Gwen came to me this morning with a bump on her arm that was itching like crazy. She also has a smaller one on her stomache. She was out digging in the dirt yesterday, so my mind automatically thought it was a bug bite, but it doesn't look like a mosquito bite to me. What worries me if is ISN'T a bug bite. Here's the picture. Let me know what you think:

By Dana on Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 09:58 am:

No idea, but digging does sound suspicious towards a bug bite. To look at it, it looks like a mole rather than a bite. Every bite I've seen has smooth skin. Does it look smooth if it is not close up? Perhaps a sand flea? Never looked at a chigger bite up really close, but the itch really baddly and are very red. The little chigger (which is red) climbs inside the bite. They usually hang out around the waist line where pants are snug to body. I've gotten that when in a woody area.

By Karen~moderator on Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 10:19 am:

It looks more like a blister. There is some bug call a blister beetle, Blister Beetle, and the bites cause blisters. They live on plant leaves in gardens.

Jen was bitten by this when she was a young child. Could be that, or a spider bite.

By Lauram on Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 03:45 pm:

It looks like what my kids have right now- impetigo. Is there anything on her face? Personally, I'd take her in to the dr. If it's impetigo, you need antibiotics.

By Kay on Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 05:09 pm:

The first thing that came to my mind was impetigo - my youngest had that while she was in day care, most likely from whatever was in the playground sand. It looked very much like that. He had me put an antibiotic cream on it - a prescription form of neosporin, I suppose.

By Lauram on Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 05:44 pm:

The dr told me neosporin can make it worse. Bacitracin might work. The topical prescription is for Bactiban. My youngest ds is currently on oral antibiotics for it and my oldest is on Bactriban.

By Kay on Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 05:49 pm:

You're right about the neosporin - it's been about 10 years, so I had forgotten. Thanks for the reminder. Now I remember our using bacitracin.

By Dawnk777 on Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 10:20 pm:

I was thinking it looked like impetigo, too! That would spread, though, and you would be seeing more spots like it. It likes to go on the face!

By Imamommyx4 on Monday, April 25, 2005 - 12:07 am:

Neosporin doesn't make impetigo worse. It is actually a good treatment for impetigo if there are only a few spots. If it developed into more or if there were some skin violation, it might spread alot and oral antibiotics would be the ticket. The problem with Neosporin is that alot of people have seemed to develop an allery to the neomycin part of Neosporin. So in children many doctors choose not to risk the allergy and use the bacitracin only product. My dd had impetigo at the end of last summer and I used Neosporin. The spots were clearing very quickly until she fell and scraped her knees. The impetigo went wild and we went to the doc pronto.

If you have at home and have used Neosporin before on your child without problem, I would give it a shot. From the pic it does look alot like impetigo. If it isn't better in a day or if it worsens, see the doc asap. Make sure handwashing is done alot until it clears up.

By Kathy on Monday, April 25, 2005 - 07:18 am:

Thanks everyone. From what I can see, it has not spread. I actually think it looks a little better. I did however, put some bacitracin on it just in case.

By Kathy on Thursday, April 28, 2005 - 05:00 pm:

Well...it has spread. So I took Gwen to the drs. this afternoon. It is not impetigo thankfully. It is just a skin condition. We got some prescription cream.

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, April 28, 2005 - 09:29 pm:

Hopefully, it will clear up now.