Child Has Red Pimple. No Relief From Cortizone And Antibiotic Cream. How To Treat This?

Posted on Sun, 14 Apr 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 Answered on

Mon, 6 May 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : My six year old son has what started out to look like a red pimple or bite. It is hard to the touch. We first noticed it on Tuesday. He has been sick with a virus, sneezing/coughing, no fever since Thursday. He seems to be getting better, except this pimple/bite/sore has gotten bigger. it has sort of a light circular scab in the middle. It's on his right forearm and that's it, no where else. I have been putting cortizone and antibiotic cream (over the counter) and it doesn't seem to be doing anything. He just complained today of it being itching but prior he said it didn't hurt or itch.

Answered by Dr. Kalpana Pathak (5 hours later)

Hi,
Thanks for writing to us.
From the description it seems, your child might be having a boil or furuncle. It is a bacterial infection of hair follicle. Another possibility could be a molluscum contagiosum lesion.
Treatment of boil requires topical antibiotic cream application and warm saline compresses. In some cases oral antibiotic too. Molluscum contagiosum can be treated by curettage of the lesion

I tried opening the image uploaded but could not. I would request that you upload an image again of concerned area. If there is any difficulty in uploading the image, you may send it to YYYY@YYYY with ATTN: Dr Kalpana Pathak in subject line. As dermatology is a visual field, attaching an image would help in ascertaining the cause as sometimes the diagnosis that we think of after going through the description is different from what the lesion actually is.

Hoping to hear from you soon.
Take care

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad

Follow up: Dr. Kalpana Pathak (9 hours later)

Thank you so much for your help. I appreciate it.

Attached is what I sent originally. It is a .jpeg file.

Answered by Dr. Kalpana Pathak (24 hours later)

Hi,
I have gone through attached image.
It looks like as if your son had an insect bite which due to itching became eczematous and a bit infected or it could have been a boil which became eczematous.
In either of these, you may
1) do warm saline water compresses over the lesions twice for five minutes followed by application of steroid antibiotic cream like flutibact cream
2) give oral antihistamine like Benadryl or cetirizine to reduce itch.

Hopefully in four to five days lesion should resolve. If it does not kindly consult a dermatologist nearby to get the lesion examined clinically.

Hope that helped.
Wishing your child a speedy recovery.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar