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4 year old with reoccurring peri anal abscess

Hello Everyone,

Im 25 years old, and My son is 4 years old and he has just recently been diagnosed with a re-occurring peri-anal abscess.

He has had this condition since he was about 2 years old and we have visited the accident and Emergency ward several times...but it is only until recently that the doctors made it very clear what his condition was. Before I had absolutely no idea and even considered that my son could have been sexually abused :confused2:

Cause of Condition unknown
We await further test to discover WHY he has this condition, there was some suggestion of diabetes as it runs in the family, However his overall health is very good....he does not appear to be a child with undiagnosed diabetes.

I'm very disappointed in which the way the British doctors have dealt with this condition, every time we have gone to the hospital , the only thing they offer him is 5mg of Calpol. They have never prescribed a topical cream or gel to ease the condition, and only once we were prescribed antibiotics (which i wasn't overly keen to give him because antibiotics is not a long term solution, and could cause him to build up an intolerance and a weaker immunity) Also the antibiotics didn't seem to dramatically improve the condition, It tends to clear up of it's own accord anyway after 5 rather painful days. :(

Mothers intuition
Personally I feel he possibly has IBD or Crohns.
Intuitively I feel that his diet should be changed so that he is eating ALOT of high fiber food, perhaps he could go on few short smoothie fasts and clean out his colons with some very healthy clean nutritious food? colonic irrigation is also meant to have many health benefits, although I would prefer to avoid as much invasive procedures as possible. I feel lots of water and hydration helps to prevent constipation too which seems to trigger the abscesses.

At the moment he has a healthy vegetarian Diet, however at the weekends his father feeds him meat (without my consent) which probably doesn't help with his digestive system.

As it stands we have very stressful moment in our life whenever this condition shows up, he is getting abscess around 9 times a year, and each time is very difficult, it is awful to see my son in so much pain and i feel helpless to do anything, we do not have a proper treatment plan in place, except hot baths with sea salt, and hot compresses to drawn the infection out, and also lots of water and fruit to avoid constipation. :poo:

I look forward to talking to people about this condition and learning more.

Violet_eyes

:smile:
 
Hello Violet Eyes,

I'm so sorry your son is going through this, it's so unfair that a little boy so young should have to deal with this :( He must be a wee trooper if he's managing to get by with just a bit of calpol?

You mentioned that his overall health was good so I was wondering what it is, aside from the abscesses that makes you think he might have IBD/IBS? I hope you don't mind me asking? If it was something he had having a lot of high fiber foods is not the best thing, it would be better to look into a low-residue diet instead, basically means avoiding high fiber foods, nuts, fruit and veg with skins on dried fruit, carbonated drinks and corn products etc. http://www.crohnsforum.com/wiki/Low-Residue-Diet
this is a link to more information on low-residue diet. I would however suggest that maybe it would be be a good idea to discuss any diet changes with either your Dr or request an appointment with a dietitian before hand? Plenty of fluids is good :)

I also wondered what tests are you waiting for and if anything had been scheduled for him? It is probably worth going back to your GP to ask for a more effective treatment plan, maybe a referral, if not already done, to someone that specializes in peri-anal abscesses? Keep on at them, if necessary camp out on their doorstep lol, only joking :), seriously though your Gp is their to help so make use of him/her.

As a parent of a child with a chronic condition I understand how you feel, with all my heart I would love to be able to magic the pain and discomfort all away and know the frustration when all I can do is be there for her. You're doing the right thing with the hot baths etc, just keep going with that until you can get a more acceptable treatment plan. I hope so much that you will be able to get something more definitive sorted and that your lovely little boy can obtain good health, best wishes and hugs to you both. :ghug::ghug::ghug:
 
Hello Lizbeth,

I will have a look more into non residue diets, thank you.

He is definitely a little trooper, He actually has an abscess right now, he's had it for 3 days but unfortunately we haven't been able to see the doctor as it appeared on Saturday night and it is a bank holiday Monday today so the GP surgery is closed.

The other trouble is it seems to change in appearance from one day to the next. sometimes the raised lump will surface into an abscess and burst, sometimes the infection will move up into his scrotum and his scrotum will appear red and very swollen :(

And yes i will take your advice and really push for some better help from the GP, to get help from a peri-anal abscess expert would be amazing.

The GP wants to arrange a test for diabetes which i am due to book on Tuesday :)

I am really interested in using a Ultra Violet Light pen, because i read some stories that this has cured abscesses for some people? Do you know anything about this?
 
Hi and welcome
So sorry to hear about your son and what
He is going though.
My daughter Lucy was 3 when diagnoised
With crohns.
There is a parent forum which is a great place
To find lots of information and advice
 
Hello Violet Eyes,

I'm sorry I don't know anything about that kind of treatment so I can't help you any :(.

How is your wee man today? Did you get his diabetes test booked? When I got ill before Christmas I paid a visit to my local doc on call, followed next day by a trip to casualty, initially I felt silly going in with a 'sore tummy' but I ended up with a 2 week stay and came out with Crohns, I think I was very fortunate in that I was diagnosed very quickly unlike many others on this forum. So I was thinking (although maybe a bit late now) don't be afraid of taking your son into casualty if he is bad like that over a weekend, I knew a nurse from casualty who always said to err on the side a caution when it came to children and bring them in? I do hope things have improved a bit for your son, take care and keep in touch. :ghug:
 

David

Co-Founder
Location
Naples, Florida
Hi there and welcome to the community.

I'd ask the doctors to perform a fecal calprotectin, CRP, and ESR at the very least. See if any of those are elevated (they're inflammatory markers).

I hope it isn't IBD!

All my best to you.
 
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