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Children's health

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Is this Scabies, and if not, what on earth is it?

7 replies

mustdash · 13/05/2011 12:34

DD2 (8) had a regular paediatrician appointment a couple of weeks ago. After her normal consultation, I asked if the Dr would have a look at a rash which was developing on her chest.

It started with tiny dots - like pin pricks, and then a couple of blotches - one in the middle of her chest, and one on her bottom. By the time the paediatrician saw them, she had about 10 of these blotches each about 1cm diameter mainly on her chest and abdomen. She also had what looked like flea bites (about 5) on her ankles. The blotches are smooth, and look like tiny love bites. No "track marks".

The Paediatrician said it was odd that she didn't have any signs on her hands, wrists, or any of the other "usual" places, but that it looked most like scabies.

She prescribed the usual scabies cream, which the whole family used at once. We also deep cleaned all the bedrooms, steaming beds, rugs, skirting boards. Washed all towels, bedding and soft toys at 60C and then tumbled dried the lot. And while we were at it, used the heavy duty flea spray, just incase the cats had fleas - which we don't think they did. There have been no shared baths since.

We repeated the cream and the deep clean (though not the flea spray) 7 days later.

The rash is now worse, and is spreading round her back, down her arms and legs. She says it is itchy at night, but we've never actually seen her scratch except when she is just out of the shower. We have been giving her Piriton at night though.

Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to include everything that might be relevant.

There is a possibility that at least one of her friends might have something similar.

Any thoughts? I would have thought that after two treatments, and three weeks, it should be going by now. We have an appointment with the GP, but next Thursday is the soonest, because it isn't urgent.

IS this scabies??? Again, sorry this is so long!

OP posts:
mustdash · 13/05/2011 12:35

Oh, and we now have the cleanest house in Scotland - which is nice. Grin

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mustdash · 13/05/2011 16:45

Bump. Advice please??

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sweetiesue · 13/05/2011 17:07

Not sure but have you thought about Ringworm? Not an actual worm but a fungal thing. Are the patches round with a sort of halo or hula hoop type ring around them? Only reason I mention is that thought ds had Ringworm cos it was just random patches on his back but turns out it is eczema (but even SIL who is GP took a bit of time to decide what it was and recc steroid cream and said if no improvement after few days try Canestan for Ringworm) Def exzema though as has gone after 3 days of steroid cream.

saggarmakersbottomknocker · 13/05/2011 17:46

Not sure about scabies in this case but ds2 had it and when we did the lotion thing the rash got worse before it got better. His trunk area was very itchy at night - he had Clarityn which helped. ds definitely had scabies though - he had the classic burrow marks on his hands.

We did dd with the lotion too and which although supposedly safe aggravated her normally mild excema and she developed dreadful discoid excema.

Could it be Pityriasis Rosea? ds2 had this too - rashy little bugger.

Al1son · 13/05/2011 18:01

This site shows lots of different rashes. You may be able to identify it.

mustdash · 14/05/2011 11:14

I posted a thank you yesterday, but it seems to have disappeared, so trying again!

Al1son, thank you for that link, I had great fun (yes I need to get out more) looking at possibilities, but really can't see anything that looks just like it.

It does look most like Pityriasis Rosea, mainly because it seems to be completely under the skin, and most of the other possibilities seem to have a raised element. It also started in exactly the way that is described.

Fairly sure it isn't ringworm, because I got that from a rescue cat once, and it was fairly distinctive.

Anyway, thank you all very much. If it turns out to be something interesting I'll let you know!

Smile
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mustdash · 19/05/2011 09:56

Just back from the GP, and she confirmed Pityriasis Rosea. She said there was no way on earth it was scabies. Viral, but not infectious, which I don't understand, but then I'm not a doctor.

It might take 12 weeks to go though, which is a shame, because it is going to be visible in short sleeves, or a swimming cossie.

Quite cross that the paediatrician got it wrong, but like I said, we have a VERY clean house now, so there is always a silver lining!

Going to get myself a Brew.

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