Impetigo is a bacterial skin infection. It is usually caused by strep or staph. (These are common household germs and can cause a variety of other common illnesses.) It looks like small broken pimples that eventually erupt and cover the area with a honey colored crust. It can be as small as a dime or as large as a quarter. I can generally recognize it as a ‘sore’ that won’t go away, and then crusts over.
It is not necessarily more common in babies, however, scratching the skin can cause the infection to spread. It has been my experience that it is quite difficult to get a small child to stop scratching an itchy or bothersome area, so if your baby or toddler gets it–be prepared to do some extra cleaning.
How To Treat Impetigo
Since impetigo is a bacterial infection, it requires antibiotics. It used to be that the common course of treatment was to give oral antibiotics, but since topical antibiotics have improved greatly, that is generally the easiest and safest way to treat impetigo. Oral antibiotics are rarely necessary, unless the case is very severe.
How to Keep Impetigo from Spreading
More important than treating impetigo, (especially if you have other children) is preventing it from spreading. Use these tips to nip the problem in the bud:
*if possible, keep the lesions covered with bandages and apply antibiotic cream
*clip your child’s fingernails; encourage him/her not to scratch or touch the lesions
*dress your child in pajamas that cover the lesions (long sleeved shirts or shorts
*wash bath towels after each use
*wash your hands thoroughly both before touching the baby and afterwards
*sheets or blankets may also need to be washed after discovering the impetigo; if you’re good about keeping it covered, you may not need to wash sheets more than once after the diagnosis.
Personally, I have found incidences of impetigo in our house are more frequent during the summer months where more of our time is spent at the pool. Either way, recognizing it and treating it quickly is the key to getting rid of it quickly.
Valorie Delp shares recipes and kitchen tips in the food blog, solves breastfeeding problems, shares parenting tips, and current research in the baby blog, and insight, resources and ideas as a regular guest blogger in the homeschooling blog. To read more articles by Valorie Delp, click here.
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