It seems these days that I have been making a lot of trips to the doctors, yet none of my kids are sick!!! Between well-child check ups, Owen's issues and now Ellie's third staph infection I have been seeing quite a bit of our pediatrician.
Ellie, like me, has a pretty bad reaction when she gets bit. The bites swell up and the red area gets at least palm sized and occasionally they get infected. Click here to see our post of her first staph infection, Click here for the second and keep on reading for the third.
Above is Ellie sleeping after being up much of the night complaining about her bite.
So, on Thursday or Friday Ellie got bit on her leg. It looked like the other bites she has gotten and she complained a lot about it (as any 3-year-old with a bite would). I gave her some Benadryl and continued giving her some itch spray and cream, but by Monday it still wasn't looking any better and was actually looking worse. Below is a picture of the bite that I took yesterday. I know, it is gross and I apologize for posting it but I thought you should see what it looked like to help in my explaining.
Thankfully, this bite never got to the ooey-gooey gross stage that the other two had gotten to. I recognized that the middle of the bite was starting to look a little gray and just starting to get to the point where it would start oozing, so I took her to the doctor. Basically, we got yet another dose of antibiotics and were told that some kids are just more susceptible. The problem is, I am worried that she is going to become resistant to antibiotics if she keeps on having these staph infections.
I have a friend whose son had to be hospitalized for several days because they didn't get it checked out early on and it got worse which is what I am afraid with Ellie. My doctor just says to bring her in whenever it looks like an infection is coming on. I trust our pediatrician, I am just wondering if anyone else has experience with this or knows some home remedies that I should try for next time to avoid infections. So, does anyone have experience with staph infections from bites? And/Or does anyone know of home remedies to reduce swelling and infection?
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3 comments:
We had a staph infection outbreak in my mission among the missionaries. One missionary almost lost his arm (literally - he was in the hospital for 2 weeks). But to avoid infections, all they told us to do was to never share sheets or towels and to clean sheets , towels, and everything else relentlessly. If anyone had a staph infection, we had to completely sterilize the apartment with all sorts of super powerful cleaners. They were a little extreme in their demands in my opinion (this was coming from the same people who wanted us to wear rubber gloves when we were handling our chicken and our eggs). But since it sounds like hardcore sterilization and quarantine is the only way you can really avoid a staph infection, i would guess that stepping up the sterilization that you already do is probably the only thing that will lessen the chances of another infection. Im sure that's really hard with kids...
Poor Ellie, that looks awful! I feel so bad for her.
Things I would consider.
1. Make sure the doctor cultures the sore to determine the best antibiotic to treat the infection. It's no use just suppressing the infection for it to come back stronger.
2. Have Ellie take a Probiotic, like Florastor, http://www.florastor.com/. Take this between doses. After taking all these antibiotics her body really needs a bump in the good bacteria department. Take the probiotic during and up to a month or more after she finishes the course of antibiotics.
3. Boost her immune system. Sorry to say sugar is number one immune suppressor, eliminate the most you can. Have her take Vit C tablets everyday. I give Gavin 500mg tab and he has no problems. You could probably give Ellie 500mg in the morning and at night. You will know if she has too much Vit C if she has diahrea. Too much Vit C can't hurt her, just make her poop :) Make sure to brush her teeth after she has the tablet. Call me if you want a powder form instead of tablets.
4. Check out treating her wounds with Hydrogen Peroxide very often or talk to a pharmacist at CVS or Walgreens about getting Hibiclens.
I am sure I have more things in my head to help, but hope this might be of some use to you guys.
Hope she gets better soon.
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