Mrsa - Portland,TN

K.,

My Daughter had staph under her neck in the skinfolds at 12 weeks old. Although it was not MRSA I was still terrified. I was aware that staph lives on everyones skin, but I was still wondering how she got it under her neck. She never put her hands there. I work in the medical profession and am extremely aware of MRSA and the affects. The doctors also treated her with BACTROBAN ointment. This antibiotic, oral or topical, is very good for Staph. Within 5 days the bacteria was gone. Just remember to practice good hygiene and use gloves while treating the area.

Good Luck!

My whole family got it after moving to Florida back in 1998. It started with me with one on my leg, then my husband got one that came with a very high fever. Within weeks all three of my boys started having boils pop up. I won't go through all that was done, but we eventually became a case study for the CDC. No antibiotic help (and we tried every single one) and all of them killed our immune system. We went in circles for well over 2 years, even with my hubby ending up in a hospital.

Bottom line, your son will likely be fine. Don't let him touch the site; have him carry and use the antibacterial gel; get him on a very good quality acidopholus to replace the good bacteria in his digestive system that antibiotics strip. This alone will weaken the immune system; limit his sugar intake as that along with the antibiotics will cause candida to explode in growth and that will weaken his immune system. We had to go on a sugar free diet for months after it was all said and done just so we could get our bodies back on track. It was horrible.

Good luck!

I am a nursing student, and we have learned quite a bit about this.. The best advice I could give, without spending my whole day writing a response, is to be EXTREMELY careful dealing with the wound. Wear gloves if possible when cleaning, dressing, or touching it or the area around it, don't allow anyone to share your son's towels or clothes, and if you are allowed to keep it covered (by medical advice), that would be best. The reason MRSA can be so deadly (sometimes, not often), is because it is not killed by typical antibiotics prescribed today.

Good luck with this. Take it seriously, but don't let it run your life.

My daughter had MRSA last year on her leg. She probably got her infection from a hot tub. We tried many rounds of antibiotics starting with singles, then combining two different antibiotics at once. When she was on it, the spot would improve, but once she finished it, it would come back. She eventually had to have hers cut out because it was in the tissue. It was a very simple procedure done in the doctors office and she just had a couple of stitches and was litterally fine. She did great and had no trouble afterward. Keep an eye on it. Once you get through the meds keep watching it to make sure it doesn't flare up again, if it does ask about having it removed. Also the test should have shown which meds it was resistant to, so hopefully they are giving you the right antibiotic.

I forgot that the doctor had her showering with HIBICLENS (it is what surgeons use to scrub), and swabbing the inside of her nose with Bacitracin. You can get the Hibiclens at a pharmacy right off the shelf.

Kudos for taking him to the doctor. Whenever your child has a cut or other lesion that isn't healing on it's own, definitely go to the doc!

I nearly died from Staphylococcus Aureus - I had a small lesion, like a pimple, that in the course of a few days had exploded into a boil. Because I didn't know any better, I self-treated it for days, only going to the emergency room after 4 days when I couldn't walk and passed out from high fevers (104 and higher). Because I didn't go to the doctor right away, what began as a skin infection spread to my bloodstream... making my blood toxic, working as a poison. I had what is known as Toxic Shock (aka blood poisoning) from a small bump on my skin! Two hospitals, Three weeks in the ICU (plus 1 in regular hospital room) Seven blood transfusions, lung surgery, 5 chest tubes, massive doses of IV antibiotics, 2 PICC lines, 3 months of home IV therapy, and a half million dollars in medical bills later... I recovered.

MRSA is NOTHING to scoff at. It's not that bad if it's just on the skin and antibiotics will take care of it. Your little one will be fine, but make sure he doesnt touch the cut at all - ESPECIALLY if he's had his fingers near his mouth or nose, as Staph tends to live in the nose.

I'm not trying to scare you, I'm sure you are worried enough about your son. I just wanted to let you and everyone else know that left untreated, even for a few days, a simple cut or lesion can become life threatening, so one that looks like it's not healing right or might be infected is worth having a doctor take a look at!

Hi K.-This is VERY serious! I work in a peds unit at a hospital in Lexington, KY. We have 1 dr. that works on these patients. He admits them (usually stay about a week) they are put on bactrim and will either place a drain in the wound or clean (scrape) out the infection each day. This is just what I have seen at the hospital, never any perosnal experiences with my own children. Do keep it covered and use cloves when cleaning the area. You may wnat to go see someone else. Possibly a wound care dr.

