Hey Everyone,
Hope everybody is doing well. This question is for everyone, but maybe those with CIE have more experience. My son has definitly gotten more red in the last year. He goes from just a tint a red to beat red, I mean red. I really want to know why and if there are things to controll, how. I notice when we us glycerin with his lotions he becomes more red, but then again, his scales are reduced and skin softer, so this leads me to think, is this just the color of his skin when under the scales and when his skin is clear and doing well. Or are there things that make you guys skin redder that you know off.

Thanks a Ton.. any info will be greatly appreciated!
Cara

Thanks, I know how much it can and does vary from person to person, maybe it could have something to do with growing?

I do know he will always be some spectrum of red.

bump

My husband is quite red and always has been. From what I understand, it is part of the nature of ichthyosis - because of the accelerated growth of the skin, it needs more nutrients which are carried in blood, so the vessels are expanded near the skin, giving it more of a red appearance.

I have noticed that the redness increases when he is dehydrated - usually after being sick or drinking alcohol or is particularly dry. The redness fades after a shower. The skin is better hydrated for a bit, but it quickly returns to its normal shade as he dries out. The weird thing is that neither of my kids appear red like my husband is, and they are both affected. They are half-caucasian, though so their skin tone is lighter to begin with, where my husband should have an olive-colored Asian tone.

Thank you Hearsay,

My sons father has Cuban/Bahman heritage and is very dark skined. After I posted I did the research on the internet although it was hard to find I found these explanations "Prominent dermal blood vessels and an upper dermal lymphocytic infiltrate may explain the erythroderma" here http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/dispomim.cgi?id=242100
That and the hydration like you explaned, and that his pigment would have been dark explain it and make sence to me now. When his skin is free of scales his true color shows through plus he hasnt wanted to drink as much water latley. Thanks Hearsay for helping me to find out some of the biological reasons. It helps me make sense of it all.

Hi Cara, Hope you don't mind me putting in my thoughts here at such a late time...just noticed the post...

While I have EHK it is also known as BCIE...so the key word here is ERYTHROderma...

Erythrocytes are RED BLOOD CELLS...so you guys are both spot on...

Also you are right about the true colour of our skin showing up more when the scale has disappeared...

Since being on Neotigason, people are commenting on how much worse my skin seems, and that they have never seen my skin looking so red before...and I try to explain to them that it has always been like this but the scale covers it up...

Cara! also when our body heats up, naturally we will be redder also...We really radiate heat something shocking...

I have attendant carers here every morning, to Shower daniel, and some of them notice my heat radiating on them without even touching me...just standing close by.

Pauline