Spider Bite on Toddler's Face

[StoriesInTheSoil]

Why does my kid always have the bizarre things happen to him? Night before last he got bites on his forehead in the middle of the night (woke up yesterday with three bites.) Yesterday around dinner time he walked into the kitchen and DH and I thought he'd fallen and whopped his head because he had a bit knot on his forehead. Then, late last night (9-10ish) we finally realized that it was getting bigger and bigger and that it was not a knot, it was swelling from the bite

He's had homeopathic Apis and Arnica, he's had Benedryl, I've put baking soda paste on the bites, I but homeopathic bite care gel on it, and he slept with Prid drawing salve and a bandaid on it last night. Today, the eye that it is closest to is swollen halfway shut (it is VERY dramatic looking) and the "knot" part is bigger. The rest of his face is looking a bit puffy.

My husband wants to go to the doctor so we're going, though I'm not sure what the heck they will do and I think they won't do anything at all.

Anyway, any ideas for what I can actually DO to help this?

[onetrumpeter]

poor guy! we just dealt with a bite near the eye - mysterious bite, though I really don't think it was a tick and that'd be my biggest concern. it took a good 3-4 days for the swelling to peak and subside. I think *ice* would have helped, but didn't even attempt. it's going down, and I hope your son's does, too!

[Crafty]

Swelling that involves the eye isn't good. They might want to do steroids and quite possibly antibiotics (any kind of infection on the face has the possibility of traveling quickly to the brain, and that's not something you want to happen).

Not to freak you out, but could it possibly be bedbugs? If he's getting them at night...I say this because our apartment has them, and my son reacts REALLY badly to them. Huge, itchy, swollen red bites, they're awful. We're moving soon and not taking any furniture with us. I hope your son heals quickly.

(Editing to add that bedbug bites can have a delayed reaction. My son was getting bitten sometime during the night, and he'd wake up just fine, but around 10:30 in the morning, in the middle of our homeschool day, he'd start itching and scratching like crazy. We haven't had any issues for a while now, though, since I vacuumed everything to death and taped off all the baseboards and outlets not in use.)

[texaspeach]

staph frequently resembles a spider bite. I'd probably go to urgent care.

[Llyra]

Originally Posted by texaspeach

staph frequently resembles a spider bite. I'd probably go to urgent care.

I wouldn't let this one wait. Especially since it's near the eye. Staph was my first thought, too.

[StoriesInTheSoil]

The doctor at urgent care seemed unalarmed. Said it was a "bite reaction" but not necessarily a spider. He said to give him benadryl. He also gave scripts for abx and steroids for "hives" and "impetigo" neither of which he actually HAS.

I'm confused by this "staph looks like a spider bite" thing. He woke up with three bites in a row, in a house with lots of spiders, a day after a deep house-cleaning (which stir up spiders.) Do staph infections randomly pop up like that with the whole a few spots in a row? Only one of the spots is swelling, I assumed because either the first or last bite was deeper?

It really doesn't look infected at all, just very swollen and kind of bruise-y. He also doesn't have a fever.

Does anyone have any resources that would tell me how long this might take to clear up and what to do in the meantime? I really don't want him on prophylactic abx, nor do I want to give him steroids. I'm really pretty sure this is a spider bite... I don't know what type but it easily could be a recluse as we have lots of them in this area and see them in our house all the time.

[newmum35]

My 2 1/2 yr old got what I assume was a spider bite (2 actually) on his ear and woke up with a red ear one morning (a few weeks ago) - by evening the ear was red and swollen. See my post here about it.

Called dr on call that evening, they said bring him in morning, they might put him on steroids to clear it up faster and that I could give him benedryl and put ice pack on it... We never had benedryl so I did nothing for it, I did use ice for a short while. The next day it was normal color (still somewhat swollen) so I never did go to dr. I had asked them how long to clear up (if I did nothing) and they said one week.

I did give extra C, E, and cod liver oil, and was hoping they helped with the inflammation. Its possible they did something during that first night. It looked so much better by morning. Or maybe it would have anyway. But I don't think we have recluses in our area, no poisonous spiders that I'm aware of so I wasn't overly worried about it in that sort of way. If it continued to get worse each day, I would have brought him in.

When did yours get bit, how many days has it been and how is it looking today?

[StoriesInTheSoil]

It's been about 48 hours now. It is quite swollen and his face looks pretty different to me and his eye droops from swelling.

I talked to his PCP tonight, she said to NOT start the abx or steroids until there was some indication for them. He's just taking benadryl and my "hippie" remedies (thanks, mom ) which are: homeopathic Apis and Arnica for swelling, hyland's Bitecare gel, topical lavender oil, PRID drawing salve, and kisses.