Ds has got Impetigo.

[mogs0]

Got back from a 5 day break on Wednesday to find that ds had a very sore nose. Took him to the surgery Thursday and nurse said he has Impetigo.

Phoned school Friday to see what their exclusion policy was and they don't really have one. Nurse gave me an info sheet which said he could go back to school 48hrs after starting the treatment.

Just wondering if anyone has any experiance of Impetigo? Is it likely to be a one off or a recurring thing? He's had so many infections since we moved, I'm starting to think there's something dodgy going on here!!!

My friend used to get this really bad all the time when we used to be at school, sorry that wasnt much help, hope someone else can give you more information

It's a sod to get rid of, keep him away from your other DCs if you have any cos then it'll just go round and round and round...

Be religious about applying the antibiotic cream, change his towels every time he uses them, maybe even his pillow case every day.

It's an infection caused by streptococcus or staphylococcus (sp?)and can get in anywhere there's a cut - make sure you keep any you have covered.

Sorry to be a bit drama queen, it's not like it's life threatening or anything but is a total pain.

NHS direct site is good on this one, or was, haven't looked lately.

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He started treatment Thursday night and even Friday morning it was ten times better. It's almost gone now. Everytime he touches the infected area he goes off to wash his hands! Bless him, I don't think he's ever been so clean!!

So far, I haven't noticed anything on me and we are normally quite huggy but, as I say, I've been away for a few days so may have missed the worst of it.

Ds 3 had it - it went away really quickly with the cream and noone else caught it (despite not being careful at all - it was ages before I realised what it was and they were all bathing together etc).

DD had this - also caught it on holiday in Turkey. We were told it was highly contagious until it had been treated for 24 hours, and then she could mix with other children again. The first time she had it it was so bad (pus-filled spots popping up all over her, legs, torso, everywhere) she had really strong oral antibiotics, which we were warned tasted really bad so she had a square of chocolate after each dose. She had a minor (few spots on one leg) recurrance a couple of weeks after the first bout and had antibiotic cream for that.

Don't panic, it sounds like he is responding well to the treatment. My DS1 had it and it went quite quickly, no-one else in the family caught it and he hasn't had it since. some children do seem to be more susceptible to skin type infections though - he has also had verruccas, ringworm, fungal infections of various sorts, heat rashes etc etc! DS2 never gets any of these.