Impetigo in children

Day 1 of impetigo

Poor little S.  She has had chapped lips for a few days and has complained of them feeling sore.  Yesterday she used her chap stick before nursery but when she got home, the area under her bottom lip had gone very red indeed. She said it hurt a bit and we put a little bit of Sudocrem on (no Vaseline in the house unfortunately) to help keep it moist and stop it hurting. Hey, if it works for tiny sore bottoms, it would work for sore lips right?

Last night a 'spot' appeared on her bottom lip. Oh no, must be a cold sore. I popped a Compeed patch on (couldn't find anywhere that it would be unsuitable for children and it can't hurt surely) to help her as it was feeling very sore. Off she went to bed.

This morning when she woke up she clearly didn't have a cold sore. I was convinced she had impetigo and looked it up. Yep, sounds like it. Carefully peeled the patch off and put the towels she has used in the wash and got her a 'special one' just for her face.  Phoned the doctors and off we went.

I expected the doctor to give us some Fucidin cream as it seems that is the common prescription for impetigo and therefore I wasn't too concerned about a bit of the scab peeling off with the patch as the medical websites said that the scabs had to be washed off carefully before applying the cream.

After our usual 1hr 10min wait (our doctor is great but boy can he chat!) we saw him.  He took one look at her and said she had quite a bad little impetigo infection.  He prescribed an oral antibiotic which she started straight away.  Why oh why can't they make these things taste less disgusting for little people? It was foul (I tried a tiny bit) and she cried taking it.  I have a supply of chocolate buttons ready for the rest of the doses as it's 4 times a day for 7 days.  Also bought some Vaseline to make sure her lips stay moist.  She's still got a bit of Sudocrem under her lip in the picture if you wandered what it was.

Impetigo is caused when the germs get into your body, mostly around the mouth, from cuts or sores.  The doc said that her having chapped lips was a good way for it to start.  She's had a bit of a cold too which hasn't helped so a bit run down I guess.

At least she's off nursery for the rest of this week and not back until Monday anyway so no need for her to miss anything (not that they really would miss much at her age).  No swimming tomorrow though which is a shame but after 24 hours on the antibiotics she won't be infectious which is good as she has a friend's birthday party on Sunday.

It seems that impetigo is very common in children.  It looks worse that it feels (she told me) but you need to be so careful as it can be passed around the family quite easily.  S is brilliant at not touching or picking spots or such so I know that she will be good but it's N I worry about as she loves to poke a spot on your face!  S will have to be prepared to bat her away but so far she's been good and just asked about it so we told her and said not to touch.

Warner Bros Studio Tour - Harry Potter

Yesterday J and I headed off to the Warner Bros Studio Tour at Leavesden Studios to see The Making of Harry Potter.  We were very, very excited.

Here we are!

We have both watched all the Harry Potter films and have really enjoyed how the story has evolved and the characters matured.  It was therefore the icing on the cake to go and see the sets, props and making of.

Lots of car parking when we arrived and you are directed to spaces, Disney style.  Our entrance was at 5.30pm so the place wasn't too busy.

We couldn't believe it when we were standing just by the large chess pieces outside as a shout went up and running into J's arms was her cousin!  Who'd have thought it.  She had just come out and said it was brilliant.

Chess anyone?

As we were early, we had a hot chocolate to warm ourselves up first in Costa, then decided to look around the gift shop.  As expected, unless you had a second mortgage to spend, everything was very expensive.

It's a nice scarf

I would have loved a house scarf but at £25 that just wasn't going to happen.

The Every Flavour Beans were also a bit of a shock at just shy of £10 a box.  We didn't fancy finding they had lots of earwax, vomit or earthworm flavour either.  Call us picky.

We also loved the house cloaks. Excellent for a fancy dress party but at almost £80 each, again it was a luxury we were never going to use.  In fact, you could buy pretty much every house colour full uniform there. Amazing.

Some of the masks, charms and wands were lovely to see.  Here is a selection of them.  They were £25 each but I would only buy one if they did real magic - sadly they didn't.

L-R: Harry, Hermione, Ron

Once we had finished looking around the shop (we bought a chocolate wand and a blood lolly), we went and joined the queue to go in.  At the entrance to the tour is the Cupboard Under the Stairs where Harry had his room.  A good insight of things to come.

Harry's bedroom

The doors opened and in we went.  A little film show about how the films came about and then into the theatre next door for another introduction by the main characters.  The screen lifted and we were at the entrance to Hogwarts!

Hogwarts entrance

Doors opened and in we went.  Wow!  It was amazing.  Here are a selection of photographs for you. I'm sure you will recognise lots of the areas and props.

We had to take the opportunity of getting photos of us flying on broomsticks (I'm sure my ex-husband won't be surprised by a picture of me on one).  You could also get a photo of yourselves in the flying car.  The photos were reasonably priced - £12 for one or £16 for two and as you could mix and match, it was a good offer.  J and I were delighted with our pictures and what a lovely memory.

This Quidditch game is easy

After we finished this stage area (there are two called J and K oddly enough - I wonder why? ;-) ), we went to the outside lot where there was the Knight Bus, car, motorbike and sidecar, Privet Drive and the bridge at Hogwarts - all great photo opportunities.

At the entrance to the next stage were some more chess pieces. They really are magnificent as you can see.

