Has Your Child Ever Had a Boil in Their Diaper Area?

Updated on September 28, 2016
J.C. asks from Mesa, AZ
19 answers

A little one I watch has a boil on her buttocks. She had two boils on her buttocks two weeks ago and they went away with medicine and treatment. The doctor even gave them a note that said that it was not contagious. However, if the parents are calling it a boil, aren't they contagious? Now that she has another one, I am freaking out. I would really like to know of the cause and what I can do to help prevent these in her and how to prevent spreading it? I use gloves while changing diapers and clean the changing table everytime I change a diaper. I just need to know if anyone has ever had this happen to their child and if so, what they did so their child did not continue to get them? This child is in my care for 11 hours a day, so I feel like the responsibility lies with me to help take care of this situation, besides her parents taking her to the doctor and giving her baths.

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H.C.

answers from Albuquerque on

Janelle,

My son got a nasty rash on his privates when he was about 6 mo. old. It freaked me out until I realized it was a yeast infection caused by antibiotics. If the child is on antibiotics, it could explain the boils...

H.

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T.B.

answers from Phoenix on

Boils are not contagious. But they do come from uncleanliness. I don't mean any disrespect so don't take it personal. It can even be products you are using on the child.Johnson and Johnson are the worst you can put on your child. Diaper creams, lotions, even bath products clogging her pores if its not the cleanliness factor. Make sure her diaper is the size she needs and it gets changed regularly. Make sure she takes a bath everyday if not twice. Don't use diaper rash creams, unless its Burt's bees. Go to health food store get Dr. Bronner's magic Tea Tree soap, and or Castille soap it is an all purpose cleanser so you might find it in cleaning section as well. That soap is safe to use on baby's no chemicals whats so ever. The tea tree is a natural anti viral, bacterial, fungal. So make sure you just use it on her bottom where she gets it. Use L'Occitane's mom and baby balm its all natural and everything in there is good for your baby. These are all suggestions but my child is a 15months old never had a diaper rash or any skin problems. I am a skin care specialist so if you have any more questions just email me ____@____.com.

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D.T.

answers from New York on

Hello all. Yes my 18 month old girl gets then regularly. She takes at least 2 bath today because she has no choice but to we use gentle soap and gentle lotion on her dilution we use it specifically made for sensitive skin and is very expensive. These are called pus boils most likely that's what my little girl gets if they pop it is contagious so clean with antiseptic and put a dressing on it after it pops and let it pass on its own do not pop it. Warm washcloth for a few minutes at the time 5 to 6 times a day will help speed up the popping process and bring the pus to the skin. It is a type of staph infection on the skin that travel with on a hair follicle or gets into a small cut. Other than the discomfort your child will have for having it there's really nothing to worry about unless it becomes a cluster or what they call a carbuncle or your child starts to run a fever or the pus boil start to spread to other places on the body especially the face. Anyway I know that's what my little girl gets and it's not from uncleanliness. My child's very clean and takes multiple baths today I hope this helps and I hope it's not more serious issues like MRSA but to me it doesn't sound like it's MRSA
.God bless

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L.W.

answers from Santa Fe on

Make sure the parents have had the pus from the boil cultured. My sister got a terrible and very serious staph infection with boils, but no antibiotics seemed to help. Her pediatrician finally cultured the pus and found out what type of staph it was and what antibiotics it was responsive to. By the time they caught it, it was systemic and much harder to beat.

My understanding of boils is that they are very contagious, depending on the cause. Unless the doctor cultured it, she or he wouldn't know. Anything the boil touches, including bath water, can cause another boil or spread the infection.

Hope that helps. Poor baby!

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V.D.

answers from Phoenix on

usually boils are a type of staff infection. everyone has stafe on their skin but some more then others. It starts out as a infected hair folical or a break in the skin, then stafe enters the sore and you have a boil. we usually used antibactiaral soap and acne wash. when the boil breaks it is contagious. if they dont break then they are not contagious.

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A.

answers from Albuquerque on

It is not contagious. I would highly recommend getting her on some kind of probiotics to help: yogurt, kefir or a supplement.

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J.B.

answers from Phoenix on

Most likely it is not contagious, but there is a small possibility that it is a MRSA infection as several had said. Unless it is oozing I wouldn't worry too much. Keep doing what your doing - gloves, clean table etc.

Poor baby - I personaly had a lg. boil (on my butt) when I was very young, and I REMEMBER it being drained! I still have the scar. I like that everyone is leaving it alone to let her body heal it up.

Good Luck!

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K.D.

answers from Phoenix on

Janelle C.

If I were you I would strongly suggest to the family that they have the child tested for MRSA. MRSA begins as a boil, is somewhat new to the common person but is very widespread in hospitals and prisons. I know this because my father went to the hospital for heart surgery in June 2007 and ended up getting MRSA which almost killed him. Fortunately his loving family was there to tell him how important it was to fight for his life. He got out of the hospital on December 14, 2007 and is still very weak. My understanding is that MRSA colonizes and rears its head again at any given time. It is very contagious!!! http://www.mrsainfection.org/
Please get this child some help.

