Ringworm HELP

[mummc2]

my dd stayed over at my mums wednesday nite and when i picked her up thursday i noticed a little red mark on her arm, i intially thought she had just caught it or been scratching but its got worse and have just been on self help guide NHS and im almost sure its ringworm.

Ringworm is a fungal infection and contagious i havent noticed anything on anyone else yet but hopw worried should i be does it spread quickly and easily???

Also obviously theyre back at school tomorrow and do i need to keep her off??? have it covered with a plaster for now so she doesnt touch it and am going to call at chemist tomorrow for some cream but is it okay as long as its covered??

Advice needed from anyone whos been through this one please!

I had ringworm and no-one else in the family caught it (dh and 2 lo's). You dont need to keep off school if treatment has started but if it is covered that should be ok too. It took a couple of months before mine went away (I was prescribed a lamisil gel by the doctor)

My dd had ringworm and it took about a year to get rid of it. At first she was prescribed a fairly mild cream but it did not clear everything completely and the infection continued to reappear. We had to go back four of five times and tried a different cream every time. Eventually, our GP checked her book to find out what we hadn't tried yet, and advised us to try Nystan/Nystatin and that finally worked. But it was very frustrating and when I went to GP last time I was going to ask for the referral to dermatologyst. But luckily it finally worked. No one else in our family cought it, and the doctor said that it is not really that contagious, no need to keep off school/nursery, etc

DS (he's now 6 months) both caught ringworm a few weeks ago (from DH no less, who until then had persistent athlete's foot that he'd tried, unsuccessfully, to treat with a variety of bonkers home remedies), and managed to get rid of it fairly easily. I popped to the GP to check that it was ringworm, & she prescribed an anti-fungal that had a steroid in it. I wasn't keen on using a steroid cream on DS at his age (and the pharmacist agreed - don't know why GP prescribed it), so I just bought a version of the cream that's basically the same but without the steroid. We applied religiously morning & night for a week or two, and continued for another 10 days or so after the ringworm had disappeared (this is the important bit, apparently), and it's stayed gone for good.

As did DH's 'uncurable' athlete's foot, once he'd treated it properly.

I treated my couple of patches with neat tea tree oil, which worked just as well. I would have been tempted to use this on DS, but it's quite strong & I was concerned that his skin would be too sensitive at his age.

good luck.

meant to also say that whilst I had a couple of patches that i noticed at the same time as DS's, it didn't spread on either him or me to anywhere else. We were quite careful re: washing hands after going anywhere near it, and with keeping it covered on him as far as possible so he didn't spread it himself. So whilst it is obviously contagious as we all caught it from each other, it's manageable once you know what you're dealing with.

hey, I am a teacher and this is a common affliction in my school!! I have found the cream useless and used tea tree oil neat on the rash - like middlechicken suggested. Not sure about baby skin but a teacher at school was recommended it when pregnant as the cream is not suitable.

Wanted to add that my dd's marks were always covered (it was on her bottom), so I guess that was why she could not spread it to any of us. Though for me it is a mystery how it got there in the first place. We also were prescribed that cream containing steroid (Dactacort), but neither this one nor the one without steriod (Dactarin) worked for us. We applied each of them for about three-four weeks two-three times a day, and the spots kept reappearing after in a month or two after we thought that they were completely gone. So I guess it is a matter of finding which cream works for you.

ivy30, just out of interest, did you keep on applying the cream for a while after they had disappeared?

yes, as was directed by our GP. Now looking back we probably spent around six-seven months applying one cream or the other. But what was amazing that when we started the new last one, the red patches disappeared within two weeks almost completely. We applied it for some time after they were gone, and I haven't seen anything since. I really hope it's not coming back. That was about a year ago. The one that worked was prescription only.