Spotty 6-year-old

[choosyfloosy]

Ds's face developed a couple of red spots about a month ago, around Christmas. I thought my attitude to washing was at fault, so got much stricter about washing with soap twice a day, with a clean flannel each time. Things have got much worse. I'm taking him to the doctor this week.

The obvious next steps (to me) are to drop the soap for a while and see if that makes a difference, and to cut the sugar/up the vitamins in his diet - on the positive side he certainly gets his five a day and a varied diet, on the negative side I've always been extremely 'relaxed' about biscuits and ice cream.

Just wondered if anyone had any other thoughts.

What sort of spots are they? Red and angry looking? Has the little darling been picking them? Acne spots?

Generally speaking, children this age don't get acne as their skin should not be producing oil. The soap could be irritating him skin, it's also possible that it is eczema or impetigo.

oh blimey [gloom]

well some are red, the largest red ones have a kind of dry whitehead on them, and then recently there are lots of colourless/skin-coloured bumps as well.

was hoping to avoid googling as i will end up rushing him to the london school of tropical diseases or something - what does impetigo look like?

Impetigo looks like sores, kind of like coldsores when the blister has burst, nasty and red and it spreads. If he has this he'll be picking them.

It sounds like the soap is irritating his skin, it's probably a good idea just to use water and see how this goes. It's nothing to do with what he's eating, more to drink might help though.

Do take him to the GP if you are worried though, I can't see his spots from here

Am definitely going to the GP don't worry

ds ignores the spots so it's probably nothing too bad [hopeful] - will drop the soap for a bit and try to force get him to drink a bit more

thanks belle

I hope they go quickly.

I hope they go quickly.

hibiscrub as a washng agent might help

blimey, hibiscrub? isn't that the super antibacterial stuff they use in hospitals?

i work in a pharmacy and quite often the Gp prescribes hibscrub for spotty skins in all age groups..check it out with doc...it may help as there could be a bug on his skin causing the spots

good thinking alypaly