What should you know about mouth hands and feet rash?

Note whether the skin is itchy, painful, scaly, blistered, cracked, or swollen, and whether the mouth has sores. Recent soaps, cosmetics, gloves, medicines, heat, sweating, travel, and contact with someone who is unwell can provide useful clues. Possible explanations include irritation or allergy, eczema, heat rash, fungal infection, scabies, psoriasis, or a medicine-related eruption. The distribution alone cannot identify the cause.

Wash gently with lukewarm water, pat dry, and pause newly introduced fragranced products. Use a bland moisturiser on intact, dry skin and avoid scratching, sharing towels, or applying steroid or antifungal creams without advice when the diagnosis is unclear. Photograph changes in consistent lighting and record medicines and exposures. A clinician may inspect the mouth and skin and decide whether testing or targeted treatment is needed.

Seek urgent care for trouble breathing, facial swelling, faintness, rapidly spreading skin changes, extensive blistering, skin peeling, severe pain, eye involvement, or inability to drink. Prompt review is also sensible for fever, pus, marked tenderness, or a rash after starting a new medicine. Children, pregnant people, and anyone with reduced immunity should seek advice sooner when the rash is spreading or accompanied by feeling unwell.

When did this begin, and what touched the skin beforehand? Are there mouth sores, fever, itch, or pain? Should I stop a medicine or product? Which treatment is safe before the diagnosis is confirmed?