lyme disease treatment

[Finlaggan]

DD is 4 and got an emergency referral to our local children's hospital before xmas. she had a large, 10cm red bullseye type rash which appeared over 4 days and was very swollen. A couple of days prior to this there was a very small white spot whh became the centre of the rash. she has recently contracted molluscum and it looked like a new spot.

hospital doctors were a bit perplexed as it looked a bit like a tick rash but the spot in the middle made them think perhaps it wasn't. They ultimately decided to treat DD for lyme disease so they prescribed higher strength ABs for two weeks. she finished the course last week which took all the redness out of the spot but as soon as we stopped the meds it came back the same as before. So I calles the hospital and they want her to take the ABs for another 4 weeks before seeing her. They haven't done a blood test.

This seems like a really long time for a 4 year old to be on anti biotics for something she might not even have.

does anyone know what the standard treatment is for lymes disease in children?

thanks.

dd was diagnosed with Lyme disease based solely on teh bullseye rash (which to be honest once we got to the GP had almost disappeared). However GP decided to treat for Lyme disease anyway - 21 days on ABs.

thanks haggis.

This seems like a really long time for a 4 year old to be on anti biotics for something she might not even have

yes, but for suspected lyme disease far better safe than sorry.

I think I'd be inclined to look for a second opinion (perhaps from GP) to see if there's any tests that should be done.

thanks. GP had no idea what it could be (2 docs at gp had a look, 3 at hospital, following lots of head scratching) they also said maybe lyme disease but it wasnt classic as it had a spot in the middle.

I am happy for it to be treated even if its not what it is I just thought 6weeks of higher strength ABs seemed a lot.

Given the potential neurological damage from Lyme disease, agree far better to be safe than sorry. The blood test isn't reliable so a negative wouldn't rule Lyme out.

6wk treatment is standard but I would defiantly get blood work done, as parsingfancy said it the test aren't 100% but once there is a positive test for Lyme it will always show as positive from now on. So you really do need to know if that makes sense.

great thanks everyone I'll chase it up with the GP.

Yes I'd get the blood test too. Dd had it and it needed very long treatment as when we stopped AB it came back again. It's a horrid disease and unless treated immediately can need intense treatment- dd wasn't better until after months of treatment

love what symptoms did your DD have?

my DD seems to be fine, she is quite pale and tired looking but it has been a busy time of year. Other than that she seems her normal self.

I will definitely get on to GP tomorrow about blood test although I suspect he might refer us back to the hospital.

Glad to hear your DD recovered.

My husband got given the antibodies. GP said there was no point in testing for some reason, something like it could tell u you've been exposed to the bug but not whether you actually have it and important to treat in meantime or something. He had sntibiotics for a month I think, can't remember what is was called, something related to antimalarials. Anyway...

I think DD has amoxycillin for 2 weeks: she'd no clear symptoms and on rash, but tired and out of sorts, but definitely had had tick bites; blood test showed weak positive so they decided to treat. I understood blood tests throw up false positives regularly, but that might be the way to go

The AB related to antimalarials might have been doxycyclin

oricella I read once only a third of people with Lyme had the rash but I don't know how accurate this is- but certainly stay wary if notice anything unusual and generally AB have to be twice as strong as normal to treat it adequately.

Our dd became unusually tired when came off AB, lots of headaches and often wouldn't walk (she was previously normal & active).