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G.L.

answers from Albuquerque on

Boils arent contagious. They are like pimples except they fester under the skin. It could be the lotion or ointment they are using on her that is blocking her pores.

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R.R.

answers from Phoenix on

Hi I am also a daycare provider. If it has returned and you are worried I would require them to go back to the dr or get another opinion. My nephew had the same thing and it turned out to be mersa. Not sure if I spelled it right. He had to have medicine and take bleach baths. My sister in law also does child care and I know my brother got it but I thought a d/c child got it to.

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N.G.

answers from Phoenix on

One of my children was getting boils on his bottom last year and we are very clean at our house, so after the second one, I asked the doctor how this was happening and what we could do. She said that the boils come from a bacteria that naturally lives in everyone's nose. We took the antibiotic cream (which I also applied to my son's boil), put it on a q-tip and put it in every family member's nostrils twice a day for ten days. Seemed to work like a charm.

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J.M.

answers from Phoenix on

If by "boils" you mean open sores, my son has had several. I think he just has very sensitive skin and has a tendency toward severe diaper rashes that sometimes are accompanied by open sores. It seems to be somewhat realted to his diet. For instance, it comes on quickly if he has eaten too many blueberries or tomatoes. He was actually hospitalized once because the sore became infected and turned into cellulitis which required IV antibiotics. But for the most part the doctor usually tells me just to keep it as clean as possible and use a protective cream like Desitin to help keep it from getting infected.

If this child is getting what my son had it is not contagious at all, only very painful for him. And even if she had something different that somehow was contagious, I would think it would require direct contact to spread, and you seem to be taking adequate precautionary measures.

As far as how to prevent it, other than maybe watching her diet, I don't know. Potty training seems to be the only sure fix...

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J.C.

answers from New York on

my little girl has the same thing is MRSA..... the only thing you could do is Desitin Maximum Level is like a thick paste & use Boil Ease no more then 2 a day... every time the baby piss or number 2 change it right away because it will make worse.. keep the baby dry.

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D.R.

answers from Phoenix on

My 7 year old daughter use to get boils when she was a toddler. In some cases, if it's a recurring issue, there's a good possibility that they're being caused by staph. Most antibiotics will clear the boils but there are only a few that will keep staph from coming back. These type of boils are contagious, but only if the boil is oozing and someone else either injests the ooze or gets it in one of their own open wounds.

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Y.M.

answers from Phoenix on

HI I'm a mother of 3 ages 13,10,&3 with one on the way in July, but have they or you tried the baby powder with arm and hammer to dry the "boil" and try keeping the baby out of the diaper a few hours, I know that will be hard, Keeping the creams and diapers on it, its not getting air to it and it's staying moist it need to dry out, Hope that Helps, Michelle

T.C.

answers from Albuquerque on

A boil is a skin infection under the top layers of skin: kind of like a pimple, but deeper. They need special treatment, because you can't just pop-em (sorry, gross). Some people are more prone to boils than others, and usually has very little to do with daily hygene.
The infection itself can be caused by all types of really harmless bacterium that live on our skin, but is not, "catching" to anyone else as long as the skin is NOT broken.
"mersa" (MRSA - methyl-resistant staph) can be very dangerous for anyone with a weakened immune system. The only way to know if it is MRSA is with a test from inside the boil itself. But, as long as the skin is not broken, the doctor probably feels it is safer to leave well enough alone, unless these boils were NOT healing with common treatments(a sign of MRSA).
You are very likely not at risk, no matter what the infection is, because it sound like you are very clean, wear gloves, and wash hands. Also, with the boil inside the diaper, which is a good barrier to spreading anything if the wound were open, which, it sounds like, it is not.
Considering you care for this child so many hours of the day, it sounds like you are very "on the ball."
Keep up the good work.

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M.C.

answers from Tucson on

I have never know boils to be contagious, they are like pimples on steroids basically. There must be an issue with this little ones skin and maybe even the products that are used in her cleansing routine. My husband has an aunt who has battled boils all her life. In her it was an extreme form of acne that surfaced on her extremities and back. My mother in love used to use a hot coke bottle neck to draw the boils out and get rid of them. Don't know that that is the going treatment today, but I would trust what the doctor is saying about them.

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H.G.

answers from Santa Fe on

the only time my son ever had a major issue on his butt was when he was fed something we suspect he is allergic to. (his father is allergic to cantalope and we suspect he is as well, so we've always avoided it. but his sitter gave it to him one day. the next day he pooped and it was super nasty and caused a couple of open sores on his bottom that took forever to heal.)

i would suggest that maybe it is an allergic reaction. could be a food or it could even be the diaper (some brands of diapers have way more perfume than others). but i don't know much about it.

p.s. it is MRSA (pronounced mersa). Mega Resistent Staph A.
i suppose it could also be a "changing" issue. you know people get bed sores (that look much like boils) when they are bed bound and not moved around enough. but, please, this is not a criticism of you or your care. maybe she is just more sensitive to it than others are. or maybe her parents leave her in the same diaper all day long when she is in their care. i don't know.

btw, can you see it coming up or is it just suddenly there one day? that may be a clue as to what the issue is.

just my thoughts.

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