diagnose my child!?!

[Pavlov]

I am taking her to gp anyway, in the morning, but i am curious as to what you think it might be.

She has swollen, bright red painful throat, voice is a little altered, glands are up a bit, tongue is white and furry, no white/yellow spots on back of throat that i can see. She has had a fever since sunday morning, been as high as 39.4, but is around 38.5 as the normal high, reduced well with calpol and ibruprofen. Her skin is prickly, goosebumps have been raised for a couple of says, like she is cold although hot, and guessed this was due to fever and skin cooling down. But, today she has developed a rash, her skin is course and she has these little pinpricky spots all over her torso, like her goosebumps are raised and red, very fine and not too bad, worse around belly. (they disappear when pressed, checked already).

Her mood is pretty ok, she is more tired (ie napped today, don't normally) and is more clingy, off her food, drinking fluids fine, but not complaining too much. She has runny poo.

Just a viral thing? a particular childhood illness?

Scarlet fever? Glandular fever? TOnsilitis with viral rash?
Wee soul - hope she is better soon.
Ds has vague viral thing atm. Tis a shame when they are poorly - they look so doleful.

pixie i can't complain. DD has not been poorly for a long long long time. She fights off colds with a shrug of the shoulder, even now while drooling and going 'sccccchhh' to suck in the spit, she says 'i feel fine' when i ask how she is, despite her ashen eyes. We knew she was feeling rough as she was saying her legs were tired on a walk on sunday, and she has the energy of a duracell battery normally, and wanted to be carried more, although happy. She never wants a carry. She has been grumpy and quick to temper for the last week though so would explain a lot (oh, and DS is surprisingly ok atm, despite a loud and painful sounding cough from time to time).

We are going to the gp tomorrow. The rash did not show til midday and the surgery had no appts left for later on.

Sounds like scarlet fever. Sandpapery rash is a classic sign. It's caused by strep bacteria and you should get anti-biotics to avoid complications. Hope she feels better soon Pavlov.

in fact, last time she was poorly for more than 24 hours that i recall was when she had croup at around 18months or so. I mean she gets colds, but nothing more than runny nose/the grumps for a day or two. She even rarely gets tummy bugs. I fear DS will not be so strong !

Funny that two people have said scarlot fever, as I had thought that as soon as I saw the rash. I had this as a child, although older than her.

Sandpapery rash - great description and very accurate. How contagious is this? or rather, what is the incubation of this? i ask as we saw some friends at the weekend, had children, including a baby.

I think it's as contagious as tonsilitis - it's basically the same bug but a different immune response.

oh is it?! interesting! How contagious is tonsilitis? DD has not had it, and I have not had it for a while. And then, i felt like such a bag of poo i saw no-one for weeks

Wee girl ds goes to nursery with had scarlet fever last term. Same bug also causes impetigo as well as some forms of tonsilitis as saggar says.
Fwiw. quite a few of the kids got impetigo, but only the one girl had scarlet fever. None of her siblings got it either luckily!
Antibiotics get shot of it fairly quickly.

Is she on anti-bios for the throat? If so it mu
ight be an allergic reaction to that

Spread by droplet I think, coughing and sneezing, so pretty contagious in children as they're not so bothered who they slobber over are they?

My ds had it when he was 5 but the other two didn't get it. Lovely peeling of hands and feet a couple of weeks later. Bleurgh.

no not on antibiotics, we thought it was just a small virus on sunday, and now realise it is not.

So, having looked at the nhs website for details of scarlet fever, am now pretty certain it is this.

So, given that according to the site it is highly contagious, and that I suspect this is what it might be, what do i do about the gp tomorrow? It says to keep away from people until at least 5 days into the antibiotics...unavoidable at a dr surgery? esp one

Ds had something very very similar sounding though he didnt have such a high temp but had sore throat, what sounds like teh same rash, was asking to be carried (never happens) and was otherwise ok in himself.

we took him to doc twice because the rash lasted 2 weeks but they just said it was a non specific virus.

PS Id ring the docs say you think its scarlet fever and ask if you need ahome visit or if they can give you your own wee room to wait in.

Having googled images of it that IS what ds had Im sure of it - he was never given antib and no doc mentioned SF so am confused??

children are the strangest creatures.

DD has woken looking, and feeling much better. She woke in the night asking for something to eat. And when I asked how she felt she paused, swallowed, closed her eyes for a moment and then announced 'it does not hurt very much today' . the rash has faded, but still there and she has, atm no fever. Dh thinks I am mad as a hatter for thinking it is anything other tonsilitis, tried explaining the relationship and is like at me.

However, she started out yesterday looking and feeling better, so should i just take her to the gp/call for advice to be laughed at as the neurotic mother i have become just in case? I think i will.

waitingforbetime they always tell me its a virus or something. The last time they told me this with dd, she had croup and was rushed into hospital the next day! This is where my paranoia comes in, and my scepticism of what they tell me, although i don't think i have been back with dd yet (just me, and my little boy, ever other week! But he is a bit poorly with a cough/wheeze and i had hg in pg!). I think, if he is ok now, with no rash and no other symptoms, he is probably fine, but look on the NHS website as they tell you what things to look out for, if you suspect it might be scarlet fever.