Clinical reference

Miliaria (heat rash / prickly heat)

Treatment options, dosing, cautions and Egyptian brands from the shipped Dawaa Reference card.

Evidence status

Checked against the sources named below

Sources4 sources

Miliaria - StatPearls (NCBI Bookshelf NBK537176) - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537176/ · Egyptian National Drug Formulary - Endocrine System 2024 (triamcinolone monograph) · Miliaria (heat rash) - disease-level clinical article (miliaria-heat-rash-full.txt) · Miliaria (heat rash) - disease-level clinical article (miliaria-heat-rash-clinical.txt)

Verified against4 documents

Miliaria - StatPearls (NCBI Bookshelf NBK537176) - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537176/
Egyptian National Drug Formulary - Endocrine System 2024 (triamcinolone monograph)
Miliaria (heat rash) - disease-level clinical article (miliaria-heat-rash-full.txt)
Miliaria (heat rash) - disease-level clinical article (miliaria-heat-rash-clinical.txt)

Verified date2026-08

Presentation reference

Is it this?

Reference only, to read alongside your own examination.

Symptoms — what the patient reports (3)

A recent move to a hotter, more humid climate or heavier sweating from activity or illness often comes before the rash [rash · sweating]
Miliaria profunda can range from very itchy to causing no discomfort at all [itching]
Miliaria rubra is itchy and can be painful, and both worsen with sweating [itching · sweating]

Signs — what you find (9)

Miliaria crystallina is seen as 1 to 2 mm superficial vesicles, mostly in adults and neonates under 2 weeks old [blisters · vesicles]
Miliaria crystallina mainly affects the upper trunk, neck, and head
Miliaria rubra shows larger red papules and vesicles with little hair-follicle involvement, unlike folliculitis [blisters · papules · vesicles]
Pustules within miliaria rubra (miliaria pustulosa) may signal a bacterial infection [pustules]
In neonates, miliaria rubra typically involves the groin, armpit, and neck
In adults, miliaria rubra favours areas rubbed by clothing, such as the trunk and limbs, and spares the face
Miliaria profunda shows large, firm, flesh-coloured papules that are not centred on hair follicles [papules]
Reduced sweating over the affected skin can occur in both miliaria rubra and profunda [sweating]
Widespread involvement can bring on heat exhaustion when a rash appears together with a raised body temperature [fatigue · rash]

Tests (4)

Miliaria is mostly a clinical diagnosis, with lab tests usually unhelpful
In darker skin, dermoscopy can show large white globules ringed by a darker halo (the white-bullseye sign)
A skin punch biopsy can help when the diagnosis stays unclear
High-definition optical coherence tomography can help show the blocked sweat duct

If not this — what else fits (3)

Viral rashes such as herpes simplex or chickenpox, and cutaneous candidiasis or other fungal infections, are considered
Bacterial or pityrosporum folliculitis, neonatal acne, and erythema toxicum neonatorum are also on the list
Drug rashes (particularly a generalised pustular drug eruption), Grover disease, insect bites, and cutaneous lymphoma are also considered

SourceStatPearls "Miliaria" - disease-level clinical article

Presentation findings are traced to the source above.

COOLING AND SKIN-CARE MEASURES (NO DRUG THERAPY)

1st line

Dose source

Miliaria (heat rash) - disease-level clinical article (miliaria-heat-rash-clinical.txt)

Why

The article treats miliaria by removing its cause before it reaches any drug: heat and sweating are the main risk factors, so management is the general business of sweating less and keeping the eccrine ducts from blocking. In Cairo, cooling and skin care are the whole treatment for most children.

Cautions

The stated measures: get the child somewhere cooler; dress them in something the air can pass through; exfoliate the skin; take off anything that seals it over, a bandage or a patch; and treat any febrile illness. (Miliaria - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf, NBK537176)
Miliaria crystallina generally needs no treatment: it settles by itself, usually inside 24 hours. (Miliaria - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf, NBK537176) The clear tiny blisters need nothing.
Avoid heavy creams and ointments: the article asks for sensible skin care - wash gently, and keep away from thick creams or ointments, which plug the sweat ducts. (Miliaria - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf, NBK537176) A greasy emollient makes miliaria worse.
It matters, too, to keep the child drinking, and to have them shower in cool water often, so that sweat does not accumulate. (Miliaria - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf, NBK537176)
Act early: cool the skin at the first hint of irritation or rash, and the miliaria may not go any further or grow more severe. (Miliaria - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf, NBK537176)

