if your kid had 3 knee scabs that had red 'collars' around them on the skin...

[WilfSell]

...after a good few days, and one of them where the scab had gone a kind of whitish, would you do more than chuck a bit more antiseptic cream on them?

I'm usually of the 'ignore it until it falls off' school of healthcare for my kids, but I'm wondering if this means there is some infection there that needs to see a nurse at the surgery?

it sounds like it could be molluscum, looks up some pics and compare. does your DC have any spots anywhere else?

Sorry should have clarified... They're definitely scabs from falling over though - does molluscum sound possible in such a case? Thought that was a separate infection?

Depends - how red and hoe big an area of redness? It doesn't sound too bad to me tbh but you could ask a pharmacist tok take a look? No red track lines?

generally if the red margins are less than 2cm the persons body should be able to fight off the infection..any more and the infection may need to be treated.

I would do as you are with the anti-septic cream, skin does go red when it is healing normally so it's probably nothing to worry about

No track lines. Just a bit red and sore looking. Each scab about 1cm across I guess, perhaps a bit bigger. Have put a bit of Savlon on today but the whitish one (and it was white before I put the Savlon on ) just looks a bit weird so not sure whether to ignore...

Ah, thanks ggirl, that's helpful to know. I'll keep on with the Savlon and keep an eye on them...

sorry, not molluscum then. the red collar and white centre bit made me think of mulluscum spots.

I seem to remember scabs going white when I was a kid, maybe that was when they were wet and soggy though, like after a bath or swimming?

Ds has a horrible graze on one knee atm, where he has managed to fall in the same place three times, I saw it the other day and it had a very wide bright red ring around it and thought to myself that I must check that later as it looked very sore. I then forgot all about it (bad, bad mother) and when I looked today it is practically healed

I like the 2cm rule ggirl, I'll remember that.

Personally don't find salvon is as strong as some of the other antiseptics. Would recommend Acriflex antiseptic which ime draws out the infection a bit better.

Alternatively allow child to soak knee in bath for ages. Scabs will soften and likely come off with gentle rub then reapply cream to un-scabbed wound area. I have been known to take a flamed pin to softened scabs to get to underlying infection with antiseptic.

Ds had one that did though and it turned out he had a piece of gravel embedded under the skin. Had to squeeze around it to get it out. It flew out and knee healed pretty quick after. Although at the time poor ds was not impressed by the squirt of blood that accompanied it. These days he would have been impressed

Your DS must be very robust. I had to practically threaten big needles and possible amputation to get the Savlon on him

He wasn't but he had to learn to toughen up a bit as 1. he likes to do stupid things and 2. I don't suffer fools or whinging. ergo I am a mean mummy. You know the sort that look at child who has just fallen over and tells them they had better not have made a hole in the ground when they fell.

I find sudocrem better than savlon. I would treat what you describe myself, absolutely if I remembered.