I was just looking up MRSA last evening for a friend. It seems that the infection, when on the skin is rather straightforward and easily treatable. It's when it gets inside (bloodstream, organs) that it's more dangerous and hard to fight. Here's the site I looked at. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007261.htm
I personally would give it an epsom salt soak 2-3 times a day, if possible. I don't think it could hurt, and it's an old-time remedty that's very effective for most infections of the skin.

God bless!

First of all any open wound you have has the potential for MRSA. It is very serious business. It is a medicine resistant staph infection. I had a spider bite that I thought was a mosquito bite. It got pussy and I just kept medicating it at home. When I finally went to the doc it was too late. I had to have surgery to open and clean the wound. I was in the hospital for a week receiving IV meds and left the hospital with about $500 dollars of meds that I had to take at home. I also had to unpack and clean my wound, followed by repacking it. As I said before, any wound has the potential to turn into MRSA. Hand washing and cleaning the wound is the only way to prevent this. Little kids and adults alike dont think anything about the itchies on the body. We just scratch. Then the bacteria and viruses we picked up can end up under the skin causing big problems. Please watch the wound carefully and if there is fever or drainage I would take a trip back to the doc.

K.,

I am a registered nurse, so I can help you from that stand point more-so than the mom stand point right now. MRSA stands for methacillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus. To break that down, methacillian being a class of antibiotics and staphylococcus aureus being the bacteria. Staph is a common bacteria that is found on your skin, it is normal for it to be there and it doesn't matter what you do, it won't go away for long. Since it is on our skin, that means it is pretty much everywhere else also. Not to scare you, Staph is on our skin for a reason...it is what we call good bacteria...meaning it serves a good purpose and doesn't hurt us as long as it stays where it is supposed to. Bacteria is smart and can change form to become resistant against certain antibiotics..there's reason's for this,but that's another story for another day. So,chances are your son had a teeny tiny break in his skin from scratching,or a bug bite or bumping into something and the bacteria got into this teeny break in the skin. It can cause you to get real sick,but usually that is only if you are sick already, have a low immune system or it gets into your bloodstream. The antibiotic he is on should take care of the problem, just make sure that you give him the antibiotic when he is supposed to have it,dont skip any doses and give all of it to him,even if the place is healed or he is feeling better. If the area becomes really red, has a foul smelling drainage,he gets red streaks leading away from the "bug bite" area or develops a fever you need to take him back to the doctor. I hope this helps you.

A lot of people at earthclinic like turmeric (a powdered supplement) for mrsa. Here's the link. Scroll down and click on Turmeric for MRSA. You should definitely use the antibiotic. I just thought I would mention this in case you needed something more.

http://www.earthclinic.com/CURES/MRSA.html

The previous 2 responders covered most of the bases with MRSA. However, I recommend looking up the differences between healthcare-associated (h-a) MRSA in hospitals and community-acquired (c-a)MRSA.
Check out reputable sites like Mayo Clinic, WebMD, NIH, CDC, etc. This is the link to CDC's site: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/ar_mrsa_Enviro_Manage.html#1

MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureas. That means it is a staph infection (pimples, impetigo, "boils"). Some particular groups of staph have become resistant (no longer respond) to a certain antibiotic (methicillin). If they don't respond to methicillin, they will usually not respond to a wide variety of other antibiotics, as well. Just like there are lots of different types of people, there are different strains of staph. So, one strain of MRSA is not necessarily the same as another MRSA.

Everyone who has MRSA, has staph, but not everyone who has staph has MRSA. Nowadays though, staph infections are assumed to be MRSA until proven otherwise.

The discovery of MRSA over 20 years ago triggered the official worldwide declarations that antibiotics were being abused and overused. Prior to that, doctors might know that antibiotics would not treat a virus, but patients or we moms would insist on prescriptions for our little ones. After all, "what harm would antibiotics do if the kid had a virus and not a bacterial infection?" MRSA is an example of the harm.

MRSA was known to affect patients who were already weakened by other problems. MRSA seemed to only be associated with hospitals until about 10 years ago. Then, new MRSA infections started showing up outside of hospitals in people who had no possible exposure to hospital MRSA. Luckily, these community-acquired MRSA infections aren't usually quite as multi-antibiotic-resistant and/or deadly as hospital-acquired. Some are more aggressive than others, so they all have to be treated aggressively.

After several months of hospitalization for other problems, my aunt died of ha-MRSA pneumonia 20 years ago, in 1989.
Good luck, and thank God you caught it early!

my daughter caught this when my son was 2 days old. our ped put her on oral medi and it began to go away very quickly. she also had staph popping up all over her face in little pimples. i gave the medi and she began to show signs of improvement in about 1 day. good luck

I understand your concern, but I don't think you need to worry a whole lot.

