# boil on my toddlers bottom



## KT'smama (Jul 1, 2007)

My 2.5 year old had what looked like a little pimple in her diaper area.
It had come to a head and when I wiped her it popped. It was right on her left bottom cheek, not quite where the outer diaper leg rubs.
By the next day it was very red and hot to the touch and you could definitley feel a big hard lump under her skin. I took her to the dr. yesterday morning and since it wasn't open or draining they didn't test her for MRSA but said they were going to treat it like it was since my teenaged dd had it earlier this year. So they put her on Bactrum. Told me to do warm compresses on it 3 times a day to get it to drain and if it doesn't get better by Thurs. or Fri. to call and they may have to lance it. Told me to watch for fever and such. Today in the bath...a very warm water bath, when i was using the wash rag on her bottom a bunch of green crud came out. It's been draining slowly all day. I did another compress before bed and I very gently pushed on it and more stuff came out. I didn't push any harder than she'd be sitting down or falling down on it all day. It's still really red and there is still a big hard lump under there. The nurse told me to put antibiotic cream on it and keep it covered which is hard to do inside her diaper but we've tried with bandaid's
My question is should I take her back in now that it is draining and have it tested for MRSA? Would it matter. Is it normal for them to treat with antibiotics before knowing for sure what it was or since it was already infected would they have done that anyway.

I'm nervous about her being on this antibiotic for 10 days...she's only been on them 2 other times for really severe ear infections. Will this make her more likely to catch everything going around and what can I do to build her immunity. My mom said to feed her lots of yogurt...I'm sure there has to be something else...

Sorry for all the question...I'm going to try to find the old thread about my dd but I wanted to ask about the immunity stuff anyway!
Thanks!


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## luminesce (Aug 6, 2006)

Overall, Vitamin D supplements are good for improving immunity. Many kids are deficient. 1,000 IU to 2,000 IU is safe for a 2 yo.

I'd give probiotics during and long after the antibiotic.

I doubt it would be useful to have it tested for MRSA at this point (unless you just want to know) since they are already treating it as if that it was it is.


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## sbgrace (Sep 22, 2004)

I think it's ok that they're treating it as if. Given the extent of the infection I doubt they would change the protocol (taking her off antibiotics with that going on at this point would not be wise imo) so I don't see a reason for culture. I'm surprised they didn't try prior but I think they would have treated it the same regardless of the outcome. Are they doing a cream--bactroban? Usually they do both and I'd want that personally.

Use probiotics. Yogurt has probiotics in it but they may or may not survive the transit to her colon. You can get culturelle at many drugstores. Give it three hours after each antibiotic dose. I try to have florastor on hand because antibiotics don't kill it and so you can give it with each dose unlike other probiotics. If you live in a big city it's possible you might find it somewhere if you call around. I have to order it online.

You keep doing probiotics two weeks after the antibiotic. Then consider a switch to a probiotic that colonizes and do that for another couple of weeks. Kirkman labs sells high quality probiotics. You can also get some at most health food type places. Find one that has proven ability to colonize if you go that route.


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## KT'smama (Jul 1, 2007)

The boil on her bottome is looking better. Still a knot under the skin about the size of a dime.

Yesterday morning she had this red spot on her face just like it was irritated form something, as they day progressed it turned into a round red area and then last night a second red area started under her chin/neck area. It just looked red and she was itching it. This morning there is starting to be a red raised area starting to show there.
I'm freaking out a little because it looks a little like impetigo...which is caused by staph infections and she has that thing on her bottom. We've been so careful with handwashing and I just don't know how this happend. She's on oral bactrim...been on that since Monday night.
She also has AltaBax cream that the dr. gave us yesterday morning that I put on her bottom topically 2 times a day. When we were at the dr. yesterday morning that thing on her face was just a red area...no other symptoms....now the dr. is closed and I don't know what to do.

Any help???


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## KT'smama (Jul 1, 2007)

I took her to urgent care, they gave me bactroban cream and told me to have her see her ped on Monday. I asked about getting it cultured but they said to just see ped on Monday! I'm so frustrated. It takes a couple days to come back. I'd like to know for sure if this is MRSA or not.

I'm going to have to order the oil and honey from online. I went to the local "health" store but it's not a great one. We're pretty rural.

Since she's been on the bactrim since Mon. night and it has spread to her face does that mean it's more likely than not MRSA?
Also the boil was looking better but there has been no more drainage for over 24 hours and it's starting to get slightly bigger again.
It just seems like a long time till Monday.
The ped had told me that if she started running a fever and it got bigger that I should take her to the er and have IV antibiotics...but she has no fever and is acting fine.
I'm always worried about going to the ER because we are no vax...we haven't had too much trouble so far but I worry about the next time....


