Rash in Armpit, Red, Itchy, in Children, Pictures, Causes, Treatment & Home Remedies

Armpit rash may be an indication of various health conditions. The common health issues include candida, HIV, STDs. It can affect both adults and children. It is usually red and may be itchy. Explore facts, pictures, causes, signs and symptoms of underarm rash. What are the treatments and home remedies for getting rid of it?

Signs and Symptoms

A symptom on your skin that may involve redness, burning or itchiness can be attributed to being a skin rash. A rash can manifest on your skin as a painful raised spots like bumps, boils, pimples, flat itchy spots or patches.

An armpit or underarm is one of the prime spots of your body that can show up various types of skin rashes. This is because the cavity that forms armpit tends to be hot and sweaty that can easily trigger the formation of rashes. However, any other parts of your body might also show up the skin a rash.

A rash on armpits can affect anybody. These means it can show up on both on male and female. This condition can often occur to an individual who sweats a lot. But babies, infants or toddler are more susceptible to any skin rash.

Armpit rash can appear in different forms and color. Also, the underarm rash may not look similar but they may vary from one person to another. A rash can appear as red, pink, grey, yellow, and brown depending on your skin color. The signs and symptoms of underarm rash also vary from one individual to another.

Here are some of signs and symptoms of a rash on armpit that include the following:

Inflammation, redness or tender skin
Itchiness, irritation or burning sensation
Few or numerous bumps like pimples spreading all over the underarm
Fluid-filled blisters that burst, ooze out and crust over
Small or large bumps like boils that are either itchy or not itchy
Scaly or dry skin underarm
Swollen lymph nodes in armpits
Pus-filled bumps with bad odor

The signs and symptoms of rash on armpits may range from mild to more serious skin condition. Mild rashes on the skin of the underarm might be signs of a benign health condition that can resolve on its own without medical treatment.

Occasionally, skin rashes underarm can also advance into chronic itchy spots that may cause intense irritation that can make you feel a discomfort. This might be a symptom of more serious skin infection that needs medical treatment.

Sometimes, other strange symptoms might accompany underarm rash that includes running nose, excess sweating, sore throat, coughing, headache, joint pain, fever or chills. In case you notice these symptoms, it is advisable to seek the help of your doctor for diagnosis and treatment.

Armpit Rash Pictures

For a visual understanding of how it might look like, we have inserted illustrative pictures of a rash on armpits in relevant sections of this post. You may use the pictures (images) to get a clue about your skin condition. However, it might slightly differ from your skin condition depending on the causal agent, skin color or any other factors.

Keep in mind that these pictures are not provided for self-diagnosis and treatment without the help of your doctor.

Causes of Armpit Rash

There are various reasons or factors that may lead to skin rash on armpits. The type and nature of skin rash are determined by the causal agents. For instance, some causal agent can either lead to harmless or more serious skin condition on your armpits.

Being conversant with causes of underarm rash is very useful. This can help you to know how to prevent and escape such skin problem. Also, learning these causes might help to provide background information that can guide the doctor in diagnosis and treatment.

The possible causes of rash on armpits include the following:

1. Heat rash

Heat rash or sweat rash is a common cause of tiny bumps on the skin of the armpits. You can develop heat rash on your armpits due to clogged sweat ducts. This condition often affects people who sweat a lot. Babies, infants or toddlers may also be affected by heat rash on their armpits.

High temperatures, the wearing of heavy or tight cloth are risk factors that may encourage sweat rashes. Also, involving in an active physical exercise that increases body temperature or sweating may trigger sweat rash to appear.

2. Razor bumps

Armpit rash might show up after shaving the hair around the armpits. Razor bumps are raised red bumps that may develop due to poor shaving techniques. Ingrown hair bumps can also develop after shaving when the hair curl or grows sideways under the skin to cause pimples like rashes on the affected area of the skin.

3. Fungal infection

Fungal or yeast infection is another factor that can lead to skin rash around the armpits. Yeast infection is characterized by itchy white, pink, brown, red or ashy spots and patches on the affected parts of the skin.

You can develop this infection especially when you have sweaty armpits. The accumulation of sweats on cavity underarms can create a suitable moist condition that can increase the growth of Candida albicans that causes skin rashes.

