture, measures should be taken to destroy them. As a rule, the baby is treated with “Fenistil-gel” or “Psilobalm” for the baby. In case of fever , the child should be given an antipyretic and antihistamine.
Rashes as a result of an allergic reaction
The next no less common reason for the appearance of a rash on the baby's body is considered an allergic reaction of the body. Such spots can look like large rashes, and like small pimples. Most often, the child manifests the so-called "food allergy". This pathology arises quite quickly: red rashes appear on the baby's body, accompanied by severe itching. In addition, in some cases, vomiting, upset stools and fever are possible. The general condition may also change: the child becomes lethargic and lethargic, or, conversely, excited and cheerful. To determine whether the parents were able to establish the cause of the rash and the allergen that caused it, only a pediatric doctor can. Contact a pediatrician with your baby as soon as possible. In the absence of the possibility of rapid medical intervention, you can give the child to drink activated charcoal or any sorbent, as well as an antihistamine to repay a possible reaction of the body. An allergic rash in a baby can also occur on detergents, for example, on a powder that erases baby clothes. The task of parents is to correctly determine the cause of such a reaction of the child's body in order to treat the cause, and not just the consequences.
Infectious diseases for children
However, often the cause of a rash on the body, especially accompanied by fever, can be a disease. The cause of skin manifestations can be a number of infectious diseases, which are most often sick in childhood. Many parents confidently believe that it is better for a baby to transfer childhood viruses to preschool and primary school age, since this period is considered the most sensitive for a favorable course of infection. In fact, these diseases in childhood are carried by the body much easier than in older adolescents and adults. A growing body is much easier and more productive to cope with microbes and pathological organisms, and the child’s immune system is considered more flexible and active than an adult. Therefore, in the childhood period, viral diseases are easier to carry and take less time to recover.
A rash on the body and fever can signal many infectious diseases. Different viral pathologies are characterized by their own symptoms, but common to many diseases is that they are accompanied by rashes, fever and a number of somatic catarrhal manifestations. It is considered important for parents to be able to correctly recognize the symptoms of a disease, since the first signs can begin suddenly, while it is not always possible to urgently seek qualified medical help.
Chickenpox
One of the common infectious diseases that about 85% of the population safely tolerate in childhood is chickenpox or, as the people say, chickenpox. The disease is characterized by the fact that the child rises in temperature, then the rash appears in the form of red spots with a watery bubble. Initially, there are few rashes, but gradually there are more acne, and they can also be observed on the mucous membranes of the child. The appearance of spots with chickenpox, as a rule, is accompanied by severe itching, because a pediatric doctor may recommend antihistamines (except for antipyretic drugs).
A watery vesicle dries out after a few days, and a crust forms on the skin. A child with chickenpox is considered contagious to others within two weeks: it is during this period that all the “sores” will dry up and disappear. After this, the child is considered recovered. Chicken pox is transmitted by airborne droplets, while this disease belongs to the category of infections that are sick once in a lifetime.
During the course of the disease, careful hygienic care is especially important for a small patient: rashes must be regularly treated with drying agents. It is necessary to carefully monitor that the baby does not comb itchy acne, since suppuration at the site of the rash is possible. Otherwise, the disease with chickenpox threatens to turn into furunculosis, which can occur against the background of chickenpox. The period of active rash lasts more than one day, therefore it is important to treat the rash that has recently appeared in the child in a timely manner, and the temperature can also be maintained during the first few days of the disease. After the termination of the appearance of new acne, as a rule, the temperature indicators of the child normalize. From this moment, the baby begins to recover.
Rubella rash
Rubella is considered another equally well-known disease, accompanied by the appearance of a rash and fever in the child. This infection differs from chickenpox primarily in the nature of the rashes: unlike large acne with chickenpox, resembling mosquito bites, a small rash appears with rubella. Initially, her appearance is preceded by malaise, the child may experience symptoms of an acute respiratory disease: fever, body aches, runny nose. After a couple or more days, small acne appears on the body, and there is a sharpness in the eyes. As a rule, rash with rubella is not accompanied by itching, but they have a number of other specific features. A red rash occurs simultaneously throughout the body, while being localized in the face, back, and chest.
A characteristic feature of this disease is that small dots appear in the twilight, and in bright light it is significantly discolored. Fever, as a rule, accompanies the disease for the first two days, then normalizes. A special sign of this infectious disease is also an increase in the occipital lymph nodes, temperature and rash on the abdomen in a child. Doctors usually recommend a small patient to be placed in a darkened room and provide an enhanced drinking regimen.
Rubella, as a rule, does not require special treatment: within 4-5 days, the rashes disappear without a trace, while the immunity to this disease remains for life. Modern pediatrics insists that rubella vaccinations be given to babies under the age of one year. Despite the fact that this disease is relatively easy and without complications, this infection is considered especially dangerous for pregnant women. Contact of a pregnant woman with children with rubella is categorically contraindicated, especially if the expectant mother herself is not ill with this infectious disease and does not have immunity to it. The risk of severe infection of amniotic fluid in this case is too great, which leads to severe and incorrigible pathologies of the unborn child. Therefore, it is recommended that doctors reinsure themselves and develop a stable immunity to this disease in advance.
Measles
Recently, it is not so popular, but, nevertheless, from time to time, a common disease called measles is also characterized by the presence of abundant rashes on the skin. This viral pathology begins with a sharp increase in body temperature, the onset of signs of conjunctivitis, runny nose and cough in a child. In the first three days, the disease is a respiratory or catarrhal. On the third day, a rash appears on the child’s body, and the temperature rises a second time.
