Ringworm in scalp!

Ask doctor, you may be concerned about nothing. You should go for a follow up visit after about 6 weeks anyhow, right? Since there can be a strong link between the psychological and the psysical....please share: What behavioral , sleep patterns and emotional issues did you see in the child just prior to the diagnosis? thanks.

It has been a LONG time ago, lol. But I recall my niece, now 34, having that when she was little. The ring was on her tummy. But I do remember it took a long time for the actual ring to fade away. I'd call your doctor or nurse to confirm though and to ease your mind.

I never had this as a child, but I have had it as an adult. A couple of things... how long it went untreated will affect how long it takes it to heal up. If the child has allergies, or other skin problems, it will take longer to heal. Do not use baby oil on it. Keep the antifungal cream on it until you cannot see where the spot was. It can get in the blood stream and pop up in other places. Also, it is contagious. And I got it from gardening without gloves most likely. It usually takes mine about 3 months to completely go away. Be careful with the oral medications, they can damage the childs liver. Topical is best.

My boys take wrestling in school and they have gotten it:eek: It is a fungus (no worm involved) and it takes awhile to get rid of it. Transmitted from skin to skin contact. Not a big deal, more of a pain then problem. Use the Tenactin every day for a minimum of 3 weeks before any change. No different then athletes foot. Do not cover it (like a bandaid) warmth and moist is what it really likes:hissy:

In my experience, ringworm takes a long time to clear. It looks a little better and then stays visible but lighter for a while before it finally clears. While I would follow doctor's orders, I would also say that it is pretty common and I have known many children who had it on their scalp. Keep up the treatment and that should keep it from being contagious.

I know a kid who has a scar from it on his head, it turned into a staph infection which made it worse, and led to a permanent scar. You are probably just seeing the 'scar'.

One of our little guys had it on his scalp and was on the oral meds for 5 weeks so I think you are fine. We had 2 this summer, one on a back and one on a neck (love how contagious it is :( ) and our pediatrician told us to use the medicated cream twice a day for a week AFTER we couldn't see the ring anymore. Also, if its on a scalp you are going to see a bald spot until his hair grows and evens out. We were able to get our little one a trim after it was taken care of so that all of his hair was evened out more quickly.

No more baby oil! You want that spot to DRY. No more baby oil, avoid hats, all of that. Leave it bare and dry after applying the Tenactin. Swimming in a chlorinated pool is great, if he likes that. The chlorine helps with the drying. (After baths and swims, be sure you're drying his hair completely.) Like others have said, it takes ringworm a long time to disappear. It will maybe get smaller, maybe get something like a "scab", maybe get paler, etc - but continue the treatment until it is absolutely positively gone. And that can take weeks or a month or more. I used to foster dogs. Caught ringworm twice. I think it took about 3-4 weeks for it to clear up each time, and that was on areas like my arms. Ringworm on the scalp is harder to clear up, and takes longer. So don't worry yet! Just keep treating, and keep it DRY.

Speaking of 'drying'-- tea tree oil works great!!! I caught it once when i worked at a day care 10+ yrs ago(keep a watchful eye b/c new ones can appear, I dealt with it for 1yr) and I would used both. The tea tree oil will get rid of it quicker.

Thanks everybody for your replies! RE Ohiofostermom-He is 2 years old so we really did not see any abnormal behaviors nor do we have any behavoral or psycological problems with him! He is the best little guy! The spot on his scalp is VERY dry! That is why we were using a little Baby Oil to help moisten it so the scab will fall off! It hurts him if we brush it and it bleeds if you bump it! The Dr looked at it last week and advised me to stop using the Tenactin since it was dried up! He is still taking the 3rd week of antibiotic (Grisoflavin)Hope I spelled that right! I will stop the Oil and be patient! Thanks for your help!

I've never seen ring worm "dry up" and stay there like a scab. My doctor told me to keep using the topical until I couldn't tell where it was or it would come back. I hope it's not something else.

Our 2 kids came to us with severe cases of scalp ringworm. They were 7mos and 24 mos at the time. It was mis-diagnosed as cradle cap, but after 6 wks we figured it out ourselves when my husband and I caught ringworm from the kids on our necks and chests, at the level where the kids' heads hit us when we held them. Actually, that was a present I discovered on my first Mother's Day. lol. After 2 months of griseofulvin and a topical Rx, Oxistat, we were referred to a good dermatologist when our kids weren't progressing. Dermatologist said that scalp ringworm is a much tougher beast than ringworm on regular skin. The infection deep dives into the hair shafts and can be a beast to get rid of. It took us about 7 months to get rid of our son's ringworm! Even worse, it took about 9 months to get rid of our baby girl's ringworm. She eventually required an Rx other than griseofulvin, but I can't think of the name offhand. Both kids had to have their livers tested every month or 2 to make sure that the griseo wasnt hurting them. As for the scab, I think i know exactly what you are talking about. Our little girl had a massive one. The dermatologist said that we should try to keep their scalps from crusting like that by lighting brushing at the scabs with a toothbrush while the scabs were moist, while the kids were in the tub. Baby oiling the scabs and doing the toothbrush drill was also deemed ok by our doctor. This worked ok for the smaller scabs, but to be honest, for the large one, I would just gently pull up the edges bit-by-bit while the scab was as wet and pliable as possible. It did cause a little bleeding, and hair came out along with the scab, (which was scary and gross) but this was the only way that I could get rid of it. The good news is that both kids regrew all of the hair that they lost. A few tips: try to keep your son 100 miles away from hats and others' hair brushes to keep other people from catching it. Change sheets/pillow cases frequently. Frequently rinse his brush or comb and the toothbrush that you use on his scalp. (I rinsed them with selsun blue.) I washed my hands like a maniac after each time i bathed the kids. Our dermatologist also told us to use selsun blue (or a generic version with selenium sulfide) each time we shampoo'd our kids. We were advised to wash hair no more than 2 or 3 times/week. Kids are supposedly not contagious while they are taking griseofulvin, but our kids were still contagious for the first month of their Rx. Our dermatologist said that topical treatments on scalp ringworm are a waste of time as they dont penetrate nearly deeply enough, and as messy as it was, I loved that answer. In our case, we know that our 2 year old had untreated ringworm for at least 1 year, so maybe your case will be easier. It was no fun, but we are so glad that both kids have a thick head of hair again. Good luck.

The longer a kiddo has ringworm the longer it takes for the spot to go away. We had a foster kiddo who had it untreated for at least 6m before he came to us. I agree with everyone else, keep applying the fungal cream, keep it dry, no more baby oil! Our FS was with us 9m, the spot finally was gone by about 6m into his stay. Another thing that really helped was keeping his hair super short. His mom liked it that way anyway, so it wasn't a problem for us.