Heads without bodies

Next was the creature feature, where all the masks were made and the creatures designed.  Again, amazing to see.

We then all the technical drawings for different parts of the set.  Some of these pieces were then made out of paper.

Original artwork was on the walls next.  I wonder what it is worth?

Round the corner to some more paper pieces. I never made anything like this out of paper at school!

Paper Hogwarts

Whomping Willow - made of paper

Through another area to literally be met with a Wow! experience.  The scale model of Hogwarts. You really can't get the best impression of the fine detail from the photographs but I'm sure you will get an idea of just how impressive it is.

Lastly, the wands. All the boxes are individually made and there is one for every person who was involved with Harry Potters - writer, cast and crew - from J.K. Rowling through to the driver of the Hogwarts Express and every cameraman, electrician and make-up artist.  Amazing to see.

The Harry Potter tour is a must for any fans.  The tickets may well seem expensive but it is worth it.  We went for the basic entry ticket.  We didn't need a guide book and we didn't hire the digital guide and we really didn't miss out.  For a once-in-a-lifetime experience, get yourself along.

Grey teeth after hitting mouth

Three weeks ago, S was getting a little over-excited playing with J bouncing around on the sofa (no, she's not supposed to be jumping on furniture but that's another story) and suddenly, went a bit too far forward and hit her mouth on the windowsill.  The scream went up instantly.  Hubby and I rushed over to her and, after consoling her and getting her to calm down a bit (which took some considerable time), we looked at her mouth.  Her top lip was swelling to a fair size but I was more concerned about her teeth.  Gently getting her to open her mouth and, with the greatest care that I could, I moved her swollen lip out of the way a bit and checked her teeth.  All in place, no bleeding and no wobbles that I could detect.  Phew, that was a lucky escape.

Her lip stayed swollen for just over 3 days and she talked with quite a lisp, bless her.  The swelling began to go down and by the end of 5 days, she was back to normal.

About a week ago - 2 weeks after the bump - I noticed that her top two front teeth were looking a bit darker, as you can see in the picture.  Hubby said perhaps she wasn't brushing them very well.  This couldn't be the case as she brushes her teeth morning and night and whilst I let her do the morning brush all on her own, the nighttime one I do with her to ensure that she has clean, sparkling teeth for bedtime.  In fact, neither she nor N will go to bed until their teeth have been done so even if it's late and, for some reason, we forget, we are soon reminded :) Anyway, I made sure they were brushed well morning and night but they didn't seem to change in colour. In fact, they were getting a bit darker.

A few days later, we were having dinner and I noticed that they were getting quite grey in colour.  Would you believe both hubby and I had forgotten about the bump to her mouth!?  Well, kids do so many things and I think we'd need a portable diary if we wrote down every bump/scratch/twist that happened to them both.  On realising this could have something to do with her mouth being banged, I looked up teeth getting darker on the web.  I found two excellent resources regarding teeth changing colour.  The first from Pediatric Dentistry which helped me to confirm what was happening and the second from Tom at Oral Answers who is an active blogger dentist.

I phoned our dentist and today we went on a visit to her.  S has no fear of dentists (unlike me who is terrified of them but getting braver with my girls watching me!) and she hopped into the chair whilst N tried to join her :)  Our lovely lady dentist took a look at her teeth and confirmed that the problem was indeed due to the trauma to her mouth and it was very common in young children. She said it all looked clean and no problems, a very minor bit of movement  but she felt her adult teeth should be just fine.  She did tell me that her teeth were unlikely to get whiter again (which some people have said happened to their children) as they were, in effect, dying.  However, they were also unlikely to get much darker either.  She told me to just watch out for any bumps on the gums as this can be a sign of an absess.  So, so far, so good.

Children are sent to keep us on our toes and our nerves in tatters aren't they! ;-)

I thought I'd add a quick update to this.  Now, almost a week later, S's teeth are going even more grey/red.  I'm starting to notice it and it breaks my heart to think she will have her teeth like this for the next 3 or so years but what other options are open (certainly not going to have 'fillings' to make them white again or veneers).

UPDATE: 1st August 2012 - S's teeth are beginning to pink/white up again! I can't believe it but it looks like the damage isn't permanent despite what the dentist suspected.  We are making a very careful effort with teeth brushing in the evenings to ensure that her gums get a good little massage around those front top teeth so whether that is actually doing anything or not, I'm unsure but I'm pleased with the result so far :)

Here's a photo taken on 3rd August.  Almost back to normal :)  Glad our dentist was wrong!

UPDATE #2: May 2015 - For anyone who would like to know how she's getting on now, in 2015, she's losing her teeth slowly and as you can see from this picture, those top teeth look almost exactly the same as the others.  She's very proud here that she's lost her second bottom tooth. Top ones are next!  I'll update you when the new ones come through there.

UPDATE #3: November 2015 - I had a lot of requests for pictures of S's new top teeth when they come through.  One is almost through completely now and the other is just starting. Here's a photo taken today (22nd).  Hopefully you can see that the tooth is the same colour as all of her others.  Hooray! Will let you know when other one is through and post again then.

UPDATE #4: March 2016 - Here we are with both front teeth now firmly through (sadly she's still suffering cold sores as you can see but that's another post). I hope this gives people hope for their little ones.  Thank you for all the wonderful comments.

Here's the very final picture taken today - January 2018.  One happy girl with lovely, naturally coloured teeth.