Rash with Remicade

[Max's Mom]

rash with Remicade

My son(10 years old) has developed some sort of rash on his arms. Red,raised, but not itchy. It seems to spread slowly. He has been on Remi for almost a year. Could this be from the Remi and do I need to make yet another doc app? Does anybody know anything about this?

 

[Crohn's 35]

Hi there, this may calm you but rashes are very common in Crohns, not necessarily a Remicade rash. I got the rashes last spring and another Crohnie did to at the same time and neither of us are on the biologics. If it gets worse or spreads somewhere else, get it check out.

 

[Max's Mom]

Thank's Pen. Did your rash ever go away,though?

 

[Crohn's 35]

Yes it did. Every time I had it. Now I just use steroid cream and it takes it away. How long has he had this rash? Mine usually took about a week or so.

But seeing as your son is on Remicade, you should check with his doctor to be on the safe side ok? Let me know what happens.

 

[scoutfinch]

Yes, definitely talk to the doctor. I've had an instance of rash too - non-itchy hives over my arms, legs and face - that was caused by stress. My doctor advised me to take an OTC anti-histamine and the rash went away within a few days.

 

[Max's Mom]

He has had the rashes for a few weeks now. I was planning on waiting a little longer and then see somebody.

 

[Max's Mom]

I finally took Max to see his doctor. His GI doc. said to see his regular pediatrician. Turns out it's excema. I'm not 100% convinced, but for now, we'll go with that. Hydrocortisone and aquaphor will be the treatment.

 

[Lydia]

Remicade can make you more sensitive to the sun. So be careful of that.

 

[Lisa]

MM - I developed eczema which my GI doc thinks is related to the remicade - but it took a couple of years for that to show up....I am FINALLY almost rash free on my body - I still get flares on the inside of my ankles if I go too long without using any type of cream.....but the spots on my arms have disappeared in just the last couple of weeks...they had been there for months.....

 

[STLGirl]

Remicade can make you more sensitive to the sun. So be careful of that.

Hi Lydia, WOW no one told me about the sun and Remicade ! Thanks for mentioning that. The other day I was driving and had my left arm out the window with the sun beating down on it and that evening I noticed red blotches all over my left arm. I'm like .......what the heck !! In the back of my mind I wondered if it wasn't the sun and Remi (or Pred) . It's been about 4 days now and they are fading. So I guess it's the Remicade. Does that sound about right to you ? Or are their other symptoms that you get being on Remi and being in the sun?

 

[Jules in SC]

This happened to me. I got rashes before the Remicade- and thought it was another of those. But my dermatologist thought it looked different. She was worried that it was Lupus- it wasn't. Then she thought it was psoriasis- several biopsies were negative. They all came back "folliculitis of unknown origin". Basically the hair follicle was acting like there was an infection- but they couldn't find any infecting bacteria or fungi. They gave me a variety of steroidal creams, which didn't do anything. It finally went away after about a year.
My Dad (who also has Crohn's) got the same rash with Remicade and switched to Humira. The rash went away in a couple months.

 

[Saphira]

Brandon's rash arrived a few days before his second remi infusion, but disappeared when he had the infusion. By the way since the second infusion, he had one day of a headache and is now in 100% remision!! No symptoms, eating everything in sight!
Trina

 

[Max's Mom]

Ok,Max's rash is much better.Now he has a really sore butt,looks like a diaper rash a baby would have.I'm worried because he has had a fistula before and I'm terrified that it will happen again. I'm always checking back there making sure that it's clean. Now I haven't done that lately and sure enough, big time rash. Taking care of his needs is turning out to be a full time job. I wonder sometimes when he all grown if he will think back on these days and wonder why his mom was always checking out his butt.

 

[Jules in SC]

Have you ever tried Calmoseptine? I think it works better than my Rx for Perenex.

 

[muppet]

What became of this, if you don't mind me asking? My daughter also developed an excema-like rash, which eventually moved to her rump and became quite sensitive, and she ended up with terrible joint pains which eventually hospitalized her. The rash turned out to be a serum reaction to the Remicade, or so we were told, but the symptoms you're describing for Max sound like a very close fit and he's still on the Remicade?

 

[Max's Mom]

Thanks for posting everybody.Max was tested for strep on his butt which came out positive. He was treated with antibiotics and is now better. We switched to fragrance free laundry det. shampoo,soap etc. He uses cetaphil lotion + a doc.pres. ointment for crusty,dry parts of body.Nowadays he's smother than a baby's bottom.Thanks to the dermatologist.I wish we would have seeked help for this earlier because I was starting to worry about skincancer and all sorts of stuff. He looked pretty bad by the time we got there(huge rash under his nose and on top of his head and upper body all crusty) Oh, well hopefully I learned a lesson.

 

[Max's Mom]

Hi,muppet! I just finished reading Sarah's story and I am sorry you guys are having such a hard time and are still struggling.I hope you guys can figure something out so your beautiful family can enjoy life again.Max is still on Remicade and so far so good.There was really no other option for us than Remicade, he can not be on Prednisone.Pentasa and 6-mp did nothing for him. If Remicade ever fails we will try Humira.Good luck with everything,I know how hard it is to see your child in pain.

 

[Lauren87]

I was on remicade for 3 years and I always had those red scaley patches. I would get them in differant places and some of the smaller ones would disappear. But I had a few, one particular one on my arm, that never went away. Many people asked me if I burnt myself. I remember hiding them in school. Not knowing they were from Remicade I made several trips to a dermatologist who could never pinpoint what they were but never blamed the Remicade. However after 3 years I had to stop Remicade and the patches went away almost right away. I have been off Remicade for almost 2 years and have not had any signs of the patches.

 

[Jtwinnie]

I have been on Remicade for about 10 months now. About 2-3 months after starting remicade, I had to reintroduce it because it stopped working when I was down to taking it every other month. Around the same time, I ended up getting red bumps all over my body. Sometimes they itched, sometime they hurt (when you pressed down on them). Some (not all) had white heads. The dermatologist diagnosed it as folliculitis. The only thing that seems to get rid of it is a strong antibiotic celephexin. Recently, I just got a rash in the middle of my back. It seems to come and go. Again it is a tiny bit itchy, and raised a little bit, but not too bad. I am positive that the rash and folliculitis is related to the Remicade. The dermatologist originally gave me creams (metronidazole, steroid cream) to treat the folliculitis, but they don't work. I have had Crohns for 16 years (most of my life) and have never had these side effects. Other dermatologists have also diagnosed me with ezema and dermatitis before. Before taking Remicade, I took Cimzia which would wore off after a couple of months. I am currently trying a holistic approach where I have eliminated a lot of foods from my diet to try and get off this Remicade. When searching online, information on Remicade has mentioned psoriasis (red scaley patches) may be a side effect.