Nummular Eczema or Ringworm...What would you do?

[umsami]

DS1, 6, has had eczema for quite a few years. Usually it shows up in winter, on his hands. Last week, he came home from school with a round patch on his face. I didn't think much of it....and put some hydrocortisone cream on it.

Well, on Tuesday, when he came back from school, there was a band-aid on the top and a note from the school saying that it's ringworm, and needs to be treated and kept covered until gone. It definitely had a ring appearance...and was clear on the inside. DH is a physician, although not a ped or derm, and thinks it's still a form of eczema, nummular eczema. However, the hydrocortisone creame isn't doing anything--and so, I'm beginning to wonder.

WWYD? Take him directly to a derm... take him to his ped, knowing that she may refer us... or just continue to treat and see what happens. We don't have health insurance right now...and anything that is dx, might be excluded for the next 6-12 months once we have coverage.

Help.

[ASusan]

If it hasn't gone away, you can treat it as yeasty, fungus and see what happens. TTO, baths with ACV, dress with CO - those would be 2 inexpensive places to start.

[Mosaic]

Agreed... if hydrocortisone hasn't helped at all, it's probably ringworm. I caught it from the gym a couple years ago and my doc told me to get lotrimin (or any OTC clotrimazole, specifically, not other antifungals), which cleared it up easy-peasy. And really, I'd much rather use an antifungal over a steroid any ol' day.

ETA: I thought mine was eczema for a long time, too. But when the steriods didn't work, and it had that classic "ring" look, boy did I feel silly for using the wrong cream all that time!

[umsami]

Thanks Mamas. I picked up some generic lotramin cream at Target, and am going to try that. I figure if it doesn't look better by Monday, I can go to the ped then.

[ASusan]

Yeah, we used lotrimin on DS's ringworm. (Diagnosed first by Dr. Mom, and then by family doc.)

The irony is that we continued to use lotrimin because it looked like he still had ringworm. When we went back to the doc, for another matter, doc said that the spots were eczema and should be treated as such...I guess the degregation of the skin in general resulted in eczema. And, when we switched back to steroids on the rings...they FINALLY went away. But I think it took the shot of lotrimin to kill 'em.

And I don't think my putting a few drops of TTO in his baths hurt.


(BTW, DS has eczema, triggered mainly by foods and is mainly on his hands. We treat only when it is really itchy with a medium steroid cream.)