Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Children's health

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Impetigo - looking for a second opinion on treatment.

4 replies

BabyJulian · 08/04/2014 12:24

Hi, our lilttle boy (5 months old) has impetigo. He got it about two weeks ago. The infection was mainly around the corner of his mouth and a little bit on his ears. We went to see our GP and he prescribed oral anibiotics (Flucloxacilin). The infection cleared after three days, we went back to our GP for a follow-up, he told us to stop the anitbiotcs. One week later it came back worse, almost his entire ear is red and tender, weeping fluid and covered in crust, and there are crusty spots appearing on his cheeks, neck and the back of his head. Yesterday we went back to see our GP and he prescribed a cream (Fucidin), some bath oil and said he's got eczema. After that I did some online reasearch on impetigo treatment and found out that full course of oral antibiotics shoud be 7 days and that you abolutely must complete the full course and that it's dangerous not to 'cause higher resistance bacterias might survive and come back and make it even worse. Now I'm worried that our GP's messed up the treatment, that our little boy's immune system is not strong enough to cope with the infection as it's spreading (the cream only prevents bacteria growth, doesn't kill them) and that it'll get a lot worse before our GP decides that he needs something stronger. I'm wondering now if I shouldn't just give him a full course of oral antibiotics as it should have been done in the first place.
Would appreciate any advice.

OP posts:
Redirected · 08/04/2014 12:31

You need to go back to the GP and discuss the antibiotics concern.
You should not use the previous antibiotics, even if there may be a week long course left - they are time limited.

BabyJulian · 08/04/2014 12:52

yes, you're right, I looked it up and it says 7 days shelf life once opened so can't use anymore.

OP posts:
Thisisanoutrage · 09/04/2014 16:51

We've just had something like this with DD. It started as big blisters all over her body. It came back 3 times after antibiotics. The third time the hospital did swab tests and told us it was a staph infection, which I think impetigo is. It eventually went with 10 days of flucloxacillin and fucidin cream used at the same time.

I do think we should have all had swab tests as maybe we were all passing something round in the family. DD has eczema and that's how the infection kept getting back in.

It helped to really keep the eczema at bay with constant reapplication of emollient lotion. We use epaderm.

Hope he's doing better today.

BabyJulian · 09/04/2014 17:18

we went back to our GP this morning (different doctor this time) and he gave us another antibiotic (Erythromycin) and took a few swabs to confirm what type of infection he's got. Our little one is a bit better today, hopefully with the new antibiotic and the cream the infection will be gone in a few days and it'll stay that way.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page