PUPPP rash is pure evil and hell on Earth

If you don’t know what Pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy or aka PUPPP is, consider yourself lucky. Real lucky. Because it is a beast of a rash that affects 1% of pregnant women. PUPPP rash is no ordinary rash. It makes poison ivy look like a joke. No, PUPPP rash is a horrific rash that’s part wildfire, part incessant itching, and part “I want to rip my flesh off.”

The worst part about PUPPP rash? No one really knows what causes it and there’s no cure. Sure, there’s a lot of theories out there. From first-time mothers to boy babies are the root cause to skin cells to its genetic and inherited from the father, but really, no one has a clue and perhaps that is what makes it truly hell on earth.  All I can say is, those theories about it being only common in first-time moms with boys is bull. I had it at 36 weeks with my son. It was tolerable. After his birth, it spread like a crazy wildfire all over my entire body. I had to be put on topical and oral steroids.  I am now 25 weeks pregnant with a girl and so I just threw that theory out the window

As far as help for PUPPP, here’s what almost every website says to try:

1. Benedryl.
2. Grandpa’s Pine Tar soap. (just ordered some, will let you know after I’ve tried it)
3. V-8 Vegetable Juice (I bought some today and after one glass I noticed I wasn’t itching as much. But the effects wore off after a couple of hours.)
4. Creams, Aloe, and Lotions. (I put some Aveeno fragrance-free oatmeal lotion when I got home. I haven’t itched for over 3 hours. I also put a frozen bag of veggies on my belly for 20 minutes before putting the lotion on. I noticed the swelling has gone down tremendously and it’s not as red, but instead a light pink color.
5. Steroids. I don’t feel comfortable with this idea while I’m pregnant. Although, I’ve only had PUPPP for 2 days now. If it got as crazy as it did with my son and my whole body gets on fire, I am sure I will change my mind.
6. Dandelion root tea. I saw it at Whole Foods today and was going to buy it until I saw it had a warning for pregnant woman and thought I should get more info about it first.

Update: My obgyn is so packed I wasn’t able to get an appointment for over a week. So I went to a dermatologist specialist instead. Apparently, I don’t have PUPPP. Instead, I have a contact allergy. Something that I’m allergic to physically touched my belly. And he said it wasn’t detergent or shampoo. He said he could tell right away it wasn’t PUPPP, because of the color. While my skin was red, the rash had some white pimples scattered throughout. He said white pimples are not a characteristic of PUPPP’s and instead it denoted a bacterial infection.

They prescribed me Clobestasol 50% and I’m supposed to apply it twice a day for 2 weeks. The first day I put it on, it still burned a little, but not much. By the next morning, it didn’t burn at all. But I did some research on Clobestasol and what I found scared me. Clobestasol is a Class C pregnancy drug, which means it hasn’t be tested properly or studied enough on pregnant women. In lab animals they tested, it did cause some birth defects. WTH!

So here’s my routine:

• Apply a super thin layer of Clobestasol in the morning
• Take lukewarm showers at night with Grandpa’s Pine Tar soap. (Which by the way is the foulest smelling soap ever created)

Doing this seems to work. I don’t have any burning sensation. And it looks like it is healing. I will post pictures shortly.

Tags: clobestasol, contact allergy, pregnancy, PUPPP rash, rash, red skin, white pimples