Hospital Referral for Abscess - Stressed!

[Lw56992]

Hi everyone,

My son is almost 16 weeks old and has a recurring perianal abscess (an abscess right next to his back passage). He’s currently on his third course of antibiotics as it keeps getting infected and he’s had four GP visits and three hospital visits during this whole saga.

The last GP we saw made an urgent referral to hospital for the specialists to investigate further and potentially operate which will bring a whole new level of worry, I’m sure!

A week later, we haven’t received this referral and in the meantime, DS bum is covered in blistered nappy rash due to having diarrhoea which each course of antibiotics has given him.

I’m concerned that during the time it takes for us to get the referral, the infection will return for a fourth time and require the fourth lot of antibiotics with all their horrible side effects. It’s breaking my heart to watch my little baby go through all this and I just don’t know what to do! It just doesn’t seem right that someone so young has had almost the same amount of antibiotics as me in my lifetime!

Any advice or similar experiences - please share!

Hi there - I've posted on here before as my DS had perianal abscesses which turned out to be a complex fistula. He was 5-6 at the time, so not as young. I'm sorry about your baby, that's very rough.

Given he's had bad diarrhoea on antibiotics I really suggest speaking with a pharmacist to see if there's a probiotic he can take at his age. My DS's paediatrician always recommended probiotics when DS had antibiotics as the antibiotics destroy all the good gut flora which can cause diarrhoea. Separately I always found bepanthen better than other creams for nappy rash.

I hope you get your referral really quickly.