Suspected Ocular herpes in 18 month old.....does anyone have any experience of this?

[LackaDAISYcal]

Following on from This Thread and three weeks of hell from a primary herpes infecttion; my DS had started to get better last weekend, but his temp kcked off again on Monday and was spiking 40.5 until Thursday. the temp has now gone, but he has been rubbing at his eyes since Wednesday. Today he has been scrubbing at them all day and one looks really sore around the eye, as well as the whites of his eye being quite red. He has also been rubbing other things onto his eye, maybe as an attempt to get some relief?

If he has passed the infection to his eyes, how serious is this? Should I phone the out of hours service, will it wait till he can see the GP on Monday, or should I not piss about and take him to A&E so he can get seen by an eye specialist this weekend?

I don't want to seem like a paranoid parent, but he has been horribly ill with this for almost three weeks now and It just seems to be one thing after another causing him pain and misery and DH and I no sleep.

Any advice greatfully received.

I would call NHS / take him to OOH doc.

thanks waitingforbedtime

DH thinks it could be hayfever, so we tried some piriton and it calmed right down. Not sure if that is just because the piriton has acted on the itchiness of it though .

Will see how he goes tomorrow and get him back to the GP on Monday. They must be sick of the sight of us; fourth time in a fortnight

ocular herpes is very sore, the eye would be very watery, extremely red and you might possibly see the cornea looking a little cloudy, although this might be hard to detect.

If you do think he might have it, I would get it checked out ASAP as it needs immediate treatment with antiviral eye medication.

However, I would think it it were ocular herpes, it would be unlikely that piriton would completely clear it, so he may be fine!

thanks chipmonkey; I guess I'm just being a bit paranoid about it. MIL has ocular herpes and I know how much she suffers with it.

Will keep an eye on it (no pun intended) and see how he goes!

God, Have just seen your post.
You poor things, my dd ended up in intensive care when she got Herpes for the first time (age 4),our (ex) GP told us we were being neurotic and that she just had tonsilitis. Thank God we ignored him and drove her through the night to Alder Hey hospital.It had got such a hold of her that we verynearly lost her.

When will they teach GP's how to recognise it. It is not bloody rocket science. I have since diagnosed 2 cases myself where the GP was merely treating with AB's/steroids! while the poor kids were just getting worse.

I would take him and have him seen tomorrow but TBH I would trust my own instincts over any GP now.

Hope you and he are okay.

How is he today, LDC?

you must go to A and E as herpes at the eye area can be very serious. Sorry to be alarmist but it needs immediate attention. HTH

Just sending un-MN hugs to your ds (and you) because we too have had the primary herpes hell, at around the same age, and it is truly nasty and upsetting to see them in distress with it. Would second advice to persist with ooh services, exhausting as that must be after weeks of worry; it is just so potentially serious that best take no chances, probably.

Agree with others that it does seem to be a real weak spot for many doctors' powers of diagnosis - we got told ds had impetigo and sent home w antibiotics, had to see 3 docs out of hours before a correct dx was achieved. I dread the day when ds passes it on to dd, who is just a newborn at the mo.

Just sending un-MN hugs to your ds (and you) because we too have had the primary herpes hell, at around the same age, and it is truly nasty and upsetting to see them in distress with it. Would second advice to persist with ooh services, exhausting as that must be after weeks of worry; it is just so potentially serious that best take no chances, probably.

Agree with others that it does seem to be a real weak spot for many doctors' powers of diagnosis - we got told ds had impetigo and sent home w antibiotics, had to see 3 docs out of hours before a correct dx was achieved. I dread the day when ds passes it on to dd, who is just a newborn at the mo.

Oops sorry - iPod and dodgy wireless. I am always double posting these days.

dd had suspected ocular herpes. (turned out not to be) but you need to go asap as other posters have pointed out as can scar the cornea permenantly. They should give you some zovirax cream for them.

Oh i missed the other messages, wasn't logged on yesterday.

Thanks for the sympathies and advice. His eye has calmed down completely now, so we are fairly sure it was either hayfeveer, or something irritating it. He has a check up next week so I'll mention it then. We have our happy little boy back again and the only lingering thing seems to be an inability to be left alone or put down as he has been cuddled constantly for the last three weeks!

Am disappointed that the GP missed it as well. ditto for my 8 year old when he had a primary outbreak aged 2.5. We were told it was mouth ulcers and to use bonjela then, and it's only his recurrent cold sores that led another GP to conclude it must have been herpes.

Thanks again for the messages