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Children's health

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Original poster

4yo old sore genitalia - in pain...

25 replies

PavlovtheCat · 29/03/2011 21:41

DD is in a lot of pain. She woke with sore area, in a LOT of pain, she is up on the sofa crying. I have given her a cold flannel but she is a lot of pain, says is hurts and stings, she went for a wee, said it stung before she went, then when I asked if it hurt when she went to the loo she said yes.

It has happened before, we have talked about personal hygiene, she wipes the correct way, is good with hand washing, and this evening had a bath before bed so was 'clean' so to speak.

Is it a urinary tract infection?

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Am36butfeel66 · 29/03/2011 23:48

It could be her urine, best to get her to pee into something...(have you an old clean potty still?...) and bring sample to dr tomorrow for testing.
In the meantime get her to drink as much fluid as possible, and if you have any cranberry juice handy that would be great. If it is her urine the more you make it dilute by drinking the less pain she has peeing.

In case it is not her pee, but her genitalia itself that is sore, put some vaseline round her bits...as she may have a little graze or sore that has come and when she pees it stings..the vaseline will help with that, plus when you put the cream on you will be able to see if she is red or inflamed looking.
Try a dose of calpol to see if that helps with pain too.

Putting an ice cube in a towel after it has melted slightly so as not to give her freezer burn, and let her place that next to where she says is sore..the coldness of the ice may calm the pain.

I would take her to get checked out by gp though as she shouldn't have pain there. You need to see if it is a urine infection or not.

Hope she is ok.

bruffin · 30/03/2011 09:29

It could also be worms, as in girls they sometimes migrate to the front.

Original poster

PavlovtheCat · 30/03/2011 20:52

bruffin how would I know if it has come to the front? She has no other symptoms of worms and I have had a look and there is nothing there to indicate anything worm-like? She said this morning again that is stung when she peed, but not in pain like last night.

I wonder if it could be a little graze. She said she does not have a sore belly or back or anything...

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princessProudmel · 30/03/2011 20:54

Dd gets this and once treated for worms the pain stops. She will be actually screaming and crying in pain.

Until we get the worm treatment we use metainium cream to sooth the pain.

princessProudmel · 30/03/2011 20:55

Also a friend with 3 dd's said that all her girls get this too :(

MmeLindt · 30/03/2011 20:58

Take a urine sample to the doc to rule out a urinary infection. Does she drink enough? And is she wearing skinny jeans a lot - we have had to throw out all DD's skinny jeans as they give her UTIs.

DD has this often, we are having her checked out soon for kidney problems as she has this kind of thing about 4 times a year, sometimes more often. She had a really bad urinary infection when she was a baby, that went into her kidneys so we have to be very careful.

If the kidneys get infected (when a UTI is not treated) it can scar the kidneys apparently.

TattyCatty · 30/03/2011 20:59

If it's worse at night, I would almost definitely say worms. DD was shaking with pain when she got them, and it seemed to be all around her genitals, so we initially thought that she had thrush. We treated her and the rest of the family with an over the counter treatment, and she was absolutely fine within 24 hours.

MmeLindt · 30/03/2011 20:59

Princess
that is interesting. Could DD have worms then? How would I know?

TattyCatty · 30/03/2011 21:05

The traditional method for diagnosing worms is to have a look with a torch at night (which is when the eggs hatch - no point during the day) or if DD will let you, use some sellotape (yes, really!) to, erm, catch the blighters in action. Hope you're not eating whilst posting!

MmeLindt · 30/03/2011 21:07

Eek.

Have to buy a torch first, bloody DS is forever stealing mine and losing it.

But they would not be there for a day then go away again, would they? To return 4 or 6 weeks later.

