Ringworm or eczema?

[Sovaysovay]

My daughter has one of the above. Treated for eczema - emollients, moisturiser etc, but no improvement - actually got worse - so GP said it looked more like ringworm actually, treat for that. Given antifungal with steroid cream. Responded brilliantly to it (practically vanished) but can't use it long-term, so then switched to plain antifungal. Doesn't seem to be improving anymore - actually looks redder.

No one else in the family has caught it despite a few weeks where we thought it was eczema, so we weren't taking any precautions against not catching a fungal infection. Responds well to steroids (but not moisturiser.) Seems to be going redder with antifungal.

Anyone any ideas? How long should it be with the anti-fungal before we start to see improvement?

(obviously seeing the Dr next week, but still looking for any other experiences, although people's experiences of both eczema and ringworm diagnoses and treatments seem really varied!)

Ds has eczema and can only keep it under control with the occasional application of steroid cream called betnabate sorry about spelling hope this helps

The type of eczema that looks like ringworm is called discoid eczema. This us what 21mo dd has. She was treated by gps for 3 months who said it was ringworm, then eventually we saw a dermatologist who was able to diagnose properly. As soon as we had the right treatment, it healed up within 2 weeks, bar 3 v stubborn patches. Basically I would push for a consultant dermatologist appt if I was you because they are the experts in skin conditions.

And even with eczema I've learnt it's important to have higher than normal hygiene practices, e.g. about sharing towels and creams because the skin can get infected.

Hth

If it was eczema, though, wouldn't it have responded to eczema treatments and moisturisers by now? We've got Cetraben, the stuff for the bath and the 3-4 times a day lotion, but nothing changed. It just stayed red.

That's what I thought, turned out as I'm now learning there are millions of eczema treatments and the ones dd was on (i.e. steroid creams to treat the ringworm which I figured would also cure eczema) were not the right sort of stuff for her particular eczema.

Anyway sorry maybe my post wasn't clear, I wasn't saying I think she has eczema because I can't know that, I was just trying to say that we had a similar confusion and that a dermatology consultant is the Best bet as they will know straight away.

Another possible line of enquiry, which again only a dermatologist could confirm, is whether it is still a fungal infection but one of a different sort-because ringworm should clear up within a couple of weeks. In fact that was the line of enquiry my gp was basing his referral on, and he said they might do a skin scraping to test the nature of the infection, that maybe oral antifungal treatment might be needed. Then we got the eczema diagnosis.