Is the Rash Contagious and What Is It

Along with the cautions about flu, it's also necessary to be aware that some rashes are contagious and may be picked up by your child at school, spread by co-workers or passed around in a nursing home. Rashes also may migrate from one part of the body to another.

Some rashes are not contagious. Insect bite rashes, food intolerances or a reaction to a chemical substance as well as dermatitis eczema rashes are not spread from person to person. Some rashes that are contagious include scabies, poison ivy, chicken pox and fungal rashes. Scabies is a mite that can burrow under the skin and be passed on to another person by holding hands, sharing a bed or at school. With a fungal rash, contact in locker rooms by sharing towels, socks or physical contact can pass this on. Poison ivy oils can be spread around one's own body if the urushiol oil touches the skin. The oil can also cause someone else to get eruptions. It is important with poison ivy to inspect clothing, shoes and backpack to be sure traces of the oil don't remain.

With the chicken pox and measles, vaccination is important for kids. These can be spread by contact as well as airborn. It's important to know if the rash is viral, bacterial, an allergy or another source to know the best way to protect oneself and one's kids. Don't just take advice about any rash as a solution to your own. Some rashes benefit from calamine lotion , while others require moisturizer and shouldn't be dried up.

Follow your physician's instructions about your child's return to pre-school or school. If there is a bacterial infection that is the source of the rash, it's often advised to wait till fever is gone and antibiotics are fully in the system. For a scabies mites rash, there is a pesticide to apply and a procedure for washing one's clothing and bedding. When someone has a staph infection rash it's important to cover it and be careful at football practice or other sports situations. Staph or mersa is contagious and goes around high school and college football teams.

Children have a show and tell attitude often to a rash or similar bodily irregularity. Be sure your kids know to not touch someone's eruption, blister or wound. There may be some bacteria that is nasty in that fluid. Explain to your children that they can catch a skin infection just like a cold or flu and that they'd never share a tissue with someone. Discourage scratching as well to someone who has a rash as this can move it from one part of the body to another. Scabies can hide in the nails even and be spread elsewhere on the body. Fungal infections as well as herpes fever blisters can spread. Benadryl is useful when one is very itchy to prevent the itching that leads to scratching.

There are many sprays of hand sanitizers that kids can like at the health food store. This is a fun thing to use and kids can use peppermint or orange flavored sprays to spray their hands when around others with the flu, colds and rashes.