strange rash on childs face

My child has been ill for a few week, flu followed by tonsils then a cough and cold. His nosewas soreso hewas putting on some olilatum cream beneath it andit seems very red after a couple of days of this. I stopped the cream but hewould nottake any pirtion. The redness subsided after a couple ofdays but then this big circular rash appeared around his mouth. He says it is painfuland burning and ichy. We startedhim on antibiotics re cough yesterday but I phoned 111 re face last night as I was concerned it was shingles. Doctor said it was penicillin rash but it appeared before we started anti bs so notsure what to think.Tried to finda picture of shingles online but alltooclose up and not able to see thesort of pattern it might make on aface.

[emmasue]

My son had shingles. The shingles rash tends to happen on the body on either side of the meridian, but not along the meridian. I wouldn't think shingles would show as a circular rash. My son recently had uticaria (big word for hives). We aren't entirely sure what caused them, but they showed as circular rashes. You could keep it an eye on it and see if the rash spreads, grows, or changes in any way. If so, then take him back to the doctors. If it is shingles, there isn't an awful lot you can do. My son had an anti-viral when he had shingles, but shingles doesn't tend to be as bad in children anyway.

[Hidden in reply to emmasue]

Thank you. He says it is not so painful this evening