When I was a kid, if I ate tomato sauce, I would get a red, super ouchie vulva. DD (age 4 1/2)now has the same thing. Weird or what?? Anyone ever heard of this?? Will Benedryl help? Can you use Neosporin with painkillers on vulva? She never has been so red before..she begged for pizza for lunch & I relented. (We went out with DH for lunch as a special day.) Well, the sauce at the restaurant must have some wicked tomatos in it, 'cause DD was SCREAMING while peeing tonight. I felt just awful! She has never been this bad (and no, it's not a UTI or yeast infection...she got no relief from Monistat and just got off meds for kidneys.)It's always been just red, but never sore! Poor thing. What next? Any ideas what to do? (I gave her Benedryl out of desperation..she was getting almost phobic about peeing & making herself hysterical with worry about having to pee, despite my best "it will be all right.." Mommy assurances...)
We need a "What's Wrong With Me/My Kid/My Family Member?" medical forum! LOL

d5

Hope she feels better soon!

Painful red rashes anywhere produce even more sensitive skin. Pain relievers in general can help (tylenol, ibuprofen) some. Drinking lots of fluids might help dilute at least certain excretions which may help a bit. Air drying, as little touching as possile except to rinse and maintain hygeine, and possibly something like lanacaine (look in the pharmacy section for products designed for that part of the body, and which are designed to be soothing and pain relieving). When in doubt though, as little touching as possible is likely best.

Drinking lots of fluids is going to be a hard sell usually in situations where urination hurts a lot. There are different ways to explain how this works. One visual would be to add food colouring to water, and imagine that colour is what causes the hurt. Double or triple the amount of water and it's easy to see how much less colour there is. Dilution as a concept can work too, if she understands that. Just be very supportive because that first time she might try this, it will require a little leap of faith and trust on her part (and it will probably help and it won't hurt; but it probably will still be painful for her compared to 'normal').

do consider a consultation with the doctor though because sometimes antibiotics are not effective against certain infections and it's hard to know sometimes if that's the case; or if maybe more were required or something

Now that she's potty-trained, it still makes her red, if she eats some food with the dye, when the food comes out the other end, but at least it is not as bad, since she doesn't sit in it anymore. Plus - we know what foods to avoid (although it's hard to police her everywhere).

Benadryl will help if it is an allergic reaction but not sure it will help if it is sensitivity to the acidic food. I would call the nurse at the doc's office if the Benadryl doesn't work, and ask what they might recommend.

Also - you may already be aware, but you should avoid bubble bath products. And should also do the shampoo part of the bath at the end, to minimize the length of time she sits in bath water with shampoo in it.