Covid Toe

[Bunnybigears]

My 13 year old has hot, red, swollen, itchy toes and has for the past 2 days. 111 have advised booking a covid test despite no other symptoms so we are going this afternoon. I am 90% sure it won't be Covid, he hasn't been anywhere for days. My question is if it isn't covid toe does anyone know what it could be?!

Unless our house is colder than I think (miserly Yorkshire lass who won't turn the heating up) he hasn't been anywhere to get cold feet. I will take a pic once he emerged from his bedroom in search of food.

Cold tile floors can give you chilblains. If he's home more than usual, less active or sitting with his feet on a cold floor... we don't realise how differently we are behaving from usual.

@perfectpanda - around about 3 weeks before the first blisters. Then they burst and his toes started going dark red/ purple. That's why it's too late to test.

He's been HE/internet school for years so no change in lifestyle or weather that could explain the signs.

He went to the orthodontist shortly before developing fatigue, stomach pain, loss of appetite, diarrhoea etc and then weeks later the toe thing.

I’m a podiatrist and we were given dermatology research from around the world from last Spring with regards to COVID toes. It’s all new to us too but seems like the lesions are very similar to chilblains and are occurring predominantly in adolescents with COVID. It’s rare for children to develop chilblains with no previous history of peripheral circulation problems or that they have occurred from the temperature changes from cold to hot or vice versa.

We are documenting any suspicious dermatology lesions on peoples’ feet but we aren’t necessarily seeing those patients as we will not be treating them if we suspect we have COVID anyway so can’t get a true accurate picture of these types of lesions.

If any doubt, I would just get a test anyway as the ‘COVID toes’ may or may not present with any other COVID symptoms. Hope that helps!

Also, it may be a type of fungal infection if not chilblains or COVID toes. Really hard to say unless I see the feet!

They dont actually look as red in the photos as they do in real life.

My completely non medical opinion is COVID toes.

And probably too late for a positive test.

Have you looked between the toes?

@Ruled yes inbetween the toes looks normal which is why I dont think its athletes foot that a pp mentioned. He had a test today based on the advice if 111 but from what I've read it is probably too late.

@picklemewalnuts

Cold tile floors can give you chilblains. If he's home more than usual, less active or sitting with his feet on a cold floor... we don't realise how differently we are behaving from usual.

I second this - DH had chillblains at University about 15 years ago. His GP said it was because he was spending 10 hours a day at his desk studying and not moving around enough.

His Uni house was cold but no more so than your typical Uni house. His feet improved when he started moving around more and wearing slippers and using a hot water bottle when his housemates didn't want the heating on.

Dd has this since October. Dr said keep feet warm and massage twice a day

Yeah, non-medical purely experiential but I'd go with Covid toes. It will resolve over time. I have made sure DS2 has a good vitamin supply - esp vitamin d.

When I had COVID I got COVID toe, 3 days in. I woke up in the middle of the night as it was so painful on a couple of toes. I couldn’t even have the duvet touch them. However, they didn’t itch only hurt.

Weirdly I just searched for Covid toes on here because my 14 year old has swollen red toes now but she's also not been anywhere for weeks.
We initially thought she'd just badly stubbed her toe, one was very red and swollen and sore but it now appears to be on both feet.

This is DS 17. He had a headache. No other symptoms. The toe is itchy. He does have bare feet a lot and it's cold. I don't know what to do!

DD 14 was sent home in Dec after sitting next to a positive case in class for 3 hours over 2 days. No obvious 'Covid test' symptoms but 5 days later was exhausted and pale with reduced appetite for a couple of days, which she put down to long hours of studying for tests. No fever or anything to suggest Covid and she insisted she was just tired. Felt better after a couple of days. The whole household stayed home for 2 weeks anyway as wfh. A month later, DD woke in the night with itchy, blistering chilblain-type lesions on all her toes and really cold feet, turning an alarming dark purple in the bath. We treated as athletes foot (has had before) and kept her feet warm & she exercised regularly to keep the circulation going. A month on, the blistering is going but the bright purple poor circulation remains. Am sure it was Covid - just wished we had realised and got her tested in Dec.

Ffs 🤦🏼‍♀️

Tatapie - athletes foot cream and warm (cotton) socks have helped my DD, also studying with feet raised / wrapped in a blanket for some of the day - long hours of live lessons sat upright and motionless seem to make my DDs feet much worse. Warm (not hot) foot soak with bicarb also seems to help the itching.

Sounds like chilblains I had them as a teenager when I had a paper round . My hands would be freezing then I'd hold them by the fire when I got in

Lovescaca - and your point is????

At the time DD was sent home we would not have been eligible for a Covid test anyway as she did not have any of the symptoms required in order to book one. They did not allow on demand tests then. As none of us left the house for over a fortnight and did not therefore put anyone at risk by not testing her.

I posted our experience on here to try and share my DDs symptoms and see whether other people had similar symptoms. What use is your post FFS?

DS has got this. We think chilblains but not 100% sure. He did have to self -isolate before Xmas due to a case in his class. However, Ali's got cold feet in his wellies a couple of weeks back.
What worked for him was a piriton tablet a couple of hours before the itching started. Always 10pm! And hydrocortisone (steroid) cream.
They are slowly healing now. Still purpley though.
I'm sure sitting at the desk doing zoom lessons and then too much time on the Xbox has something to do with it too!
Will upload a photo

Can see where a blister popped. Poor boy was in agony for a few nights until we worked out what was going on. We thought athletes foot at first too

This was my DDs feet after 2 weeks - most of little itchy blisters had gone (on top /ends of toes- never anything visible underneath).

...and this was a couple of weeks later after the blisters healed. Definitely not chilblains! I had those once as a kid and they went within days. This has been 6 weeks...

I wonder if my DS getting cold feet was a red herring then. He had a lot of tiny blisters/rash that was really itchy and the only thing that made it better was a warm shower.

DS is adamant it was the cold. My DH is frontline Dr and we think he had Covid very early on (positive antibody test) but no symptoms so assume he shared his germs with us then.

The mystery continues