4. Contact dermatitis

This condition may develop due to an allergic reaction on the skin. Direct exposure of your skin to allergens or irritants like detergents, fragrance, poison ivy or any other harsh chemical can lead to an allergic reaction. Hives are the type of skin rashes that can appear on your skin due to allergic reactions.

Sometime you may develop tiny rashes on your armpits after swimming. This can be attributed as a consequence of allergic reaction that may occur due to direct skin contact with heavily chlorinated water in the swimming pool.

5. Hidradenitis suppurativa

This is a skin condition that can lead to armpit rash to show up. This condition is characterized by painful itchy bumps on the affected areas of the skin. These bumps may as well affect other areas of the body such as groin, anus, back, neck, legs, back, and face.

The main causes of this condition are unknown but it is attributed to be caused by bacterial or fungal infection of the hair follicles.

6. Folliculitis

Similarly to Hidradenitis suppurativa, folliculitis is a skin condition associated with red itchy bumps that look like boils on the affected area of the skin. It can occur when the hair follicles are attacked by fungal of bacterial infection.

7. HIV

The initial stage of HIV infection is associated with various types of skin rash on different parts of the body including the underarm, on the face, trunk, and legs. The symptom of skin rash might show up during the first three months of infection with the virus.

The underlying HIV virus in the body can cause flat or raised spots on the skin. These spots can be either itchy or not depending on your body defense system.

8. Eczema on armpits

Eczema is a chronic skin disorder that can lead to a red itchy rash on the skin including the armpits. Eczema on armpits may look like burns on the parts of the skin.

9. Psoriasis

This is another chronic infection that can show up are a red itchy rash that is surrounded by silvery white marks like patches. Psoriasis can appear anywhere on your skin including underarms.

10. Pityriasis rosea

This is a skin disorder that can cause scaly rash-like bumps on the affected area of the skin. This condition can also affect the skin of the underarm to develop itchy dry rashes. The condition often occurs in babies and women compared to men.

11. Lymphoma cancer

Cancer of the lymph nodes in the armpits can lead to an itchy rash on the affected areas. Cancer is a chronic condition that can manifest in form of bumps or rashes won’t go away easily without special medical treatments.

12. Other rare causes

Armpit rash can also develop due to other rare causes that include insect bites, chickenpox, scarlet fever, diabetes, lupus or any other skin infection.in addition, skin rash underarm can also show up during pregnancy in women due to change in hormones.

Rash under One Armpit

In most cases, skin rash can appear on both right and left underarms. However, one armpit can be affected by skin rashes that might manifest in form of tiny bumps, large bumps like boils or fluid-filled blister.

Bacterial or fungal infection is a common cause that might lead to rashes in one armpit. The growth of harmful bacteria or fungi around the cavity of the underarm can cause the infection of hair follicles leading to folliculitis.

A boil is another type of armpit rash that may manifest as painful bumps that harbor pus. Typically, boils may only affect one armpit but under are cases it might affect both right and left armpit. Boils are caused by the bacterial infection that attacks hair follicles.

Generally, any other causal agents that cause rashes on armpits can as well affect only one armpit. Some of these causal agents are already been discussed in this post that includes heat rash, razor bumps, contact dermatitis, eczema, psoriasis or any other health condition.

Rash in Armpit Babies

A baby skin is more susceptible to develop various types of skin rashes that may appear on different parts of the body. This is because newborns have an underdeveloped immune system that may not be able to keep away skin infections.

Infants, toddlers or kids might show up symptoms of armpit rash. If your baby does not have any other strange symptoms, this might be contact dermatitis, eczema, bacterial, fungal or Lyme infection that causes a rash on underarms.

Always, baby rashes may not be signs of more serious skin infection that might cause worrisome. Rashes on the skin of your child can clear away slow as your baby continues to grow up. This is because the immune system also progressively develops to protect the skin against skin rash.

However, you should not always ignore any mysterious rash on the skin of your baby especially if it persists for a long time. It might be signs of chronic skin infection such as eczema, psoriasis. For such chronic rashes, you can take your baby to a doctor for diagnosis and treatment.

Home Remedies

You can use home remedies to get rid of the mild rash on your armpits. Try the following treatment that includes the following:

Coconut oil

You can use coconut oil as a home remedy to get rid of the itchy rash on armpits. The oil is rich in vitamins that can help to facilitate the healing process of various skin rashes. Coconut oil is an excellent skin moisturizer that can soothe and relieve itchy armpit rash.

