Purple spot - booked in at out of hours

[YellowTelescope]

My 11 month old son has had heat rash for a couple of days, quite badly. He's been very grumpy today with what seemed like teething pain to the point that he didn't eat his lunch (unheard of for him!) I was giving him his bedtime bottle and I noticed he had a single small purple spot under his left armpit which doesn't fade when you run a glass over it. I've called 111 and they've booked us in at OOH at 12:20am. My gut instinct at first was to panic, but as time has passed I'm not sure if I should be worried or not. Just been to check on him and he's sound asleep, we took his temperature which was 35.7 so quite low. Wondering what others would do in this situation.

If you actually think he has septicaemia, I would take him to A and E now.

My gut is telling me that he doesn't because he only has one purple spot and none of the other symptoms. I'm not actually sure what a low temperature means; I did check the NHS website but there wasn't a whole lot of information on it. I suppose part of me is thinking logically that the spot looks like it could be a blood blister, and maybe he's got caught somehow or his twin has caught him when they were playing. The other part of me is panicking because it doesn't fade under a glass. I told 111 this too and they said a doctor would ring me within 2 hours to book an appointment so it wasn't treated with any real urgency which is reassuring.

If I had any suspicion at all about meningococcal sepsis, I would be breaking the world land speed record to the nearest A&E. It probably won't be....but it's a scary bloody disease.

If you're not legging it in there now...

Go back in there, strip him off, and examine ever square millimetre of skin. If so much as an extra pinprick size of non blanching purple rash has appeared since you last looked, then get the fuck to A&E.

Low temps are not good, though temps do drop with sleeping and home thermometers are not that good.
I’d phone 111 back and tell them about the low temp and ask to speak to a doctor. But do go to your appt anyway

35.7 is very low.
Is the thermometer working?

A low temp I think can be a sign of sepsis too?
Hope all ok

My husband tried the thermometer on himself and got a normal reading so appears to be working fine. I'll call 111 again now I have his temperature

111 say they're not overly concerned because his general condition hasn't worsened so they're going to get a clinician to call me but keeping our appointment the same. Feeling a bit better now, just want the clock to tick a bit faster so we can go to the hospital!

You can go any time you want.

Have you checked for any more purple spots appearing? If it's spreading that is very worrying.

God plan. Don’t panic just yet. I had a temp of 37 on my child and the paramedic who came got a much higher reading. He said home thermometers are hard to get right with kids (small ear canal). But better to be safe than sorry

I've just read a poster that says to check low temps and if you get 3 below 36 deg in 10 minutes then it needs checking out for sepsis.

I'd be getting my baby to A&E to checked out properly not waiting for an OOH appointment. You cannot ever be too careful! Go get seen asap

Yes defo take him for check over

You definitely need to get him checked asap. Do ask for a blood test.

You might have seen my post. My daughter is in ICU now due to septic shock. She didn't have the typical symptoms either and I was told she was fine by health professionals repeatedly. Yet, here we are.

And actually, if you look at NHS webside, low temperature is one of the symptoms for sepsis.

Hope everything is well xx

Thanks all. Took him to the appointment as 111 said I really shouldn't be worried about his temperature. The doctor knew straight away that he was fine, checked him over and said the purple spots were just broken blood vessels under the skin that can be caused by anything such as picking him up. He checked his temperature and it was 35.5 but he said they don't normally worry about low temperatures unless the child has been exposed to the cold. I'm relieved that he's OK, and luckily we got seen on time so were on our way home at 12:25 - he went straight back to sleep in his cot as though nothing had happened!

Great news!

So pleased! 💗