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## sbgrace (Sep 22, 2004)

Are the spots on the face looking blister like? Is it painful? Warm? Does it look like impetigo or cellulitis?
Could it instead be hives possibly from an allergic reaction to the antibiotic or something else? They are itchy, red, and raised.

The bactrim should have prevented spread of the staph IMO so I'm concerned if the spots on her face are actually staph instead of a reaction or something like that.

I would use the cream on those spots as well if you believe they are staph (or strep or whatever..the bactroban should work even with MRSA).
Bactrim should work with most MRSA too but not all.







I'd be concerned too if it is spread. I would be concerned as well if it might be hives as likely she'd be reacting to the antibiotic. I'm sorry urgent care failed here.


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## KT'smama (Jul 1, 2007)

I don't think it looks like hives....
It's just the 2 spots. The one I thought was coming up has gone away.
When the second one came up last night her whole neck was red and she was itching at it. Today she's itched at that one more too. It's more under her chin.
The one on her cheek looks slightly better tonight. I've used the bactroban on it 3 times today per instructions.

Yes, urgent care did fail here. It's the first time I haven't been happy with their care. I've decided that if there is anything new tomorrow I'm just going to take her to the ER in the morning because they will culture it and then it will be back sooner. I mostly just want to know if it's MRSA just for peace of mind. We're all itching and every little twinge or bump we get we think that it's finally getting us too.

I just did some research again on what impetigo looks like. I gues it sort of looks like that but not with a blister and with just 2 circles...so I'm not thinking that too much anymore. The dr. said it was the beginning of boils and maybe this is how they start out?? I don't know because the one on her bottom looked like a pimple and these definitley do not look like pimples...more like the impetigo...It's for sure not cellulitis.
It's not warm to the touch, but it has a tiny hard spot.









I'll try to upload a pic. It's not very good.
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/a...umkin91/k2.jpg


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## Doodlebugsmom (Aug 1, 2002)

Ds had a staph infection on his bum last winter. Ped. cultured it, wasn't MRSA. She thought it could be MRSA because the biggest boil had come to a head. I had mentioned that dd had a recurring spot on her arm, but it never came to a head. She said she didn't think it was MRSA because it DID NOT come to a head. So, I guess MRSA usually will come to a head. BTW, she told us to drain ds's boil and we had him soak in a warm bath. It drained by itself in there. We treated with bactroban cream and it was significantly better within 12 hours.

I know how you're feeling. Thinking your child has MRSA, and that you can be in that cycle for a long time is so stressful! I was really, really scared. My ped is awesome, though and she really put me at ease about it. Good luck with all this, and please keep us posted.


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## mnm4242 (Mar 30, 2009)

How is it going? Are the spots gone?


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## KT'smama (Jul 1, 2007)

Thank you for asking! THe spots on her face are almost gone. We saw her ped the Monday after urgent care visit and she said it looked like impetigo to her as well. We put bactroban cream on it and now they look like a fading mosquito bite.
The boil is almost gone too. Her Ped decided not to put her on more antibiotics because it seemed to be healing nicely on it's own. There is still a really small knot under the skin and some purple discoloration in the area but the dr. said it's healing and it should go away eventually. I am keeping a close eye on the are. She said it could flare back up if it still had infection in it...but she doesn't think it will and I really hope not!
It was never cultured because by the time we went back in the spots on her face was healing and her bottome was looking way better too. So, I'm assuming it wasn't a MRSA infection. The one my oldest dd had hung on for over a month.

So we're really hoping this is the end of that type of thing here!


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## mnm4242 (Mar 30, 2009)

Good to hear things are starting to heal up. Keep vigilent with your sanitary practices because my daughter had this a few months ago.
She had a boil on her back and a few 5 or 6 other spots. Only the boil was really infected. She went on 2 antibiotics and it eventually went away. We thought we were in the clear, but now she's had spider bite spots popping up in various places every few days. They go away after putting the bactroban on it for a couple days but then a new one pops up. We are constantly trying to keep it at bay. We are not sure if it's CA MRSA or not because we haven't got it cultured, but we are acting like it is until we can do some tests.

Cover ALL spots. Clean hands A LOT. Give her a bath every night. Clean bathtub. Clean sheets A LOT. Don't touch your nose (just in case you're carring MRSA or something) without washing your hands afterwards. Clean house a lot.

I think we relaxed a bit after our ordeal thinking we were in the clear, but now I regret that because we are still dealing with it 3 mos later.

Good luck and I hope everything goes away soon and doesn't come back!


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