4 Month Old with Localized Staph. Infection??

Updated on August 10, 2009
R.D. asks from Haysville, KS
12 answers

Hello everyone. My daughter will be four months old tomorrow and she has a bump on her knee. She had it when she was born (or so we think, she has had it for as long as we can remember) It filled up with puss once and turned hard, like a blister. It went away in a day and we decided to ask the dr. about it. Normally it is just a spot on her knee that is dark and a little raised. We asked her dr. at her two month checkup and she thought it was a birthmark. She told us to keep an eye on it. Well, after she got her shots it filled back up. It was a Friday and was gone by Monday. We went to her four month checkup yesterday and had to see a different dr. because ours was out of town. I mentioned it to this dr. and she said she has seen it one other time and it was a localized staph infection. She gave me some cream to put on it and said it should clear up in about five days. If it doesn't then they still won't know what it is. My concern is how in the world did she get this in the first place? How has she lived with it for that long? I thought staph. infection was very dangerous. If that's what it is it's gone untreated for four months. The dr. acted like it wasn't a big deal at all and of course I'm really worried about it. Does anyone have any advice or any experience with this? Any help would be appreciated! I guess I just don't know anything about it.

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So What Happened?

Thanks for all of the advice! The cream did not clear it up, so it's not a staph. infection! It has only filled with fluid twice and it has never burst or anything so the next time it happens we will take her in so they can see what the fluid is. It does not bother her, so I'm sure it's not a big deal but we are keeping an eye on it.

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D.L.

answers from Wichita on

I fought with a place the doctor said was staph infection off and on for several years. I would take antibiotics and it would clear up, but always come back. Then a few months ago I took anitibiotics and it didn't totally go away and came back, waited, took another round of antibiotics and still not completely gone and I finally thought of tee tree oil, got some and put on it twice a day and it cleared right up. Now any time it looks like it's coming back I put tee tree oil on it for a few days and it's gone. Tee tree oil doesn't smell very good, but it's worth it to me!

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E.R.

answers from St. Louis on

R.,

My six year old,5 at the time, also had staph. She had a bump on her thigh that at first looked like a pimple or bug bite. Then one day it was filled with puss and about three times the size. I took her to the doctor and they removed all the puss, cleaned it gave her cream and a antibiotic. I don't know why your doctor didnt give your daughter one you should talk to them again about it or it will just continue to come back. The puss is contagious. I would definitely take her back to the doctor as Im sure that is not something to be left untreated.
Hope this helped a little.

S.L.

answers from Kansas City on

My daughters repeatedly came up with strange skin problems growing up. They never seemed to diagnose things right the first time. One time I had a daughter lose a lot of hair on the top of her head over a 6 week time and they finally figured out what it was. It was months before her hair was all back and even longer before she could get a hair cut making it all even.

The only advice I can offer is to stay on top of it. Thankfully, it's not some flesh eating disease or the bad strain of staff that causes the problems you are referring to. Did you know there are TONS of types of fungus' out there? More often than not my girls ended up having a fungus and it would not go away until they figured out what type.

Hang in there. All 3 of my girls that had these problems are grown and healthy without any scars from it. For some odd reason my 9 year old hasn't had any of these issues??? Hmmm... I never really thought about that til now.

Suzi

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A.L.

answers from St. Louis on

you know my sister has that. they think it is that stap infection that was on the news alot a few months ago. I can't recall the name now. but it hurts and then it hard enough and drains it and then it may come back somewhere else. but her sounds like it does not move. you could take her to a skin doctor. they will know more then a regular doctor anyway. good luck. poor little girl. how sad. does it seem like to hurts her??? if you found wat it is please let me know. I would be interested in knowing.

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M.V.

answers from Kansas City on

If they really think it is staph then they should culture it. If it is MRSA she needs to be on a specific antibiotic. If it is just MSSA then a broad spectrum antibiotic will be fine. It will not go away for good without the anibiotic. In the meantime, when it pops it can be spread around your house. You don't want to get this started because it is not fun at all! You will have to wait until it fills back up so that they have something to culture.

Good luck! Hopefully it is not MRSA and it clears up and no one else winds up with it. I don't mean to scare you but this is nasty stuff!

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B.J.

answers from Kansas City on

Everyone in my family has had staph infections at some point, only one of us had it cultured, and it was MRSA. My understanding is that it is passed by touch. I believe the pus IS contagious, so I would be careful. If it fills up with pus, I would go back right away, they can clean it out and culture it for you. If it is MRSA, you should ask them about preventative steps, it is hard to get rid of! Good luck.

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K.G.

answers from Joplin on

Ask the Dr to please supply you with a sterile q tip and something sterile to store it in. The next time she has the puss, cover the q tip with the puss and get it to your Dr. They can run tests to see what it is. I hope this works out for you and your daughter. God bless.

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K.C.

answers from Kansas City on

The only way to tell if is a staph infection is to look at a skin scrape under a microscope and I agree it should be cultured. They make special Q-Tip type products with a container for storing the puss for culture. I would call your doctor office and ask them for one. Good Luck!

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C.V.

answers from Kansas City on

I have had SEVERAL staph infections this year and 2 were positive for MRSA!The thing is that you can have a bug bite,a pimple,just about anything that could be open on your skin turn into a staph infection.Staph lives on our skin so if someone has it on their skin (doesn't even have to have the infection) and touches you,you could get it.Staph can be very dangerous,that's if it's a bad infection and it is not clearing up.I was a little freaked out the first time I had one.Then I learned the people dying from them is the ones that aren't getting treatment.Now what's strange to me is that the Doc just gave you a cream.I have always been given a cream and an anti-biotic!I would be suprised if it is a staph infection but I would need more information.Staph will get the little puss filled head but there is also usually a red circle around it and it is VERY sore!And if you don't catch it right away it will present flu like symtoms.Bottom line is she most likely has not had staph for 4 mos. if it is staph it's prob a very mild case and just recently became infected with staph.Ex:I got one from scratching dry skin.Just watch it very close and if it's not getting any better in a couple of days then get her back in with her reg Doc.

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A.S.

answers from Kansas City on

My daughter had a staph infection a year or so ago, and I was very worried about it too while our doctor was not. I'm probably not getting this exactly right, but I think that staph is something that is everywhere, even on our skin, and it can become an infection if it enters your body through a cut or something. There are also different kinds; MRSA can be dangerous, but there are other kinds that aren't as dangerous. They treated my daughter's infection with antibiotics, and it actually cleared up and returned several times. They had to try different antibiotics, and it finally cleared up for good. I was so upset because I thought I was doing something to cause it, but the doctor assured me that I wasn't. You're right, it is scary, but apparently it is pretty common. I hope this helped! :)

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D.M.

answers from Kansas City on

my son and I got it from a pool at a condo in Gulf shores, I was told it resides in your body forever. Occassionally it comes up in an open sore but hasnt in a long time, dont touch anything after touching the sore/puss, I had it on my breast because I accidently touched myself without sanitizing my hands and had to take some heavy duty antibiotics plus a Dr squeezing it out which hurt like heck,

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K.G.

answers from St. Louis on

Our neighbor girl had the exact same thing. Once she started using the cream (and stopped picking at it), it went away. It did/does come back every now and again, but she uses the cream, and it goes away again.

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