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Folliculitis in 4 yo child or Staph infection?

My daugher cut her toe on the boardwalk on vacation...about 2 weeks later she developed a severe infection that was treated with oral antibiotic and constant soaking of the infection. It has since cleared but she had develpoed new blisters around her body...first one was on her inner thigh...it was large and puss filled, was hot to the touch and had a golf-ball sized lump underneath it. We did our best to keep it clean. The blister broked and about a day later a hole developed (very scary looking) and since has scabbed over. About 2 days ago another one developed on the same toe that had the infection and one on her buttock, same type of blister, yesterday another one on her finger. I brought her to the dermatologist yesterday and he only looked at it and called it "folliculitis". He didn't even bend down to take a good look or put on some gloves and feel the bumps or the heat....gave her an antibiotic cream and directions to wash with Cetaphil soap and use the cream 2x/day, come back in 2 weeks if not better. Last night was her first treatment...we cleaned them creamed them and covered them with bandaids.

This morning we started to do the treatment and I began to take the bandage off of her hiney...The blister look like it had broken, was still HUGE, hot, red and sore, but there was still a large yellow/green puss ball in the middle so I took some kleenex to wipe it off (very gently, not even a wipe more like taking the corner of the tissue and put it next to the blister to soak it up) and she screamed and it started to ooze with a mixture of blood. I carefully did the same thing and it just kept on coming. There was SOOO much ooze and she cried the whole time that I had to stop...put some cream on the bandaid and covered it up again...

I've read up on the internet about this and mostly everything seems normal, except for the massive amount of ooze. And the biggest thing that bothers me is how did she get this? Was it from her infected toe? Did it get into her system? we were carefully watching her infection to make sure it didn't creep up her toe from her foot and it didn't does that mean it didn't get into her system? I have been trying to get her doctor to call me back but have heard nothing yet. I am concerned that she may have to go on an oral Rx and do not want to prolong this and make it worse...has anyone been through this or have their child go through this? Any help is VERY greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance. ~~~> Natalie
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Avatar universal
Glad the info helped. Hopefully when he swabs it and gets the correct ant-biotic, she won't have them again. Waiting to hear from you. RJ
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Avatar universal
Thank you so much for taking your time to read and answer..I am very appreciative! I have seen some pics of folliculitis and some of boils and hers looks much more like the boils. I will put a call in to her Ped and set up an appointment. I probably should have brought her there to begin with since he treated her for the toe infection. I only put bandaids on because I wanted to aviod her spreading it. Some says it is contagious and some say no. Just being cautious. The one on her toe is actually a big hole now with a little hole inside that one.....I've never experienced anything like this before, and I wasn't sure if she was exaggerating the pain, but I guess not now that you've said it is painful for you too. Thanks again RJ, will let you know what happens. ~~~> Natalie
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Avatar universal
I have had problems with staph over a year. The make big knots and are similiar to a boil. Some drs have told me it was an infected hair follicle. That may happen, but I have had quite a few and it is hard to believe it is hair causing it. For almost 2 months, I have had it in my eyelids, top and bottom. I have taken Keflex several times and the eye dr gave me eye drops (anti-biotic) twice. It is back on both eye lids, top and bottom right now. You need to get the dr to take a swab of the discharge to have it analized to know what anti-biotic to use and it should be oral. It sounds like staph. They are painful and fill with pus and blood, though, I have not seen green in it. You can put hydrogen perioxide on it to help clean out the infection. I was advised not to bandage it unless I had to, because it drained better and the air helped. Look up staph infections on the internet to see pictures. It needs to be treated sooner rather than later, because it keeps coming back until it is treated properly. Certain biotics treat certain germs, and if it is not tested it is like a shot in the dark. I talked to my insurance co. nurse and he advised me to have it swabbed and a blood test taken. Let me know what you find out. Wish you the best.  RJ
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