ingrown toenail-Tetanus?!

[nycmom18]

I'm kind of freaking out now, because my 8 month old ds has the beginnings of an ingrown toenail that is just gradually getting worse. I just read that it's important to have a tetanus shot if such thing should occur.

We have not vaccinated for anything yet and we may never vaccinate.

Does anyone know if this is true or how serious this (tetanus) could be for my son?

[becca_howell]

I've had several ingrown toenails in my lifetime, and never had the doctor mention tetanus.

[nycmom18]

did they just assume you were vaccinate for tetanus? were you?

[tmaue]

That makes no sense to me (hopefully someone else will respond with the reasoning, I don't have the brain power right now to type out the info). I wouldn't do it.

[kiara7]

Doesn't make much sense to me either.

[Marnica]

This makes no sense!!!!

Tetnus spores are all around us. They live is the soil typically. Tetnus grows in anerobic envirmonments or deep wounds that are not exposed to oxegen and do not bleed. An ingrown toenail first of all is not a wound and even if it were is your 8 month old running around barefoot outside in the dirt??
I am curious as to where you read this because it's completely illogical. If you are concerned about the ingrown nail being painful fro him, take him to the MD and have them remove it or soften the nail up and remove it yourself.
Tetnus in general is extremely rare in children. It occurs mostly in older adults who have poor circulation. Don't worry!!

[nycmom18]

thanks so much everyone for your comments. it didnt make much sense to me, but i havent researched tetanus an awful lot and i've never dealt with an ingrown toenail even in myself-so i needed thoughts. i found the info about needing a tetanus shot/booster if you have an ingrown toenail from emedicinehealth.com it's hard to get the truth these days! thanks again!

[taterbug1999]

Just for extra comfort from a BTDT momma... my ds is very prone to ingrown big toe nails. His daddy gets them ALL the time too. Ds has had no tetanus vax and he's still a healthy thriving growing boy. One did get pretty ingrown when he was about 2 so we saw our FP who had us do a round of abx to help it ease up. It did calm the infection and it healed up well.

One thing I have done if he gets them now is leave them alone. When he was young we would try to pull the nail up and out. Looking back that made it more agravated cause we were introducing foreign contaminants... letting them be has meant they heal pretty quickly.

Our doc also gave us a print out of how to cut his nails better and that has helped alot. Only cutting straight across and not down short or rounding off the nail has helped tremendously. I try to wait to trim his nails til they are pretty long now and just trim right across the top.

There are thousands of little booboos that "could" set up with tetanus and if you read about all of them you'll be sitting in a corner rocking and sucking your thumb soon. Try not to focus on it. Even prevax tetanus was not a major health problem and that was back when people were out in the barn yard and working and not able to wash up, etc. Access to wound care has reduced the occurence way more than the vax I would venture to guess.

[nycmom18]

tarterbug1999,

a big to you! i've now learned not to cut so close or rounded. i guess this is how new moms learn things