I'm new to Mumsnet, but I need some help and not sure where else to go.
For 2-3 weeks now my son who is 27 months, has been periodically grabbing his neck and becoming quite distraught saying 'itching'.
There is no rash, no noticeable injury, we haven't changed washing powers or soaps, he hasn't fallen or anything (that we or nursery are aware of). I've changed his pillow, cut the tags out of his clothes, dressing him in less clothes in case he is just hot.
He holds the back of his neck, right at the bottom of his head when it happens and appears to have difficulty moving his head/neck. After half an hour or so he calms down, having been laid down and then he slowly becomes back to 'normal', playing and running around as usual. He has no temperature.
I took him to the prescribing nurse at first who gave me some hydrocortisone cream, but that didnt work. She also suggested piriton, but that doesnt seem to make a difference. We gave him calpol and that did seem to help, but to be honest its difficult to tell whether it is or he is just calming down naturally. Then he became so upset and it disturbed his sleep a couple of nights, so we took him to the walk in centre last weekend, who sent us to A&E to be checked. The Dr there said there was no sign of structural damage, his lymph nodes and glands weren't enlarged etc. She suggested we keep up with the calpol if that helps and see our GP if it didn't go away. Today I've been to the GP who again can find nothing wrong, and suggested ibuprofen 3 x day for 1 week and see if it improves. He wouldn't prescribe it, so I cant actually get nursery to give it to him during the day, but that's another story!
I've tried various creams (E45, Itching creams, normal body creams, the hydrocortisone) etc in case it is actually itching him, but he doesn't scratch or rub it and when I ask him if it is itching or hurting he says hurting. It doesn't get better if I 'scratch' it for him.
I'm at my wits end trying to think what it can be and how we can make it better for him.
He generally other than this is fine - he is eating and drinking, when its not happening he plays well and is happy. He had chicken pox in Feb and he has been a lot more clingy since then. For the last 4 maybe more weeks he has cried when dropping him at nursery (I think this is a period of separation anxiety), but I've watched him after leaving him and after a 5 minute cuddle with one of the staff he is off playing as normal. They report that he is fine, but the last couple of days he has also complained of the itching there. We have considered whether its more a psychological thing, but his reactions when it happen just don't add up to that - he genuinely looks in pain.
Can anyone give me any advice, or tell me they have experienced this or similar too? He is just so upset when it does happen, and this week I've been so upset as well as I just feel like a useless Mum who cant help her baby!
Thanks for reading such a long post!