my grandson has scabies and my daughter is mortified

Oh yes. I taught young children for many years and it’s all part of the job along with head lice, threadworms and other stuff.

Tell her not to be mortified. Nothing to do with cleanliness. Just one of those things that people pass around ?

The poor little thing how sore must he be! Hopefully the cream will soon work, it’s very infectious and can also be transferred from an infected fellow pupil, so your DD has a challenging time getting rid of any that are now in the house. I hope he gets better very soon.

There is an assumption only dirty people get this. Nonsense. Very common but little talked about, hence your daughter feeling ashamed. She has no need to be. It's treatable. I myself had a bout when at uni.

As for the itching, make sure your grandson is kept a little cooler at night. It helps slightly.

My daughter was diagnosed with scabies for her severe rashes and itching by a doctor in an on call centre. She was mortified. The doctor insisted the whole family was treated so she had to pay for scripts for them all. DD who is scrupulously clean anyway disinfected/fumigated the whole house and they were all treated. I was insisting that it couldn't be scabies given the history and that if skin scrapings with sight of the mites under a microscope hadn't been taken a full diagnosis could not be made (I'm an ex Infection Control Nurse). The itching and rashes continued for weeks the treatment hadn't worked. Her own GP still said scabies and post scabies allergy. I insisted she get a private appointment with a Dermatologist and I would pay (luckily she had some health insurance so she went ahead. It was eczema which I knew all along.

Poor little chap must be so miserable,my niece had this years ago and my sister made sure all his bedding and towels where kept separate from everything else and even though it was a pain she changed his sheets and pjs every night keeping them separate for washing.
Tell your DD not to worry it is more common than she thinks and nothing to do with lack of cleanliness.

Your poor DGS and poor DD! Scabies is just one of the many delights of family life, and nothing at all to do with cleanliness, and the itching should stop soon. One of my DDs developed a massive impetigo sore bang on her nose two days before DS was born and I was mortified, even though the GP stressed that it was just one of those things. We’d to keep her away from the baby and of course there were tears all round - none of those cute big sister and baby photos for us! - so I know how stressful it can be.

I would definitely get a second opinion it may not be scabies just because one doctor diagnosed that, as Teetime has illustrated
I would go along to my own doctor and ask for a skin scrapping to be done

My experience, working as a health care assistant, was when a patient arrived with very sore, scarred hands and arms.
Doctors prescribed various creams, to no effect, and suggested that soaps or detergents could be causing a reaction.

Staff, and other patients, started to develop itchy skin. Investigation of skin samples was done. Scabies was found and everyone, including families of staff, had to be treated to get rid of it.

Clearly, the doctors involved had no idea what they were seeing, on the original patient's skin.

Get a second opinion, if it doesn't clear up soon.

Thanks for your input, it's very relieving that it is quite common though I don't know anyone that has had it. She is washing everything every day and he has his own towel etc. He hardly slept last night and was very tearful this morning. I'd take it for him if I could.

Surely it’s a very odd place to have scabies? I thought it was a contact ‘thing’ that is you actually had to touch infected people or things.

No so long ago there were a couple of episodes of the serial 'Doctors' which highlighted scabies. I guess it raised awareness and also the fact that ANYONE can get it and it's nothing to be ashamed of. Hopefully the myth from the past that it's 'dirty' will totally disappear in the future.

Every few years this happens at work, we all cream up as instructed and it's gone. Don't worry, kids have head lice for instance all the time

I’d get second opinion. Years ago a friend got a rash on her arms and was told by doc it was scabies. She had been cutting ivy from trees and it turned out she was allergic to ivy.

I would definitely want to be sure it’s scabies, allergies and eczema are both similar in red itching skin and could easily be confused without a skin scraping being taken See your own doctor as it’s not improving
Scabies is passed on by PROLONGED person to person contact not by shaking hands or brief touch so has someone with scabies been touching your child’s back ?

Yes I agree with BlueBelle get another opinion on this rash. As everyone else has said nothing to do with cleanliness or lack of it, scabies is easily passed on.

I'd get another opinion. Both my grandchildren had it a few months ago and they were both put on oral antibiotics, not just cream.

I sympathise with your Daughter Bobbydog . Years ago both my children were diagnosed with scabies. I felt dirty too. The children were treated 3 times and the spots wouldn't go. Everything in the house was either bleached or disinfected (silly I know but it got me like that). Eventually hospital consultant confirmed it was an allergy.
I would also say get another opinion.

It isn't silly to bleach or disinfect everything if scabies is suspected. Bedding needs boiling etc. It's a horrible thing to deal with.

I went through this nightmare a few years back, pharmacy said it was scabies and said go to my doctor, what followed was a nightmare, I was mortified with horrible insecticide creams that my partner and I had to cover ourselves in, but no improvement, all bedding was washed in fact everything was washed, still the excruciating itching went on and rash spread, I use to cry with it, in the end went to private Dermatologist who examined me with a blue light and said it was not scabies! no sign of that, I had lots of tests and it turned out to be a severe histamine response IgE levels were high, he said it was chronic Urticaria, it went on for six weeks and then went. An experience I never want to repeat.

Hi Bobbydog24,
I have had scabies myself, and found the doctor's drug to be extremely toxic.
Instead, consider the best natural substance: Neem Oil!
It worked well for me. Gone in 24 hours, and takes away the itch at the same time.
be sure to buy a 100% Neem Oil quality brand. Stuff stinks a bit, but works, and it's safe. Use it on petes' coats when they're outside, too.

I had something similar which spread so widely over the back of my legs I ended up seeing a skin specialist... turned out to be a form of mange which I caught from my neighbours dog !

And the dog had got it because my neighbour feeds foxes!

Didn't know humans can get mange... and boy did it itch !!

I had scabies years ago. I picked it up from a taxi driver boyfriend who had an itch on his back that he couldn’t quite reach. I scratched it for him and got them under my nails. The next time I scratched myself they took up home on me. Took ages to get rid off. Had to paint myself all over with Benzylebenzoate (sp) after a hot bath to open the pores. It was cold stuff to slap on and my little sister thoroughly enjoyed making me dance naked around the bedroom as she endeavoured to paint it onto the bits I couldn’t reach. Mother was horrified because she thought only dirty people get them, but that’s not the case, you only have to taste nice. At least that’s what the doctor told her.

As a piano teacher I caught this from a pupil. Kept getting it treated, but then would get reinfected. It suddenly stopped when one pupil left.

There was a whole storyline in Doctors about this! Very infectious apparently (assuming their researchers got it right). No more related to the sufferer being dirty than catching headlice etc. Hope your GS is better soon.