Skin irritation with 20 mth old?

seems just recently my son who is 20 mths old , mainly in the evening time would rub his hands together as if he was scratching them ..After that they would become all red..I cant seem to describe it but now his hands are peeling, fingers and all and his palms feel like leather, i took him to his ped. and he basically tried to say that im doing something diff, it has gotten my concern bc he is my 3rd child and never have i seen this before, anyways he prescribed something called cultivate and told me to switch to dove .. does this sound like something anyone else has went through , and do you think it is something that i am doing within the house???

Skin irritation with 20 mth old?
It could by anything from laundry soap to the dish soap you are using. Check and see if you notice the rash anywhere else on his body. If it is not anywhere else than it is something that he is getting into. Say he is touching the dog or got into the cleaning products (by accident of course). It could be anything that he has gotten into. Hope you figure it out that sucks for the little man.
Reply:Skin peeling and and of itself isn't worrisome some people go through periodic "sheddings". I do and my son has at times.





However the skin shouldn't feel like leather and it shouldn't really be that irritated.





Its hard to say what is causing it, with it being both the hands and the feet my first thought would be not getting enough fluids, and certainly encouraging your child to drink a little more (not excessively) wouldn't be harmful.





The next question would be allergies I guess, but the soles of the feet tend to be the last places to react to things like soaps because the skin is thickest. It wouldn't hurt to eliminate dyes and perfumes (which dove won't do). And limit how much soap you use.





For a moisturizer olive oil is a million times better than anything else you can buy. It has natural vitamins and minerals and is said to balance the skin pH. I know several dermatologists have recommended it for "kitchen dermatitis" (I used to work for a catering company). Any olive oil with no added ingredients (some have antifoaming agents and other chemicals) is fine. Organic may have some benefits but olives are not normally a high pesticide crop. Cocoa butter and shea butter may be useful as well, but they have a bigger potential to be allergens.





Sometimes leathery skin on the hands and feet seem to correspond to digestive problems. Irritation of the digestive track can cause minor deficiencies. Probiotics are safe for toddlers so either active bacteria culture yogurt, or you can get pills. The powder in probiotic capsules tastes sweet and most kids will just eat it if you drop it on their tongue. There are also shelf-stable dissolvable forms but they tend to be more expensive.





If none of that works you might want to consider allergy testing and looking into eliminating foods from the diet, but I think that should generally be a last resort -particularly for toddlers who may not accept a wide range of foods to start with.