Hard moveable lump on 11month old DS clavicle. Petrified

[miniworry]

Firstly I know that mumsnet is not a place full of medical professionals and I will book a doctors appointment first thing tomorrow morning but I'm currently in total fear mode (I have awful heath anxiety anyway) and wondered if people can talk me down until the morning.

My little boy 11 months has had what seems like a white pimple on his neck right by the end of his clavicle for a week or so and today I decided to press it. Just underneath it I can feel a small hard lump that when I press it shoots off somewhere. I stupidly googled it and saw 'super clavicle' lymph nodes and how they nearly always point to cancer. I've been sick and I'm crippled by fear now. I don't know how I'm going to sleep until tomorrow.

It's not above his collarbone but directly on or almost under the bone and I would say it's a bit less than 1cm.

I have awful health anxiety from when he has meningitis at 4 weeks and I'm just a mess, not really sure what I'm hoping to get here maybe just some stories where things have turned out ok?

please try not to worry - I know it’s easy
to say and I have awful health anxiety so completely understand but stay with me!

under collarbone = normal lymph node. It’s above it that is more concerning and only if large, and multiple. If any help I had one measuring over 7cm above collar bone and gp was completely unconcerned.

moveable = good. Will be fighting an infection that is symptomless. 💜

@formula3 I can't explain how much I appreciate you taking your time to reply to me ❤️ I'm petrified and I feel like I'm just constantly living in hell at the moment thinking yes 'it wasn't anything serious last time it was just your health anxiety but it will be this time'. It's right on his clavicle bone, right at those pointy bits you have where it ends and your throat begins .

I so so understand and I have the worst health anxiety too. And I know nothing helps 😣but I honestly wouldn’t be worried about this. Hard = worrying, moveable = reassuring. Also the location. My bet is it will disappear over next couple
of weeks.
If any help, my DD had a hard immovable lump in her thigh aged 1. Now at 9 I can still feel it but it’s much smaller. I still panic about it often but have learned to live with it. sending health anxiety hugs xx

@formula3 sorry to hear that you feel like this too, it really is something I wouldn't wish on anyone!! Can I ask what they thought your daughters lump to be?

They never actually said what it was- a cyst was mentioned but it was a very hard immovable lump. I still have that cold panic when I feel it but it’s much smaller
now. And I totally agree about health anxiety, it’s an awful thing ☹️

That cold panic is the worst- I'm sat here wide awake in this cold panic now just thinking the worst and waiting for 8am to come to phone the doctors 😞

Just to say I wouldn’t necessarily expect a harmless lymph lump to disappear in a couple id weeks so don’t freak out if it doesn’t! My ds had one for a couple months of years in his neck, I freaked out a couple of times.

I also thought moveable lumps are not generally a cause for concern. It is hard when it is our children though. Hope all is well.

@PearlCity it's the fact of where it is that I think is worrying me so much- anything I've googled about lumps in the shoulder blade area all say lymph nodes which are almost never normal there and can be cancerous.

I've laid here tonight Google diagnosing him with lymphoma as he has had a cough on and off for months (reasonable person says nursery illnesses at 11 months old) and some itching which fit the symptoms. I know I shouldn't Google but I can't help it and now I'm just bedside myself. I hate this feeling so much and feel so alone 😣 my husband just doesn't get the health anxiety thing at all.

@PearlCity so hard when it's your children. Your heart is walking around in another body and you have no control over it- I thought I was going to lose him at 4 weeks old to meningitis so I just have this awful fear.

Hi @miniworry i had to comment as this is exactly what my DS had! He was about 5yo when I found his completely by accident and I felt sick. He had lots of blood tests (he also had petechial rashes) but basically it’s just a normal lymph node! He’s 11 now and still has it, it’s right near his clavicle and I can move it. He’s under a paediatrician for something else and she wasn’t really concerned as he has had lots of blood tests which would indicate if it was something more.

My advice as a parent who has been in that situation, go to the Gp and ask them to check it. Ask if a blood test is required.

Please try not to worry (I know it’s hard!!) but likelihood is that it is nothing to worry about 🙂

@Spaghetticonfetti thank you so much for your message! We saw a GP today who said he wasn't really concerned and believes it could be a cyst but is going to book him in for an ultrasound scan just to double check. I still can't help but feel sick, I thought I would feel relieved!

I've fallen back down a black hole after gojng on to tik tok and seeing a video of a child with lymphoma who had a lump on his neck, a cough that lasted for weeks and itching.

My little boy has had a non stop cough and a cold since starting nursery in September and he's always itching as soon as I take his clothes off. I'm now convinced this lump isn't a cyst at all but a lumpy nose and he has lymphoma.

I've booked a private paeds appointment for Saturday but no idea how I'll get through until then.

Any positive stories would really be great.

Oh love ❤️ catch yourself before you go down the hole any further - you know social media feeds
health anxiety like nothing on earth.

