Teething Rash: What It Looks Like and When It's Something Else

Teething rash is a mild, red rash that forms where drool collects around your baby’s mouth, chin, cheeks or neck, and usually clears once the skin stays dry.

Rashes in other locations, like your baby’s belly, back or diaper area, are usually due to other causes. Rashes that occur with fever always need evaluation by your baby’s pediatrician. Spots that don’t blanch (or turn white) when pressed require emergency care.

Can Teething Cause a Rash?

Teething can cause rash indirectly. Extra drooling occurs with teething. And when saliva stays on the skin, it can become red and irritated.

One study followed infants each day as they developed teeth. Facial rash was one of the signs it linked to teething.²

Drooling typically picks up at 2-3 months of age. However, the first tooth doesn’t usually appear until 6-10 months of age.

So drool rash can appear before teething starts. It may also appear each time a new tooth emerges.

Other signs of teething include:

• Chewing on hands and toys
• Swollen and tender gums
• Fussiness and waking at night
• Rubbing of gums or ears
• Slightly increased temperature but no fever

Teething does not cause a fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher, diarrhea or rash over the body. These are due to other causes.

You may notice a harmless blue bump on the gum where a new tooth is about to come in. This is an eruption cyst and usually goes away once the tooth emerges.

What Teething Rash Looks Like

Teething rash causes red areas of skin that can become rough and/or chapped. It may come and go with the drooling.

Teething Rash on the Face and Cheeks

Drool typically collects at the corners of the mouth, on the lips, chin and cheeks. So, this is where drool rash usually starts. Drool on a pacifier can cause the rash as well.

Teething Rash on the Neck and Chest

Drool may also run down your baby’s neck and onto a bib or shirt. And this can cause rash in these areas. Drool on your baby’s fist from chewing can cause rash on the hands.

How to Tell It’s Drool Rash

Drool rash is likely when it:

• Only appears where drool collects, such as around your baby’s mouth, on the chin, cheeks, neck, chest or hands
• Improves when you keep the affected areas dry and coated with an ointment
• Occurs in an otherwise healthy baby with no fever

Teething Rash on Baby’s Belly and Back

A rash on your baby’s belly or back shouldn’t be blamed on teething.

The same study found that rash in locations other than the face was not associated with teething.²

Spotty rashes that occur on both sides of the chest, belly and back are most often caused by a virus. These rashes often occur with fever and/or symptoms of a cold or diarrhea.

Though these rashes are usually harmless, any rash occurring over your baby’s body should be seen by your pediatrician within a day.

Other Rashes That Look Like Teething Rash

Many other rashes in babies have nothing to do with teething.

Eczema

This ongoing skin condition causes dry, red and itchy areas of skin. In babies it usually starts on the scalp, cheeks and around the mouth. Saliva is one of the triggers of eczema, so these two skin conditions often overlap.

Heat Rash

This fine pink rash occurs when your baby gets too hot. It mainly occurs on the neck, chest and upper back. Give your baby a cool bath if you think it’s heat rash.

Roseola and Other Viral Rashes

Roseola, a common viral illness, usually occurs between 6 months and 3 years of age. Babies get a high fever for 3-5 days. Then, 12-24 hours after the fever goes away, small pink spots appear on the chest and belly.⁵

Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease is another viral illness that can cause fever, painful mouth sores and tiny red spots or blisters on the palms and soles. Mouth pain can make your baby drool more or have trouble drinking.

Hives

These itchy, pink bumps with pale centers come and go in different locations on the body. Viruses are the most common cause of body-wide hives. Some babies also get hives around their mouths from drooling a new food.

Call your pediatrician right away if hives start after a food such as peanut or egg, and don’t assume they’re from drool. Hives that occur with trouble breathing or swallowing require emergency care.

Diaper Rash During Teething

Teething doesn’t make the skin in the diaper area more sensitive. Look for other causes, usually related to urine and stool.

A shiny, bright red rash with well-defined edges that’s worst in skin folds may be yeast, the same organism as thrush in the mouth. Your pediatrician may recommend an antifungal cream. Call if not improved after 2-3 days of treatment.

How to Treat and Prevent Teething Rash

Keeping the skin dry and protected helps drool rash clear and makes it less likely to come back.

Home Care Steps

Consider the following steps:

• Gently wipe drool with a soft, wet cloth
• Apply plain petroleum jelly around your baby’s mouth before feedings and naps, or try a pediatrician-recommended barrier ointment
• Change bibs when wet and remove them before naps and for night time sleep
• Keep the pacifier and the skin around it clean, and take daytime breaks from it if it holds drool against the skin
• Wash bibs and cloths with a mild, fragrance-free detergent

What to Skip

• Don’t use wipes with alcohol or fragrance or scented lotions
• Don’t use lotions in place of ointments, which work better
• Don’t use hydrocortisone or other steroid creams unless recommended by your pediatrician, since babies are more sensitive to steroids than adults
• Don’t give up the sleep-time pacifier to clear the rash. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends offering one at naps and bedtime during the first year to reduce the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). If you breastfeed, hold off on the pacifier until breastfeeding is well established, and don’t force it if your baby refuses

Soothing Sore Gums Safely

Rub your baby’s gums with a clean finger or try a firm rubber teething ring (not liquid filled and not frozen). Stay with your baby while they chew it. Soreness varies with each tooth, and some teeth come in without any pain.

• Don’t use benzocaine or lidocaine gels or liquids to numb the gums
• Don’t use homeopathic teething tablets
• Don’t use amber or other teething jewelry; it can cause choking or strangling

These products have caused serious injury and death in babies and children according to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration).¹¹

When to See a Pediatrician

Most teething rashes clear up with home care. A pediatric dentist checks sore gums or a bump over a new tooth. Your pediatrician should see a rash that spreads past where drool reaches, comes with a fever or isn’t improving.

Call 911 or Go to the ER

Call 911 if your baby:

• Has purple or blood-red spots or tiny dots that don’t fade when pressed, with a fever in the last 24 hours
• Has trouble breathing or swallowing, wheezing, or lip or tongue swelling, especially with hives
• Is limp, hard to wake, not moving or too weak to move
• Has blue or gray lips, tongue or gums

Go to the ER now if your baby:

• Has those purple or red spots, even without a fever
• Isn’t alert when awake

Tiny red or purple dots are called petechiae, and larger spots are called purpura. Both are bleeding under the skin, so they don’t fade when you press firmly on them with a finger.⁵ But a rash that fades doesn’t rule out serious illness, so don’t delay emergency care to test it.

Call Your Pediatrician Right Away

Call your pediatrician right away for a fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher in a baby 3 months or younger, even if there’s no rash.⁴ A rectal reading is most accurate at this age, but don’t delay calling to take one.

Also call right away if your baby:

• Has a fever with any rash
• Is younger than 1 and has hives all over the body
• Is younger than 1 month and has blisters, pus bumps or signs of a skin infection
• Has large blisters, skin peeling off in sheets or bloody crusts on the lips
• Has no wet diaper in 8 hours, no tears when crying or a dry mouth (signs of dehydration)
• Looks or acts very sick

Call the Same Day

Call the same day if your baby has:

• A new, unexplained rash spread across the body, even without a fever
• Yellow or honey-colored crusts, oozing, small blisters or pus bumps, which can mean a skin infection, if none of the warning signs above apply
• A rash that isn’t improving or is getting worse

Book a regular visit if a rash keeps coming back or looks like eczema.