How to use:

Clean the affected part of the skin with warm water and dry it off with a towel
Use your hand to apply the coconut oil on the affected parts of the skin
Allow the oil to be absorbed slowly into the skin
Repeat this treatment three times in a day for few weeks
Alternatively, you can use any other essential oil such as castor oil, Neem tree oil, olive oil and almond oil

Apple cider vinegar

A solution of apple cider vinegar has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory abilities that can help to heal itchy armpit rash.

How to use:

Dilute ¼ glass of apple cider vinegar with equal volume of water
Soak a cotton ball into diluted solution of apple cider vinegar
Use the soaked cotton ball to apply it on the affected parts of the skin
allow it to stay on your skin for more than 30 minutes before rinsing it off with cold water
repeat this procedure twice per day for few weeks until underarm rash go away

Aloe Vera

Aloe Vera is known to contain a medicinal value that can help to treat various skin infections including armpit rash. Aloe Vera has natural antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties that can help to facilitate healing of itchy rash on your armpits.

How to use:

use warm water to clean the affected area and dry it off with a washcloth
carefully apply the Aloe Vera gel, cream or juice on the affected area of the underarm
leave it to stay on your skin for more than one hour before rinsing it off
repeat this process two times in a day for few weeks

Lemon juice and Raw Honey

You can use a mixture of lemon juice with raw honey as a home remedy to get rid of armpit rash. Lemon juice has the antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant properties while raw honey has antiseptic property. Also, raw honey is an excellent skin moisturizer that can as well help to soothe itchy rash under the arm.

How to use:

mix two teaspoons of lemon juice with equal amount of raw honey
use your hand to apply this mixture on the affected parts of your skin
allow it to dry off completely for about 30 minutes before rinsing it off with cold water
repeat this procedure three times in a day for few weeks until skin rash clear away

Oatmeal

Oatmeal is an excellent home remedy that can help to alleviate itchy rash on your armpit. Also, oatmeal has the ability to restore skin pH to normal that can control and reduce the growth of harmful bacteria and fungi on skin that causes a skin rash.

Oatmeal also has antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds that can help in the healing of skin rash.

How to use:

mix two teaspoons of colloidal oatmeal with one teaspoon of any type of essential oil such as lavender
apply the mixture on the affected parts of your skin
allow it to stay on your skin for about 20 minutes before rinsing it off with cold water
repeat this treatment two times in a day for few weeks

Baking soda

Baking soda has the ability to dry up fluid-filled blisters. It also helps to restore pH levels on the affected area that can help to facilitate the process of healing of skin rashes.

How to use:

combine one teaspoon of baking soda with few drops of water to create a paste
apply the pasted on the affected area of the skin
allow it to dry off few minutes before rinsing it off with water
after rinsing, pat dry the skin with a washcloth
repeat the process two times in a day for few week until skin rash clear away

You can also get rid of armpit rash by using another home such as chamomile, turmeric, cold compress, hot compress or any other applicable home remedies.

Medical Treatment

If a rash on your armpits has failed to respond to home remedies or refuse to go away, medical treatment is the best alternative you can go for by visiting a health provider or a doctor. Your doctor may decide the appropriate diagnosis plan and treatment method to use that can help in getting rid of rashes on your underarm.

The following are some of the treatment methods that your doctor might use that include:

prescription of oral drugs that can help to treat and cure the underlying condition that may lead to a rash on your skin
prescription of steroid creams, lotions, a gel that are can help in clearing away armpit rash
surgical excision that can help to remove chronic tumor-like rash on the affected area of your armpits
laser treatment method that uses a beam of electrons to get rid of chronic skin rashes

When to See a Doctor

You can see your doctor over armpit rash when you notice the flowing conditions:

when a rash on your armpits has persisted for more than three weeks without reasonable improvement
when your underarm has a chronic itchy rash that makes you feel restless
if your skin has a mysterious rash that looks worrisome that you don’t understand well
when you baby, infant, toddlers or child has chronic rashes on her underarm that spread to other parts of the body
when skin rash has a characteristic of hard bumps like tumors that might bleed easily if something touches
When the underarm rash is accompanied by other strange symptoms like fever, headache, coughing, joint pain or any other.