1. the itching associatied with lymphoma is severe- we are not talking about a bit of itching
2. your son’s lump in no way sounds like a lymphoma- they are large and grow FAST
3. for that one story on tik tok there are 1000000 stories where it was… a lymph node raised due to a viral infection (included respiratory viruses causing a cough) this is FAR more likely (one dr said to me once “when you hear the thunder of hooves, think horses not zebras)

put down stories like that one and keep busy until your appointment 💜

@formula3 thank you so much- that's really kind of you and enabled me to take a breath. I wasn't even looking for anything health related I've tried to stay off it since last week and then as soon as I click on it there it was. Symptoms matching exactly my son and now I've spent the last hour googling and I'm just a mess 😭

Every time I hear him cough through the monitor I just feel a bit more sick. He's had this cough since September but because more often than not it's also with a snotty nose I never thought it could be anything else. Until now

Cough+ snotty nose+ raised lymph node = upper respiratory infection and body fighting it well
cough with no snotty nose + weight loss.+ exhaustion + unbearable itching= you’re allowed to worry

distract yourself with something on Netflix- when I have health anxiety attacks like you I am almost frozen watching or listening for
a sign of whatever I’m worried about. It’s horrendous x

I’ve learnt myself that there is no way to get a full medical knowledge even of a tiny thing by googling. I googled a shadow that they found in a scan and was convinced I had cancer but actually it was something quite common and harmless. Try not to worry. Let a doc check it out.

Thank you @formula3 I can't say how much taking the time to reply to me means in terms of grounding me just a little bit.

I think my worry more is when I think about it the cough has honestly never seemed to go away and we've jumped from cold to cold since starting nursery without a break- that seems like more than just a common upper respiratory infection 😣

I've also weighed him tonight as I saw that weight loss was a symptom but he hasn't lost any weight and has gained a small amount

Currently trying to watch Netflix but I just feel so on edge.

Good idea booking a private appointment. Even if it just reassures you it's worth every penny. Good luck

I would like to reassure you that it's most likely an infected gland or lymph nodes - there are so many there.

Try a warm compress x

Also as it's mobile and not firmly held in place it's unlikely to be cancerous.

Of course with all things you should check with a medical professional as soon as possible, especially to put your mind at rest : ) x

I've had two kids and with both of them I've had certain years when I've felt like they spent the entire winter with a cough- and yes with my eldest a prolonged cough would make me spiral and fear the worst but honestly, it's just part of childhood

I don't normally post but I also have crippling health anxiety about my babies and my heart absolutely bleeds for you; I know exactly how you feel and that nothing short of definitive medical tests will make you feel better.

I've done some googling so you don't have to and, with my rational head on, it honestly sounds much more likely to be harmless than you're letting yourself believe. In no particular order, here are some reassuring things I read, along with some personal experience.

Firstly it's moveable, and moveable lumps are always a better sign than a fixed one. Usually a moveable lump under the skin is a cyst.

It's also smaller than 1cm. My son had an enlarged node on his neck around that age and the doctor said they're really not concerning unless they're bigger than that.

Supraclavicular lymph nodes are not normally visible except in young children, where they may be. So you may be able to see it because of very minimal swelling because it's just more visible as he's so young.

Lumps in the neck are usually benign. Lumps in young children are much more likely to be congenital than malignant.

Incidentally my mother had an enormous supraclavicular swelling 18 years ago and it was just a fluid filled mass or something. We thought for sure it would be cancerous but it wasn't. Her whole neck was huge.

It's really common for young kids to have coughs that last for months. That in itself isn't even a worry. Same with itchiness, it's winter so skin is drier and there are all sorts of things that could cause itching.

Lymph nodes get bigger and smaller when you have infections or inflammation. Given your boy has symptoms of infection and inflammation, and given that most neck lumps are benign, it really seems that the most likely explanation is that his lymph nodes are up because of a lingering infection.

None of the pictures of supraclavicular lymph nodes I've seen have the lump where you've described it.

The main concern for enlarged supraclavicular lymph nodes seems to be that they are suggestive of being metastases of cancer masses elsewhere in the body, like the abdomen. Obviously no one can say for sure but it seems really unlikely that your baby could have developed a primary cancer elsewhere and progressed to metastatic disease in the very short time he's been alive and you not have noticed any other symptoms before now. By a huuuuge wide margin, the far more likely explanation is that he's been battling seasonal germs and his little lymph nodes are a bit enlarged as his immature immune system fights them off, and you can see and feel them more because he's so tiny and has such delicate skin.

I know you'll be absolutely beside yourself until you get real answers but even to someone who is severely unwell with OCD and health anxiety like me, it really does seem like your baby boy will be just fine.

OP, my little one had something similar but smaller, and on the back of her neck / shoulder. I was very worried, GP see ent her for an ultrasound & it was all very reassuring. To the extent that I forget exactly what it is called 7 years later. It's still there, never went away. But also never grew / changed.

Best of luck.

I’m so sorry you’re going through this OP.

When my son was about 13/14 months old I was changing his nappy and noticed a lump around his clavicle and my blood ran cold just as you describe. It was hard (not a great sign), but moveable (a good sign) and I took him straight to the GP. He wasn’t too concerned, but referred him to get it checked out. The consultant at the hospital said it was a cyst that would likely disappear, which it did, over time. He’s 11 now and I don’t think it’s there any more. At some point I stopped checking.

You don’t generally find these stories on Google because nobody returns to a forum or updates a thread if there is nothing to worry about. So please (and I know this is easier said than done!) try not to worry. Xx

@Wackadaywideawake thank you so much for sharing this, you don't know how much that means to me. Was it a hard moveable lump? I think what worries me is that it's hard like a pea. Did they do any other tests or was that on sight alone?