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Sunblock From A Chair Cause A Dh Rash?

Rosewynde

By Rosewynde
in Dermatitis Herpetiformis

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Rosewynde Rookie
Rosewynde
Posted

I'll give background so you know where I'm coming from ; D After 7 years of general stomach problems (told it was IBS), I was diagnosed as Celiac last year after severe bouts of flu like symptoms. Until recently I've never had any problems with things on my skin causing rashes or other problems. I've since noticed that some shampoos cause hair loss and had wondered if maybe it was a reaction to gluten. I've avoided those shampoos since. Now I appear to be reacting to a sunblock.

A month ago or so I had a rash appear on the edges of my back a few hours after a friend (who had just put on their sunblock) rubbed mine into my back. Surprisingly it showed up in a swimsuit shapped U along the edges of where my suit sits but no where else on my body. The rash was very red and itchy with only a few small bumps and never blistered. At a guess i was reacting to their sunblock where it would have touched the portions of my back that were not covered by my sunblock. It took about a week of enduring a constant minor itchy feeling before it faded away.

Yesterday I spent the day at our community pool watching my kids swim. I didn't put on sunblock as I was sitting in the shade on one of those long outdoor lounges with a metal frame and the rubbery bands of plastic that go across it. Last night I started feeling itchy in the middle of the night. My husband looked at it this morning and I have two red bands across the upper part of my back (where my swimsuit didn't cover) and another band across the backs of my knees. All of it looks and feels just like the rash I got before. Do you think it's possible I'm reacting to someones sunblock that ended up on the chair or am I reacting to the chair somehow? Does this mean i have DH? Should I ask my new doctor or assume he's as clueless as most are about Celiac Disease ; D

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Rosewynde Rookie
Rosewynde
Posted
  • Author

After doing a bit more research I understand that DH is from internal consumption of gluten. However i do remember reading that people were removing external exposure to gluten to help prevent this problem too. Can someone clue me in as to where to look? I'm not finding much of anything, but I'm obviously having an allergic rash reaction to something in shampoos and sunblock.

kbtoyssni Contributor
kbtoyssni
Posted

You could try searching on "personal car products" or "shampoo" or similar terms. It seems like many people with DH do react to touching gluten. I personally don't use personal care products with gluten because of the high risk of ingestion. You definitely could be having a gluten reaction.

Rosewynde Rookie
Rosewynde
Posted
  • Author

Thanks Kbtoyssni,

I don't use anything that has risk of getting inside my mouth without throughly reading a label as I don't care to ever get sick again. I also tend to use Hypoallergenic soaps anways due to dry skin problems so I can pretty much rule out problems from that end. But who would figure short term contact from something on someone or something else would create that sort of horrible rash reaction. Because of the patterns they showed up in I'm pretty positive it's something in a sunblock.

ellen123 Apprentice
ellen123
Posted

Are you sure there's not another cause lurking out there? For instance, many DH sufferers find that iodine (such as in iodized salt, shellfish, seaweed) and NSAIDs such as ibuprofen, advil, etc. aggravate the rash and can cause an outbreak. This appears to be the case for me, and I've read similar comments on this forum.

ravenwoodglass Mentor
ravenwoodglass
Posted
Thanks Kbtoyssni,

I don't use anything that has risk of getting inside my mouth without throughly reading a label as I don't care to ever get sick again. I also tend to use Hypoallergenic soaps anways due to dry skin problems so I can pretty much rule out problems from that end. But who would figure short term contact from something on someone or something else would create that sort of horrible rash reaction. Because of the patterns they showed up in I'm pretty positive it's something in a sunblock.

It sounds like your right to me. Whether this is DH or an allergy to something else that is in it. You may want to carry a large towel or something else that you can put down on those chairs. The oldfashioned way to diagnose DH was to use iodine on an area of the skin and loosely cover it with a bandaid. If a rash occured you had a diagnosis. Because of this and my own reactions I am not so sure that gluten has to be injested for a DH reaction to happen.

Rosewynde Rookie
Rosewynde
Posted
  • Author

My dad suggested I take a bit of wheat flour, make a paste, put it on a bandaid, and put it on a tender part of flesh. I'm rather afraid to try heeh ; D

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