I work in a state hospital where some patients come and go fairly rapidly and others have been there for years. You wouldn't believe how many people have MRSA for years and years and go about their lives with no effects of it at all.

Just in the last year it has become a hot-button issue, and now we staff have to make sure that it doesn't get spread to others, but the affected people don't seem to mind having it at all, and we wonder what is the big deal at this late date. It seems to be much ado about almost nothing.

Don't get me wrong: Don't go get it on purpose, and try not to let others get it from your son, but don't worry overmuch about it bothering him a lot or changing your life too much. He can still do anything and everything you want him to do.

P. S. I wrote all of the above and then read what others said. I saw Syke A's story of nearly dying from MRSA. (How awful for you Skye, and thanks for sharing your story.) Skye makes good points about how MRSA can be serious. However, IT USUALLY ISN'T; the majority of the time people are fine with it. So treat this like anything else: take reasonable actions for safety (you already did) and then don't live your life consumed by fear. Good luck!

MRSA has actually become very prevalent. You often see sports teams getting it from sharing equipment or just in the locker room. My friend's daugher got it at the gym in college. It kept coming back because as a good college student, she never washed her sheets. Make sure he isn't sharing any sweaty equipment with anyone.

My son has had several bouts with staph infections with the last one being MRSA. He was on Bactrim and it did clear up his infection. We have dealt with staph and have come up with some things that tend to make the infection clear up quicker. One of which is washing the infected area with beige safeguard soap. Not sure why it does better with staph infections than other soaps but it has really helped. Also, squeezing the infection out onto paper towels and putting those paper towels in a wal-mart or other plastic bag and removing them from the house immediately also helps. Some doctors we have worked with are against this but our family doctor is not and it really helps. We wash the infected area with safeguard and then squeeze out all we can. Our son took two rounds of bactrim and the second round was more of a precautionary measure.
MRSA can be very dangerous, even deadly depending on the strain so check with your doctor on their recommended course of treatment. And if something doesn't feel right, go back to the doctor.

Hi K.! I have an 11 year old son that has MRSA. We have had 3 breakouts. The first one we treated at home. The second one we went to the doctor and they treated it with Bactrim and the last one actually landed him in the childrens hospital for a week. Since your child has been confirmed as having it, that means they can get it again. The best advice my doctor gave me is this. Once a week, poor a cap full of bleach in the bath water. The bleach bath cleans the skin and tub without harming them. We have done this every week since he was released from the hospital and we have been breakout free for over two years. I hope this helps!

My daughter had MRSA about 2 years ago. It looked like a blister. They gave her Bactrim to treat her infection. It did clear up the infection but we discovered that she is allergic to Bactrim so if there are future outbreaks she will have to take some other medication. I mention the allergic reaction so that you can keep an eye out for this possibility.

I hope that I have helped reassure you.

Unfortunately I have had two VERY different experiences with MRSA. The first was myself. Nine days after a C-section I woke one morning not feeling well- felt feverish- checked it and it was low grade... it wasn't until I pulled the covers back to get up that I discovered the problem. Infection! I immediately went to the ER they did a culture opened the site more and began packing it. They put me on antibiotics and sent me home. The site was packed for 3 more days and I finished the pills. A couple of days after stopping the pills I was in horrible pain. After going to the DR and being told that was normal I went on for another week unable to even pick up my 5lb baby without crying. Finally I went back to a different DR who admitted me immediately. I spent the next week in the hospital on IV antibiotics- where I was packed and unpacked everyday and had a second culture done. It wasn't until then that I found out that the original culture done in the ER was staph. The day I was being released I was told that the second culture came back as MRSA. I didn't know anything about it. I went home on 2 antibiotics and home health for about 3 weeks along with a second round of bactrim. HORRIBLE experience! I was told to wash in antibacterial soap everyday and to keep an eye on any wounds that I might have in the future. Once you have MRSA you will always have it, but it may never "flare up" again. I was afraid my baby would "catch it" but we were careful and all was fine, I even continued breast feeding him during this time... well pumping my breast milk and giving it to him- but had I been able was given the okay to breast feed.
Second experience... My nephew had a "boil" in his ear that was very sore after his mother took him to the DR she was told it was MRSA. Of course from my experience we all cringed at that word, but like your son they put him on antibiotics and that was the end of it. He's fine now.
I learned that not all MRSA cases are horrible... Good luck and I'm sure he will be fine. Just know that it's nothing you or your son did to cause it. I felt like the dirtiest person in the world and that everyone would think I didn't bath or something... but I know now that is not the case!