When You Should Be Concerned About a Skin Rash

Skin rashes come in all shapes, sizes, and degrees of severity, and few of us get through life without a skin rash or two. Whether it’s a rash due to poison ivy or shingles, skin rashes are incredibly common, and many can benefit from a higher standard of medical care.

To help you figure out whether you should seek help for a skin rash, our skilled dermatology team here at LaSante Health Center dives into a few rules of thumb for skin rashes.

Common causes of skin rashes

As we mentioned at the outset, skin rashes are very common and develop for a very wide range of reasons — too many to list here. To simplify things, we outline a few of the more common causes of skin rashes, which include:

• Eczema, which affects about 10% of Americans
• Allergic contact dermatitis, which affects 1 in 5 people
• Insect bites
• Ringworm
• Chickenpox and shingles
• Psoriasis, which affects more than 8 million Americans
• Scabies
• Cellulitis

Again, this list hardly covers all the many roads to skin rashes, but it does represent some of the more common culprits behind the issue.

At-home care for skin rashes

As you can see from our list, many of the underlying causes of skin rashes are chronic conditions, such as eczema and psoriasis. People with these conditions tend to be aware of them and know what to do when a rash develops. 

For the purposes of this discussion, we’re going to focus on rashes that develop outside of chronic skin issues and what steps you should take.

If you or a loved one develops a rash, you can start with these steps:

• Wash the skin with cool water and only use soaps that are gentle on skin
• Let the rash breathe, so don’t cover it with bandages
• Avoid scratching (icing can help)
• Try an antihistamine to control itchiness (though this won’t work with many rashes)
• Try an oatmeal bath
• Avoid skin contact with others to be safe

Above all, we want you to monitor the rash very closely to look for any potentially problematic developments, which we get into next.

When to seek help for a skin rash

Let's take a look at when you should seek our help for a skin rash, and if you monitor your rash closely, you won’t miss these signs:

• Pain — your rash is accompanied by moderate to severe pain
• Fever — anytime fever develops alongside a skin rash, please come see us
• Full body rash
• Bleeding
• A rash that spreads 

One of our big concerns are skin infections that can start out as a mild rash and quickly turn the corner into something more serious. So if you notice pus or tenderness around the rash, skip making an appointment and come to our urgent care center for an evaluation.

We also want to point out that some allergic reactions can be sudden and severe — a rash quickly develops and then people can have trouble breathing, which signals anaphylactic shock. This can be a life-threatening event, so call 911 immediately.

For all other skin rashes, we invite you to call our Brooklyn, New York, clinic at 718-395-5071, or use our online booking tool to set up an appointment. You can also visit our urgent care center as a walk-in. 

Our team proudly serves the Flatbush and East Flatbush, Crown Heights, Park Slope, Little Haiti, Little Caribbean, and Prospect Lefferts Gardens communities.