Possible mrsa 3yo? So anxious.. any advice?

[anonymousflowergirl]

So my 3 yo has had the occasional bout of spots on his bum cheeks, genital area and random places recently. We though it might be where he gets hot as it’s summer then recently the odd one has been filled with pus so we put Sudocreme on and it goes over a day or two, so again we thought maybe it’s from the heat. And when I say spots they’ve been very mild.

well Sunday he developed a bigger spot on his bum cheek, and one the other side, both filled with pus. He didn’t have any others. As of today it’s now quite sore, he’s flinching when I put Sudocreme on and it’s red and swollen.

im worried it’s mrsa.. im going out my mind, his dad telling me not to worry and get an appointment tomorrow (i do about things like this)

im taking him to the doctors or walk in tomorrow for sure. But my question is do I take him up to the hospital tonight? I am SO anxious if it’s infected the last couple days that will enter his system and all I’m doing by waiting until tomorrow is delaying getting antibiotics and cream and making things worse..

please help an anxious mum out.. hospital tonight and get it sorted or okay to wait until the morning?
he’s been fine in himself other than waking up earlier than usual.
today is the first day it’s been sore apparently.

Spots in question

I doubt it needs a hospital.

Go to the GP in the morning and you’ll probably get antibiotics - cream or medicine.

No reason it would be MRSA. Plenty of just SA can cause similar infections - had one myself. Tablets cleared it straight up and I like an idiot left it for ages as I didn’t want to bother the doctor.

Thank you, I will get him to a doctor in the morning. Appreciate the reassurance.

what is the SA you mentioned you had sorry? Never heard of that before? X

If they are getting bigger l would take him.

My dd had this. It turned out to be some weird skin infection.

Eh???? Why in earth would you assume it's MRSA???? Even if it is, for most healthy non immunocompromised people it doesn't matter. There are a million different bugs that could cause an infection. The presence of pus shows that the immune system is fighting it off. They won't even swab for MRSA.

Thank you
do you remember the treatment he needed or the infection name? I do think it’s a skin infection as as soon as one spot goes, he seems to get another :(

Ah I stupidly spend the evening googling and comparing images..
I didn’t know puss meant the immune system is fighting it off so reassuring thank you
will get a GP appointment tomorrow

MRSA is the name for a type of antibiotic resistant staphylococcus aureus (SA).

You can have plain old regular staphylococcus aureus- which is what I had. Infection of the hair follicles in my case. Looked gruesome but cleared right up with 2 weeks of tablets.

This is really helpful thank you so much! Interesting it was hair follicles.. my son does seem to get what I thought was a bit of cradle cap, whether it’s related?

i shall mention it all when I take him to the doctor tomorrow. Thank you again for your reassurance! X

Its initials were PVL and it only gets better with one specific antibiotic.

So the broad spectrum ones they use for staph infections don’t work on it.

It does sound and look like this so will see what the doctors say tomorrow

Anti biotics cleared it up. As long as you get the right one.

Dd has eczema and they thought that’s how it had got in.

Thank you! Do you remember the ones he had?

my son was prescribed antibiotics a while back for a skin infection which they thought was an infected bite or from scratching from dry skin/eczema and the first lot of antibiotics he would not take at all so had to get difference ones. The angry pus filled lump and redness went but he also had a topical cream so I don’t know what actually helped.
now I’m wondering if it ever went at all and these odd spots he gets are mild and being managed with Sudocreme but this one is a big one. Just could not get the preferred antibiotics in him before! 😣

I think it was Clindamycin.

Flucloxicilin which is what’s usually prescribed for skin infections didn’t work,

Yeah that was it! He was prescribed flucloxicilin first but wouldn’t take it so was then prescribed amoxicillin I think, which was like yellow banana flavour x

Jesus. I've got PVL, so have my kids. It's extraordinarily rare. It requires a lot of treatment. We got diagnosed after YEARS of my children and I ending up in hospital desperately ill from a bog standard abscess.

your child has a few spots. PVL is a mutated version of staph aureus. It kills white blood cells so your body cannot produce an immune response. You get very poorly very rapidly. It can kill within 24 hrs from sceptic pneumonia.

Contrary to the PP who has tested positive previously (and also doesn't understand it) MSSA-PVL CAN be treated by Flucloxicillin. MRSA-PVL cannot. That's why it (MRSA-PVL) requires the next tier of antibiotics.

This thread is a good reminder of how a little knowledge can actually be quite dangerous.

Both versions of PVL require a decolonisation programme. Unless your child is repeatedly getting abscesses, needing hospitalisation from simple skin infections or contracts sepsis from similar, it is blindingly rare for them to have this.

EVERYONE has staphylococcus aureus on their skin. SOMETIMES it can enter a break in the skin and cause an infection. This is relatively normal. SA is not PVL.

My dd didn’t get poorly rapidly. She just had spots. It’s 2% of skin infections.

She had it for about 3 months. before it was correctly diagnosed. It went within a fortnight with the correct treatment.

She had 4 rounds of Flucloxicicillin that didn’t work.

l think do understand as it was what the specialist told me.

I don’t recognise anything in your post that was similar to what Dd had. She just had lots of spots. She was fine apart from that.

It was co—acloximav that didn’t work
om it, not flucloxicillin. She was given clindamycin which shifted it.

It is a staph infection. Just a different one.

Thank you for the information!
did your DDs spots look similar to the picture on my post?

doctor appointment is at 2 and I’m so worried we will be fobbed off :( he’s saying it’s so so sore today

Yes it looked the same. Big red rings round it. Scary. And sore.

They don’t always test for it so make sure they do.

My dd ended up with a diagnosis of hidredinitis at first! She was 5!

It took a specialist to sort it.

Did the doctor help?

Got flucloxacillin prescribed and said it could be staph infection but wouldn’t swab and said to go back if the antibiotics don’t help… hopefully they help :(
so hard to get these ones in him though. If anyone has ANY tips.. please help!

Bribery. Two magic stars if you have to fight to get them in them, five if they take nicely.

Yeah I got most of a dose in him this evening, 2 chocolate buttons and acting fast! Hated it though bless him. The spot also burst after his bath. I cannot explain the amount of pus that came out of it for at least 5 minutes… never seen anything like it in my entire life!

Also just to add in case helps anyone in future.

my son was prescribed flucloxacillin for the same symptoms a few months back but wouldn’t take it, so we actually were given co-amoxiclav.
as the big pus filled spot went we thought it worked but reflecting, since then he’s had numerous small spots. Some pus filled others more of a small cluster. Like when one goes, another happens but I thought it was where he’s getting hot from running round as none of them were like a huge lump like he was treated for with the co-amoxiclav. I’m now thinking actually those antibiotics didn’t work.. so I’m hoping the flucoxacillin does this time!

anyone that’s had it before, do they start to get use to the awful taste of can I just expect a tough week of a lot of bribery? I worry he won’t take it whilst at pre school as it’s x4 a day.

thank you all for your help x