Anal fissure - child - advice

[iivegotaquestiion]

Posting for traffic

My child clearly as an anal fissure, obvious torn and broken skin. It's not terrible, yet, but it needs stopping before getting worse.

Noticed yesterday late afternoon when he said he was sore.

Doctor couldn't fit us in.
Pharmacy won't help without seeing a GP.
111 haven't rang back but won't help under 5s according to the auto message.

He's distressed and sore, very itchy.

Has anyone used anything other than metanium and sudocrem which we are using.

Is there a cream that's available to buy for adults that's ok for children when given on prescription?

I'm beyond waiting for someone to phone me and give me permission to help him with something more appropriate, if I can buy it I will.

We also go abroad this weekend which means I need something for him asap.

You can use hydrocortisone cream for children, Boots and Tesco do witch hazel wipes, but basically you have to up fibre, fruit and veg to help soften poo so that heals the tear. If you can put vaseline on before child poos then it may make it less painful. Try not to wipe too hard after toileting.

All of this. Plenty of water too as well as fibre. Wipes not tissue paper. Movicol type high fibre etc - but be careful high fibre takes a while to work and then if you over do it - diarrhoea.

My child is autistic and has difficulties with food so it isn't going to be possible to help the situation with food. Though to be honest there's been no constipation or upset tummy so I'm not sure how it's happened! I will try Vaseline and go for hydrocortisone cream today, thanks!

I feel for your DS it's torture! I suffered really badly with these after pregnancy. It took prescription strength cream to eventually heal it. Sounds odd but using the metanium yellow nappy Cream also gave some relief.

It's bloody awful!

That's what we are using but he's still crying after applying it and constantly wanting to scratch.

I don't want to put him through a long plane journey and starting the holiday like this so I'm hoping to buy some bits to try and make sure we have everything we need with us.

One of my children often gets one and also doesn’t suffer with constipation it just seems to happen. We use Movicol so soften things a bit further and then just Vaseline to keep the skin soft. Is it the cream bothering him of the fissure? My daughter often complains the cream bothers her so we just apply at night so by the morning it’s soaked in a bit.

And we always use wipes for her too, not toilet roll for wiping.

op I’m sure 111 have helped with my children when they were under 5.
Hopefully they can get your son an out of hours appointment. Like previous people suggested I found Mertanium helpful.

you mentioned your not aware of any toileting issues, is your son able to say how/when it started hurting?

We always use sensitive wet wipes. The creams seem to bring some immediate relief then the itching comes back within about 10 minutes. So i think it needs something a little stronger to help repair the skin and not just protect it.

He still uses nappies (sensory /autism related) so I am very aware of everything but going on down there as I do all changes.

He had some mild itching last week and the pharmacist and GP ruled out worms and suggested plenty of barrier cream and see how we go.

I've not noticed anything out of the ordinary until yesterday afternoon he suddenly started furiously scratching and crying and when I had a proper inspection noticed the torn skin just inside.

Apparently it's just online services that won't help under 5s I must have misheard the message when I was on the phone last night as he was crying next to me.

I've just phoned back and they did another assessment and told me go to to a walk in clinic.

Can you get some anusol for him? the best thing I can say is wipe him with a tiny bit of mild soap and warm water - no loo roll and then apply a bit of the cream with a cotton bud very gently.
The best thing for these is to keep them as clean and dry as possible (difficult given the location), and no straining for poos.

Ah brilliant. Hopefully they can do something to make him more comfortable.