TattyCatty · 30/03/2011 21:09

There is a hatching cycle apparently - if she isn't re-infecting herself immediately, it might be that they go away and then she gets them again. Probably worth trying the worm treatment next time anyway to rule it out. There may be a more specific medical test but DD's symptoms were so classic that we just self medicated and luckily it sorted it out for her.

mummytopebs · 30/03/2011 21:56

My dd who is 5 gets this on and off. She has had a uti ruled out, so I am thinking it is just a stage (fingers crossed)

MmeLindt · 30/03/2011 22:00

I go to doc with her in the morning (after drinking tons of water and giving calpol during night) to be told that urine is fine - so that I feel really daft.

Got appointment with our old paediatrician when we go to MIL's at Easter.

Original poster

PavlovtheCat · 31/03/2011 19:50

mmelindt same with DD. She is now fine again, not pain, nothing. and she will be fine again, for a few weeks/months even.

And she was crying out in pain. tears, sobbing 'ooooouch'. for several hours. then gone, then back after an hour, then gone, that gradually reducing over a day or so.

at the checking method for worms! I might just get some worming medicine and give to her just in case, instead!

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Original poster

PavlovtheCat · 31/03/2011 19:52

Thanks for advice ladies by the way...

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EustaciaVye · 31/03/2011 20:28

Dd had this. UTI andd Thrush ruled out. Treated for worms (which did help my friends dd with similar issue).

Eventually referred to paediatrician who said vulvo-vagnitis. Basically inflammation of the bits. Like a semi-infection.

Solution was to drink LOTS more. Sit on loo for longer and ensure there is no wee left to come out. Also try and get them to go to the loo more regularly.

Much improved although we still get issues sometimes.

EustaciaVye · 31/03/2011 20:29

Really common in little girls this age apparently.

Original poster

PavlovtheCat · 31/03/2011 20:37

I do think she does not drink enough either. We get her to drink at home in the morning, and when she gets home, but she often comes home with her drinks bottle as full as when she went, and she says 'i forgot'. she always drinks some on the way home. She goes to the toilet reasonably regularly, always make her go before bed, but she often goes in the night still (has a potty). I leave tissue for her but she does not always use it (rarely) maybe that is part of the problem. So eustacia sort of like a little bit of wee gets stuck on outside of her vulva and bacteria causes like a little infection on the outside, rather than UTI? that would make sense. Need to try to get to drink more.

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MmeLindt · 31/03/2011 23:50

Sounds exactly like DD, Pavlov. She screams and sobs in pain for about 30 mins or an hour. I discovered last week that reading to her helps as it distracts her.

She doesn't drink enough - must speak to teacher as they are not allowed to drink in class and she forgets to take her water bottle out in break.

Will report back after I speak to the doc end of next month.

EustaciaVye · 01/04/2011 07:59

Yes pavlov, like that. Also stay away from bubble batsh etc as that make my dd much worse. We have also come to the conclusion that it gets worse if she is a bit run down generally - like with a cold or something.

Try getting her to drink every 2 hours. It really did make a difference for us.

EustaciaVye · 01/04/2011 08:00

definately treat for worms just in case though. it is 1 tablet, then another 2 weeks later. and completely fixed my friends dd.

bettypage · 01/04/2011 08:34

what about boys? my son is 4 and has all the above symptoms ight now, but with his willy...crying in pain. comes and goes. been to doc's in the past but nothing found...what is it?

BrigitBigKnickers · 01/04/2011 09:04

The number of times my poor DD suffered like this when she was younger. (Thankfully seems to have grown out of it now.)

We used to get her to drink drink drink to flush it out of her system and also found drinking a little cranberry juice every day very useful.

I am very sceptical about natural remedies but she used to take a homeopathic remedy called Cantharis which really seemed to help too.

EustaciaVye · 01/04/2011 11:28

update. saw a doc friend today who suggested lots of sudocrem to make a barrier between the bits and wee. She said it is to do wtih the skin being v thin and can occur on and off until teens . It can be due to the level of eostrogen apparently.

Original poster

PavlovtheCat · 01/04/2011 16:50

Thanks eustacia for asking your friend, will do that, sudocream! will also try tablet too. See if I can rule one or the other out, the wee and thin skin does make sense, fits with the type of pain.

Not sure about boys though, my boy is a baby!!!

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