What IS this?? bug bites? rash?

[Anonymous]

my 2 year old woke up from a nap the other day with, what looked to me like 15 -20 small mosquito bites on each ankle. He also had one or two other mosquito-bite looking things on his torso. He was itching them, but we put some calamine on them, and really by the next day, they appeared to be gone.

This morning, he has a similar outbreak (on one thigh). Again, looks like a condensed cluster of mosquito bites.

Any ideas what this could be? Is something biting him? Is this allergies? rash? Its just so bizarre... any ideas? I'm just looking for theories that I can follow up on...

[Anonymous]

Because you said they were condensed and he had them in the morning, my first thought was bed bugs. I don't have any experience with bed bugs though just a thought (sorry if I cause any unnecessary alarm-- maybe someone else will chime in that knows more than me).

[Anonymous]

Yes, bedbugs occurred to me, too. If these bites are appearing after he has been in his bed, you may want to check his mattress for brown/black stains/marks indicating bed bugs. Proceed quickly, as, if that is the problem, you need to fix it fast before your whole house gets infected. That would be awful. Does he go to daycare or a sitter's or friends house? That could be where he got them originally.

[Anonymous]

Chiggers. Was your child in a grassy area? They bite around the ankle and groin area. They are impossible to see with the naked eye. Get some cortizone for the discomfort.

[Anonymous]

Bedbugs tend to leave bites in a line, and are incredibly itchy (please don't ask how I know this). You can see them at night with a flashlight in a matress seam. What you describe sounds more like flea bites, or chiggers, as a PP mentioned. Do you have pets?

[Anonymous]

if they were just raised bumps, consider that they might be hives. My daughter regularly breaks out in hives for no apparent reason, and they appear and disappear in patches, exactly as you have described. Try Benadryl - they will disappear and there will be no more itching.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for your input everyone. One element that is puzzling to me is that the bumps seems to disappear very quickly. The prior batch was gone when I checked the next day (so I don't know exactly how quickly they left). And this morning's group appear to be almost gone already. Would think rule out bed bugs and/or chiggers?

Do hives disappear so quickly?

[Anonymous]

Yep - my daughter's hives pop up, and then disappear, only to pop up in another location. She usually has a little redness to the skin and then about 10-15 little hives on that patch of red skin. The most common places we see them are on her wrists, her ankles and on her belly.

I only give her benadryl if they itch. Otherwise, I leave them alone.

[Anonymous]

if you had bedbugs- you'd see blood spots on the mattress

[Anonymous]

On other thought - could it be Coxsackie (hand, foot & mouth) virus? Have you checked for a fever? My son had a mild case of it, and it showed up as clusters of small red spots on his ankles, inner thighs and wrists plus a slight fever. There wasn't any tretment except Tylenol for the fever, and the spots faded in 1-2 days. They are contagious though until the fever breaks, so you might want to get it checked if your son's in contact with other kids.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, my family has both bedbug bite and other weird skin eruption experience. The thing is, it's really hard to distinguish between bites caused by different insects, since victims' bodies respond so differently. It can even be hard for a dermatologist (my kid's pediatricians have been of very little use in identifying the causes of her many different unusual skin issues) to rule out insect bites definitively. And there are other biting insects that tend to bite in clusters, like fleas.

So, yes, I would want to rule out the possibility of bedbugs. Go ahead and ask a pest control guy to inspect. He may not find anything. But since infestations can be hard to spot when they're just getting started, ask him to come again in a month if the problem isn't gone or otherwise explained. Bedbugs bites are usually (though not always!) clustered close together, but not necessarily in a line. For some people, the bites bleed and leave visible punctures and hives that last a while. For others, the bites may be very hard to notice. I think most people who have noticeable reactions to the bites are allergic enough to have hives that last longer than your son's, but that alone isn't enough to rule out bedbugs.

Now, a couple of years after our bedbug issue in another house, I ran to the Ped. in a panic because my kid was covered in clusters of red spots that didn't look exactly like bedbug bites, but I wasn't taking any chances. While the Ped. said they were "most likely insect bites," the dermatologist said they were "almost certainly not" insect bites, but some kind of kid acne caused by gland issues. He made some suggestions that ultimately worked. So there you have it: kids can have all kinds of other things going on that might result in blemished skin.

[Anonymous]

Could it be impetigo? I know a child who recently had this, and at first everyone thought she just had a bunch of mosquito bites.

http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/impetigo.html

[Anonymous]

Bed Bug bites would not disappear as quickly as the OP states that they do.

[Anonymous]

it could also be contact dermatitis...sounds like a trip to the ped is in order. just to rule stuff out.

[Anonymous]

Spider bites are often in clusters, and depending on the variety, they can be itchy (or not) and fade very quickly (or not).

I think I read that bed bugs are cyclical... the females come out to feed once a month or so, then they disappear til it's time to lay eggs again. Makes them hard to identify, because by the time you've noticed the bites and started looking for them, they've already holed up til the next cycle. Ugh. Hope for you it's something else!