What are these black dots / marks on my daughter’s hands

[Onelife2024]

Any doctors reading who might be able to put my mind at rest about these black marks / dots that have appeared on my 13 year old daughter’s hands over the past few days? We have a GP appointment (Bupa video call) booked tomorrow but I’m worried that she maybe needs to be seen more urgently? Anyone ever seen anything like this before? Thanks so much

She just said a boy accidentally splattered her hands with silver nitrate in Biology - she hadn’t thought of it before because the liquid was clear, but that makes sense as it darkens over time! Thank you all for (probably) solving the mystery!!

I’m really quite relieved now having got to the end of the thread!

I feel really relieved as well!

I’d totally be spiralling, but this seems like it must be the right answer.

It's not scabies.

I wondered this, as I had similar ish looking bruising from gripping oars to row.

I see probably silver nitrate , glad you have worked it out !

I thought that, she could have been sticking a pen into her palms.

However, glad to know you've found the solutiion.

Poison ivy doesn’t exist in the UK.

Yes definitely silver nitrate when you put on as a verruca treatment it makes skin go black

If it’s silver nitrate you maybe able to get it to fade using vinegar or lemon juice

Bingo!

I would think the GP will have no idea, unless you tell them it's silver nitrate 😀

This is what I thought of straight away. I use it at work and never know I've got any on my hands until hours/days later when it 'develops'. It's routinely used in school science lessons so she could have come across quite easily.

Surely you won't see a GP on a Sunday will you?

@Onelife2024 She just said a boy accidentally splattered her hands with silver nitrate

That was my first thought when I saw the photograph.

My son had ITP, dangerously low platelets as a toddler. It started as a few dark pin prick spots and spread over the next few days. He had no other symptoms of illness but had a cold the previous week which the doctors thought had triggered it. He was hospitalised for a week and required a blood transfusion.

OP, has she had a virus with a sore throat recently? Hand Foot and Mouth gives you blisters on your hands and feet soles, and after they've flattened they can look a bit like that. Just a thought, though perhaps they're too dark.

They look like flat blood blisters!

oh god sorry, RTFT! So glad it's something non-traumatic, OP!

I wouldn't risk A&E on a Saturday night unless the child was obviously distressed or in pain.

Could it be something people in school are doing over 40 years but remember both boys and girls puncturing skin and using ink. Or something in colour enhancing shampoo that has stained open skin.

Try nail varnish remover on a cotton bud on a small mark. See if it removes it. That will tell you if it's biro ink.

Check out her clothes, schoolbag, books - any similar marks on them?

Please don’t advocate against a health professional. You do what you want to do but imagine if you gave that advice and a child died

Silver nitrate definitely stains. I dyed my eyebrows once with a product with silver nitrate and I skipped gloves! My eyebrows looked good but the blackened nails were less chic. Nothing takes silver nitrate stains off fingernails. You just have to grow them out. It took a few days of scrubbing to get off my skin - there was no magic bullet that I found.

They are not highly trained medically. They are highly trained pharmacists but even with a prescribing qualification, they are very different.

Maybe but I’ve had poison ivy rashes many times and they never looked like this!