TRIAMCINOLONE

1st line

Formtopical

Adult dose and duration

Apply to the affected area two to three times daily. Rub it gently. x 1 to 2 weeks

Paediatric dose

The Egyptian formulary states no separate paediatric topical dose - the same application applies - but it lists growth rate in children among the parameters to monitor, and warns that the drug may slow that growth rate, so growth is to be checked routinely in paediatric patients. Reserve it for miliaria rubra that is genuinely inflamed, and stop at 2 weeks.

Dose source

Egyptian National Drug Formulary - Endocrine System 2024 (triamcinolone monograph)

Why

Indication claim, from the disease article: miliaria rubra is managed by bringing the inflammation down, so a corticosteroid of mild to middling potency - triamcinolone cream 0.1% is its example - is applied for 1 to 2 weeks to the areas affected. Dose claim, from the Egyptian formulary's triamcinolone monograph, topical use: it is indicated to relieve the inflammation and the itch of dermatoses that respond to a corticosteroid, and its topical dosage regimen is two to three applications a day, rubbed gently into the area affected. The formulary's topical cream is 1 mg/g, which is the 0.1% strength the article names, and the one Egyptian product (TOPICORT 0.1% cream) matches it.

Cautions

STOP AT 1-2 WEEKS. The disease article's own limit is that it goes on the affected skin for 1 to 2 weeks and no longer. Miliaria is a self-limiting rash, not a steroid-dependent one.
DO NOT OCCLUDE and do not spread it wide. The Egyptian formulary warns that a high dose, or topical use over a long period, can produce systemic effects: Cushing's syndrome, a Cushingoid appearance, suppression of the adrenals, and a raised blood glucose. What increases the absorption is dressing the area occlusively, or covering a large area of skin. Occlusion also causes the miliaria itself.
Contra-indications, Egyptian formulary: hypersensitivity to triamcinolone or to anything else in the preparation; and systemic infection.
Egyptian formulary: sensitisation happens locally with topical use - redness and irritation - and where it does, the steroid is stopped.
If the spots have turned to pustules, topical steroid is the wrong treatment - see the referral and safety-netting advice. Steroid alone on infected skin does not help.

Egyptian brands

Egyptian brand	Manufacturer	Indicative price
TOPICORT 0.1% CREAM 20 GM	PHARCO	6.00 EGP

REFERRAL & SAFETY-NETTING (NO DRUG THERAPY)

1st line

Dose source

Miliaria (heat rash) - disease-level clinical article (miliaria-heat-rash-clinical.txt)

Why

Carries the complications and the two situations the disease article does not leave in primary care: superinfected miliaria pustulosa, and miliaria profunda.

Cautions

RED FLAG - anhidrosis and heat intolerance: the worst thing miliaria does, and miliaria profunda above all, is stop the skin sweating at all. The child can then no longer regulate their temperature, and heat exhaustion follows. Teach the family to recognise heat exhaustion in a child who has stopped sweating.
SUPERINFECTION - in miliaria pustulosa and rubra the epidermis is altered enough that opportunistic bacteria can take hold. The article names topical clindamycin for miliaria pustulosa, but the Egyptian formulary's clindamycin monograph gives no topical dose at all - only oral and IV/IM - so no topical antibiotic dose is printed here. Treat a superinfected miliaria as a skin infection on its own card, or refer.
MILIARIA PROFUNDA - past the general measures it lists, the article has little to say about treating it. (Miliaria - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf, NBK537176) The only regimen it offers is oral isotretinoin 40 mg/d for 2 months alongside topical anhydrous lanolin: a specialist, non-paediatric dose, deliberately not printed as a treatment row here. Refer to dermatology.
Let it run on and the sweat glands may be damaged for good, leaving the skin unable to sweat and the child more liable to illness in the heat. (Miliaria - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf, NBK537176) Recurrent miliaria in a hot climate deserves a real environmental plan, not repeated steroid.
The article's own differential includes the viral exanthems and viral infections - herpes simplex and varicella among them - which miliaria has to be told apart from.

Prices are indicative (dataset snapshot 2026-06); verify with the pharmacy.