Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Eczema or Ring Worm?


I noticed this round rash on Paige's arm tonight. It looks like both eczema and ring worm. Does anyone have any experience with this? I don't want to put steroids on it if it's ring worm because it will make it worse. Since Paige skin picks (due to her OCD), I surely don't want to make it more noticeable to her. But, I don't want to assume it's eczema and have it be ring worm, which is very contagious. I hate to keep her home from school since there is so much end of the year fun stuff going on.

So, any thoughts? Anyone?

24 comments:

Dr. Rob said...

First, it is no big deal if it is ringworm - just cover it with a bandaid.

Second, it is no big deal to put steroids on ringworm. I usually use a combination of steroid and lotrimin on ringworm.

It could be either - sometimes hard to tell. That is why we often use the combination

Anonymous said...

Could it be a tick bite?

Dr. Clay said...

It's nummular eczema.

ThePreemie Experiment said...

Hi Carolyn,

Nope, not a tick bite. It does not have the characteristic red center. But, Paige never follows the rules so you just never know. hehe

Thank you Doc Rob and Doc Clay.

I woke up with this rash on my mind today and teased myself that I got so worked up over it. Geesh, I handled the big diagnosis' much better (CP, epilepsy, OCD, etc). But, I think that I simply reached my breaking point and was fresh out of "calm, cool and collected."

Damn hormones.

Anonymous said...

It's really eczema? It looks just like the ringworm I've had before!

Don't apologize; I think I tend to "freak" over the little stuff more often than the big, too! ;)~

ThePreemie Experiment said...

It could be either. I am leaning towards eczema though. If you look at the picture in this link, it looks exactly like Paige's rash. And hers is scaly too.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.eczema.com.au/images/ringworm-nummular.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.eczema.com.au/eczema.php&h=202&w=200&sz=6&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=ZlBfwfDrsud6nM:&tbnh=105&tbnw=104&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnummular%2Beczema%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1B3GGGL_enUS252US252%26sa%3DN

ThePreemie Experiment said...

Well, the link got cut off. If you look up nummular eczema, you will find pics of rashes that look like the one Paige has.

I plan on watching it for the next few days and letting the rash tell me what to do. If it doesn't get better by us putting lotion on it, then I'll add an antifungal and see if that works.

Anonymous said...

my son had something similar. i also thought it was ringworm but i was told by his pedia that is actually a virus that is going around. it went away in a few days on it's own. no treatment. Does it itch ? My son itches and we put some hydrocortisone on it.

ThePreemie Experiment said...

On a side note... anyone know why so many preemies end up with eczema?

Dr. Clay said...

Eczema is the itch that rashes. Perhaps there are more former premies with senosry issues and problems picking at little itches that lead to a clinical picture similar to eczema. Or maybe they just get more eczema. Is this an observation or is their data on the incidence?

ThePreemie Experiment said...

My original comment drew from years of discussions on various preemie groups. I didn't have any data in mind. I just did a quick search, using "eczema prematurity" as my search terms and see that there is quite a few hits. When I have more time I'll look into it.

I was really just throwing out the question since it is so often discussed. Pure curiosity. What's that saying again? Oh well, at least I'm not a cat. lol

Anonymous said...

TPD here. When she was 2 my daughter coincidentally had both nummular eczema on her left leg and left foot, and ringworm on the top of her right foot. We didn't know which was which of course, or even that they were different, so when her left leg/foot patches responded to steroid cream treatment and her right foot patch didn't, it was easy enough to treat the right foot patch with an antifungal (and it disappeared quickly).

Actually, my daughter DID know the difference - she called the patch on one foot her "itchy" and the patch on her other foot her "boo boo." I imagine it was because they felt different - I can't remember which was which but she still remembers or at least says she does.

Cristi said...

RING WORM

Anonymous said...

it's excema. I had something JUST like that, I too thought it was ringworm, but I went to the DERM and he told me it was excema and that I was spending too much time in the shower. So, I cut back by about 2 minutes each time and it slowly went away, within 2 weeks.

Anonymous said...

That looks like ring worm. I had it a year ago. You'll need to go to a doctor and he'll prescribe a cream and it'll go away in a few weeks. If you don't treat it, it'll spread and there will be more rings and other children around her might get it.

eglin76@yahoo.com said...

Did you ever get a diagnosis for this? Or a treatment that worked? Or did it just go away? My son had a patch like that on his leg a year ago that took months to go away, no matter WHAT we used that the doctor prescribed. He's got one on his arm now. Just surfing through images and your blog post came up...

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Did you ever find out what this was. It looks just like ringworm. Also, I don't think you're supposed to put steroid on ringworm, because it will become tinea incognito making it impossible to tell if it's cured.

ThePreemie Experiment said...

I'm pretty sure it was nummular eczema.

Sharon said...

My 6 year old son has eczema and he gets both rings on his trunk and red patches behind his knees. Whenever he does a lot of swimming or spends time in dry climates he gets the red rings. Poor babies.

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in this type of rash, allergy is advisable to visit the doctor
please Do not treat yourself is very dangerous

review of eczema free forever said...

I don't know a lot about this thing but when you look at it. That really looks like a ring worm. But I think it is also be eczema.

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Ring worm is different problem than eczema....


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Anonymous said...

I got ringworm when I worked at a daycare it spread on me like crazy. I had like four. I went to my general Dr and she wasn't sure so she gave me an antibacterial soap so then I went to a dermatologist. The picture in medical books did not match what I has. First dermatologist I went to said it was dermatitis and told me to shower less when I only showered once a day, twice a day occasionally. She said she couldn't scrape it because if it was ringworm it wouldn't show up because of the antibacterial soap. She gave me a cream. I went to a second dermatologist and they scraped it. Sure enough it was ring worm and gave me a cream. Which was the same cream the first dermatologist gave me! She gave me an antifungal cream but said it wasn't ring worm. Unbelievable!

So fast forward six years later I got some patches that looked like I had before and itched and I panicked because ring worm is so hard to get rid of. I went to the same dermatologist I went to the second time. He scraped it and this time is was the dermatitis. I will say they both itched like crazy but I remember the ring worm burned and it got much bigger quicker whereas the eczema stays smaller in size. I hope this helps other people as it is very difficult to tell sometimes!

Anonymous said...

I know this is old but this is the first website that comes up so I'm sure alot of people still read this post. I apologize I accidentally posted this on a prior post I tried to hit the back button to correct the has to had auto correct and didn't realize it was a different post.