To speak to doctor about this for my toddler? In need of advice!

[HotChocolate16]

morning all

Morning all

my toddler has woken up with these red blotches on his upper arms and feet! 2 weeks ago he had 4 pimples appear on his arm lower down, very small ones, and since then had maybe one or two pimple type spots on his other arm, hand and foot that then turned into tiny scab heads. As the spots weren’t blistering or anything and there were no other spots / the spread of spots weren’t rapid over body I didn’t think it was chicken pox. None on chest and back either. Spoke to GP yesterday who thought viral.

however this morning it now looks like this and I’m so worried! Could this be chicken pox even with the slow spread of it over 2 weeks? Although this morning is the most drastic it’s ever looked. His face looks like it may be going blotchy too.

thing is I’m 40+3 pregnant due to give birth any day now so I’m also worried about that. I have had chicken pox before as a child.

what should I do? Does this look like chicken pox, WIBU to call GP?

Thanks guys. Glad to know it’s not chicken pox.

thing is he doesn’t seem to be itching them, or I’m not noticing that he is! They don’t necessarily blister, just come to a head and scab

we don’t live near a forest or water or anything

im so confused!

Midge bites. Definitely not scabies or cp. could just have been a random bug in the room overnight.

Look like bites to me. Could be a spider, gnats that fly in the window, fleas from the cat, bed bugs? You don't just get bites from walking outside!

The cat probably has fleas.

They don't look like flea bites in the pic but your first description sounds like them, I think that's potentially what they are, he doesn't sleep with socks on does and fleas 'tend' to bite during the night.

Doesn't matter re cat's location, eggs can be spread around by the soles of people's feet. They can also lay dormant for months so even if the cat doesn't looking it actively has fleas they can still Hatch out and bite.

We've had them twice from cat and got them whilst staying at a friend's house whose dog had been dead nearly a year! Each time only I got bitten and not DH.

There's a good product you can get on Amazon called Indorex. Spray liberally around the room - on soft furnishings and around edges of carpets. Make sure room is well ventilated and leave it for a few hours

this stuff is amazing but You’re probably going to want to go out for the day while someone else does it and ventilates.

the fleas, if they’re there, probably are from the cat but they can hitch a lift on anyone/thing and the eggs can survive in soft furnishings and floor boards for an extraordinary amount of time. Innocuous things like having the heating on or vacuuming can ‘wake’ them up. something like Indorex keeps working for months so will kill them off as soon as they emerge.

If it was your house I’d recommend looking into getting your garden treated too.

Oh and indorex doesn’t discriminate so will cut down on other small, bitey, creepies too.

Just be careful with a youngster and pesticides. As a first port of call I would get inlaws to sign up to a vet prescription only monthly (or is it bi monthly - our elderly cat couldn't cope withDC so has been at inlaws for nearly 2 yr so can't remember) flea treatment - not Front line, lots of resistance to that and treat the cat ASAP.

I would then give the house a thorough vac, move furniture, get the nozzle out and get round skirtings, back of stair treads, etc. give a really thorough vac and put bicarb soda down under radiators and where any furniture has been - they like warm dark places - leave the bicard 24 hrs.

Also consider going over DC's mattress with a lint remover (easier than vaccing something small) and if you have one steaming it - could use your iron as a last resort. I'd also wash his duvet and any blankets if you use one at this stage. Also boiling hot soapy water to clean bed frame or cot - also do yours. If it's a divan give it a good vac.

A steam clean would be great after this stage on the carpets, nothing fancy I just used my shark - a nice investment for your new house - check if carpets are wool though.

Then unfortunatley you need to hoover every 48 hrs for a week or so. This should get on top of the buggers!

Mine didn't always itch. Really sounds like flea bites from your description here OP.

I'd go with flea bites and Indorex asap.

Another thinking flea bites, not everyone reacts to flea bites so you could have them and not know.

Looks like insect bites, they can get under the clothes

We had this recently with the kitten. I was the only one with them initially and they sounded like your first description. My 3 year old came up with the exact red blotches about a week later. It ended up being flea bites.

It looks like when my dd had palvo virus/slapped face, just the beginning. I would get it checked out.

The doctor initially said it looked like an allergy, but then dd2 came out with more classic symptoms.

If the rash corresponds with the length of time you’ve been at the in-laws then it’s almost certainly cat fleas and pleas given your point of pregnancy and imminent birth DO NOT use pesticides in the house

He actually did have one of these patches 2 weeks ago, and it came to a head and then had a tiny scab on then disappeared. These feel the same , they have a small smooth bump in the middle so I think they’ll come to a head and get a tiny scab too

That sounds exactly like insect bites. Not necessarily fleas, could be any sort of biting insect.

That comes down to choice.

A cursory look indicates that Indorex is fine to use in a house where there are babies/small children and pregnant women.

personally I would ensure that I and my children weren’t in the house, possibly for a couple of days if it were an option, but if it’s a straight decision between resolving the issue or not I’d organise for it to be done.

Just thought I’d update you all.

saw GP this afternoon who confirmed it looked like bites. Couldn’t confirm what type of bites - whether bed bugs, insects or fleas. So we’ve got flea treatment for the cat and for the house (although I won’t be here when they do it), I’ve also washed our bedding and done a deep clean and Hoover of our room. I’ve chucked away the mattress to his cot (he was sleeping in a travel cot due to lack of space and I had ordered a softer mattress off eBay so wondering if something had got into that mattress). MIL is going to deep clean and sort the rest of house tonight. The GP prescribed antihistamines for him too and he’s had one dose earlier so hopefully this helps the blotches go away, she said it can take a few days.

Thank you all for your advice. Really appreciate it! I was in a right panic.

That’s the last thing you need when you’re so pregnant @HotChocolate16 but thankfully you can do something about it relatively quickly.

Fwiw I don’t think it’s bedbugs (now there’s a horror show to get rid of!), from everything I’ve read they tend to bit in little clusters of three.

*bite

Hi OP just to say if it's bedbugs, chucking away the mattress is not going to fix the problem. They are absolute buggers to treat and will either be in the bedframe or have migrated elsewhere in the house when you moved the mattress.

If you spot any, these guys are good. They advocate a more natural approach to getting rid of them, which avoids anything harmful and does actually work (well, it did for us, but it;s not a quick fix.) www.bed-bugs.co.uk/david-cain/
Anyway, hopefully it's not bedbugs!

Thanks guys! I really hope it isn’t bed bugs as I don’t know what else I can do about that now unless I get professionals in. But nobody else has bites or anything. Weirdly though the spots / blotches are only on areas exposed (arms and legs) but he does have a few pimple type spots too on his hand that aren’t the same so it’s strange.

GP said it looks like he has 2 types of rashes - one with the bites and one that’s viral from a cold or something so maybe the pimples are the viral one

I would guess flea bites and a reaction to them. Fleas are rife at the moment because of the hot weather we have had to Spray the goose about 5 times this month. They only Ever bite the children for some reason me and DH never have bites.

@HotChocolate16 I hope for your sake it isn't either but it'd be worth getting a torch out tonight and looking under the mattress and in the nooks and crannies of the bedframe. Sorry. It's so grim, but I speak from bitter experience. For us it was confined to one bed (ours!)

They look like mosquito bites that he has had a reaction to. Nothing like chicken pox.