On the first day, rashes are localized in the face, then gradually fall on the chest, back, abdomen, limbs. Acne is usually red, pronounced and spread throughout the body for three days. Initially, a small rash rapidly increases in size, connecting in some places to red spots. From the third day of its manifestation, it begins to fade as it arose. The period of the disease is accompanied by cough, fever, general malaise. The rash on the child’s body does not immediately disappear without a trace: for some time, a certain pigmentation and peeling on the sites of heavy rashes remain on the body. Measles is always accompanied by certain symptoms, because for parents the temperature, a rash on the face with a previous cough and profuse lacrimation in the light is a signal to see a doctor. Like any disease, measles does not tolerate self-medication. Therapy should be carried out according to the indications and under the supervision of a local pediatrician. Sustained immunity to this disease occurs after complete healing and, according to doctors, also after timely vaccination.
Scarlet fever and the consequences of the disease
One of the most serious infections, accompanied by the appearance of a rash in children, experts consider scarlet fever. This disease caused by streptococcal pathogens, to some extent, initially resembles a sore throat. In the first hours of scarlet fever, the baby's skin is clean, but the tonsils increase, the mucous in the throat turns red. The child does not feel well, by the end of the first or the beginning of the second day of the onset of symptoms, the baby has a high temperature and a rash. Initially, it appears on the neck, while the nasolabial triangle acquires a pale, somewhat cyanotic shade, forming a characteristic scarlet triangle. The tongue of a small patient becomes a pronounced color, experts determine such a symptom as “raspberry tongue”. Gradually, rashes spread to the upper back and chest, then throughout the body. This manifestation is localized most in the armpits, folds of the skin, lower abdomen, inner thighs.
Rash, itching, temperature accompany the course of the disease for the first seven days, then the symptoms gradually fade away. This does not mean that the baby ceases to be a source of infection for surrounding children, therefore it is isolated from children's society for 21 days. Therapy for scarlet fever is carried out under the supervision of a local pediatrician. Be sure the child is undergoing antibiotic treatment, which the doctor selects for him.
This viral pathology is considered dangerous because of the complications that it can cause. First of all, this disease is a danger to the heart and kidneys of the child. That is why it is important that the entire period of treatment strictly comply with the recommendations of the pediatrician: on time to take the necessary tests, give the baby the prescribed medications, and undergo examination by a pediatric urologist and cardiologist.
Infectious erythema
A viral disease called "infectious erythema" is diagnosed in children from 2 to 12 years of age during epidemics in children's educational institutions. The first couple of days, the symptoms resemble SARS or ARI: fever, runny nose. The first rashes appear on the cheekbones in the form of bright red dots, which gradually merge into a single relief pattern. Small pimples, merging, can form a geographical pattern, a lace pattern. Over the next two days, the rash spreads throughout the body, merging in places into swollen spots. After the appearance of acne, the child ceases to be contagious to others: the period before the appearance of the first rash is considered the most dangerous period. Seven days later, skin manifestations disappear, occasionally manifesting during physical exertion, with excitement, sunbathing.
Acute viral infection of infants
Infection in infants or young children caused by the herpes virus pathogen begins with an acute febrile state. The baby's body temperature rises suddenly to 39 and above degrees, the acute period lasts about three days, and in some cases up to five days. At first, the baby does not have rashes: only the fever indicates that the child is sick. The temperature decreases critically on the fourth day, then small rubella-like rashes appear on the child's body, which are localized mainly on the neck and trunk. A characteristic symptom is also a lack of appetite, irritability and enlargement of the cervical lymph nodes. Since the disease is infectious, the baby becomes contagious to others. This period continues until the first rashes appear - after this the risk of contracting the virus from a sick child is minimized.
Meningococcal infection
The most dangerous viral disease, accompanied by rashes on the body and high fever, is considered to be meningococcal infection. This disease is extremely dangerous in that it tends to hurricane, so it is important to be able to recognize the main symptoms of an impending disaster in time.
The infection begins suddenly: a runny nose initially appears and the body temperature rises sharply, pains in the muscles and joints occur, and severe vomiting may open. In a child, a rash and fever simultaneously appear by the end of the first day of the disease. In the event that a skin reaction occurs immediately in the first hours of the course of the disease, specialists, as a rule, predict an unfavorable development of the disease in a particularly severe form. Rashes, initially pink in color, gradually turn into an irregular hemorrhage under the skin, prone to a rapid increase. Mostly its elements are concentrated in the limbs, face, body of the baby. At the slightest suspicion of a meningococcal infection, the child should be urgently taken to the clinic. The life of a small patient depends on how quickly and correctly parents react.
Rules of conduct for parents at the first sign of an infectious disease
Children's experts recommend that parents observe a number of rules when a baby is suspected of having a viral disease, accompanied by skin rashes. Acne can appear on the face, neck, limbs of the child, a rash on the back may appear. The temperature may be elevated, may remain normal. In any case, parents must show their son or daughter to a pediatrician, and the sooner the better. It is advisable to invite a doctor to your home, as it is necessary to avoid contact of a sick child with other children. In case of a hemorrhagic rash on the skin, immediately call an ambulance and hospitalize the child until the diagnosis is clarified, since such a rash can serve as a "formidable" sign of meningococcal infection.Until the doctor examines the child, you should not lubricate fragments of skin manifestations with antiseptics, especially "green", "Fukortsin" and other coloring agents for treating integuments. The doctor should carefully examine the nature of the rashes, which will greatly facilitate the diagnosis process. As a rule, a rash with various infections is quite typical, therefore most often an additional laboratory study to determine the type of disease will not be required.
And most importantly: you should not panic and get lost. If the child is sick, you need to pull yourself together and take all quick response measures in a situation of deterioration of the baby's condition.