Possible vulvovaginitis in 5 year old?

[Loopylou7219]

Hi all, would really appreciate some advice if anyone's DD has had similar.

My daughter is 5 and has had a couple of bouts of discharge in her pants, contacted the doctor last year after it started and prescribed cannesten cream which initially cleared it up. Since then she has had small amounts in her pants on and off, it seems to be worse during term time when she is at school and doesn't clean herself properly when she has been for a poo (we are working on this, but she is only 5 🙃)

A couple of days ago she had quite a bit of brown discharge mixed with a small amount of blood in her pants.

Obviously the first worry that comes in (health anxiety sufferer) is precocious puberty, but she has no signs of breast buds or public hair at all.
There seems to be no blood in her wee and no "free bleeding" it's definitely mixed in with the discharge (she is still in a pull-up at night so able to monitor any further bleeding)

Have been googling vulvovaginitis and it seems to fit, it doesn't hurt her to wee but wiping is very sore and her vulva appears red on the outside. She is terrible for cleaning herself properly even after a wee (again, working on this) so it's no surprise she might be getting sore.

Anyway, I will of course be in touch with the GP again next week but just wondered if anyone has been through similar? Obviously seeing even a small amount of blood is worrying as she's only 5.

Thanks in advance to anyone who replies and thanks for reading this long post!

Hiya sorry I can't help what your asking about but I just posted aswell regarding thrush in my 2yo. Can I please ask what canesten you give and how much etc? I'm trying to get some for my daughter today. She's very sore and some dishcharge too since having antibiotics. I hope you get some answers for your little girl too ! X

Hiya, the cream was prescribed by the doctor, so I would probably check its suitable? It's just the pharmacy own brand of the cannesten cream (don't know the proper name of it off the top of my head). My daughter has just had a tummy bug as well, so not sure if that's connected.

Hope she feels better soon x

Hi,
I could have wrote this myself. My little girl has had a couple of times in the space of a year now. (Discharge) no blood. It’s very sporadic and it’s usually when she’s been to nursery and had a number 2 and not wiped properly. Did you get your little one checked? I was told bicarbonate baths and barrier cream. What did the doc say?

@Loopylou7219 my LO (also 5) has this.
it’s a nightmare and causes her a lot of discomfort.
we don’t use any soap in baths as that makes it worse and loose clothes at night like nightdresses. She is now very good at wiping properly. So we’ve followed all the advice but it still bothered her but not as severely.if there were any creams or other strategies people found helpful, I’d be keen to try them.
she has also on occasion had worms which have made 5£3 vulvalvagintis 10x worse.
Hope your LO is ok.

How often does she have it? Do you take her to the gp for it? Does she get the discharge too?

Could she have worms? I thought my daughter had thrush and the dr prescribed cream twice but after mlnths and months I figured out it was worms. Treated and symptoms disappeared.

What was your daughters symptoms?

My daughter (5 yo) has had some awful bouts of this, including one with bloody discharge. Canesten did nothing to help her. The game changed has been using aqueous cream nightly. It has really helped manage her symptoms. She also baths with some bicarbonate of sofa in the water to help clean skin, and we avoid bubble.bath and rinse after shampooing etc. If we keep on this it seems to keep it mostly under control.
Doctors have been largely useless until we saw a woman who took it seriously. She said thrush is fairly rare pre puberty, and actually understood what vulvovaginitis is!

It's really awful when it hits. I hope you find something that works for your daughter xxx

My daughter had something like this when she was about 4, though it was caused by an infection around her vulva; I think it was caused by poor wiping (she was only in Reception ) which caused sore skin leading to an infection. It was very very sore, poor love. A course of antibiotics cleared it quickly though.

Obviously might not be the same, but are there signs of redness or infection at all? Does it hurt to pee/ when she gets in the bath?

@CheddarGorge99 interestingly, I remember being at our GP at the exact same time as a little boy who was having the issue. He was given AB that day, we were dismissed! Fortunately my DD's Godmother is a GP and she had a look and got her sorted out.

Shocking that the ignoring of female problems starts so young.

Hi everyone, thanks so much for your replys, I have only just seen them.

Using the cannesten cream seemed to completely clear the infection up, she also told me retrospectively that the day she'd had a small amount of bleeding, she had fallen on her scooter in the garden and somehow hurt her vulva with her foot 🤔.

I spoke to the GP on the phone who seemed completely unbothered and if the cream is clearing it up then keep persevering with toilet hygiene and hope for the best 🤷‍♀️. No more blood so I'm inclined to think she had hurt herself or the infection was just quite nasty before using the cream again.

Thank you so much for everyone's suggestions and I will definitely be trying those. I will obviously keep an eye on things and update if relevant. From all of the reading (googling) I've done, it does just seem to be a very common problem for some girls around this age.

Just to answer a few questions: I have been religiously checking for worms and I just can't see any, does anyone think it's worth treating for them anyway if it gets bad again?

She didn't have any classic UTI symptoms such as pain weeing etc. Doctors seemed to think UTI was unlikely.

We don't use any bubble baths etc, I had already realised that bath bombs (which she loves) make her sore and irritated.

Interesting what someone was saying about thrush being rare in young girls and more likely vulvovaginitis, like you say finding a GP who knows this area is really key!

@CheddarGorge99 when you say about the aqueous cream, how do you use that? Like you would a nappy cream?

Thanks again all

We thought my daughter had thrush at this age and there was some blood about. If we ever used soap she would wake up screaming. She was sent for tests and nothing came up. We later found out it was Lichen Schlerosus. Pretty rare in young kids but possible. If there is any discolouring - fading of colour almost - down below then maybe ask about it. We were lucky that we saw a locum who had come across it before.

We just apply nightly after bath across her vulva. It has worked wonders for her and has been a total game changed for us.

@CheddarGorge99 Thank you. I think I might give that a try.

Don't know if anyone has any thoughts on this, but after the last bout around 3 weeks ago, the discharge has started again (not too bad and not bloody) nut it's coincided with her having a sickness bug. Last time she'd had a tummy bug as well. Does anyone know if being run down/ill can cause a flare up on symptoms with (suspected) vulvovaginitis.

Thanks again everyone 🙂

*but it's coincided