Lorna at Vicenza

Have any of you heard of this?
On Tuesday I spent almost three hours in hospital with Alex. His feet and legs were covered in a burning, mad itchy rash and it was getting worse and coming out in other parts of his body. After an hour in the "pronto soccorso" waiting room and three ice packs, Alex had completely removed his socks and shoes and was ready to cut his own skin off. The old ladies who usually love to complain about things and exchange medical horror stories had all started to feel sorry for him and kept asking why he was still in the waiting room and hadn't been sent up to paediatrics? I wondered that myself as they don't usually keep kids hanging about too long.

I managed to grab hold of a different triage Dr to tell him that Alex couldn't take it anymore and his face was starting to look red and swollen by now. He gave Alex a more thorough check up and then he did ring paediatrics saying that A&E was very busy and would somebody there take a look at a lad who was burning up and clearly suffering.

He was seen by a young Dr who kept asking what he had eaten. Nothing different to what he has eaten a hundred times before although I do know that allergies can come on at any time. She asked where he had been. Halfway up the mountains on Sunday to watch a rally car race. By this time the rash was all over his groin, growing up his chest and had attacked his armpits too.

She didn't come up with anything except for "acute cutaneous itchy rash" (no kidding Sherlock), filled him up with antihistamine and cortisone, made him take a couple of puffs of Ventolin and sent us home.

Later, a friend of mine who is a Guardia Forestale said, "Oh I've seen that before. It's a kind of grass mite/ parasite ..... like dust mites but it lives in grassland and fields etc and is worse in the Spring when the council workers haven't been out yet to mow and trim the land, grass verges and hedgerows etc and they've been left wild all winter.

Later still an American friend told me, "that looks like Chiggers. I got it once in summer camp after running through long grass and it was all the way up my legs and I was totally miserable for at least a week."

I looked up Chiggers and it does indeed seem to be what Alex has and it makes sense seeing that the only thing he did over the weekend was sit on the grass verges with his mates watching the rally cars race up the curvy mountain road. He was fully clothed and not wearing shorts but my friend said that it's a nasty little bugger and can get everywhere. Alex's mates are fine though.

It makes me wonder how the Guardia Forestale and an American knew about this grass mite but not the Drs?

No idea why it suddenly attacked Alex now as it's not the first time he's been out playing in fields, down by the river, in the mountains etc. The rash still looks awful today but at least the crazy itching has almost gone.

philat98

I've been bitten this week in the garden by some critters. I only noticed the big red bumps at night and never saw the culprits at work. I thought it was the dogs fault and bought him a collar but it might have been your Chiggers.

GeorgeYoung

The only time I've heard of this was in a song by Seasick Steve which he introduced as being about "this nasty little bug which gets on your ankles and bites you".

Wasn't aware it was something you could get in Italy.

Come si dice "chiggers" in Italiano?

Geordieborn

Harvest mites in the UK, wiki here has details, not that common. Philat98 are your bites itchy ? They sound like they might be black fly of which there are many around here this year. Damp soil at knee hight is their favourite, especially if you are digging or weeding.

philat98

Yes they are irritable and last about 2 days. More or less like the inflamation after a bee sting.

SanDiegogirl

Husband suffered from chigger bites after hiking in open area in Missouri. They are a well known problem there.

They are microscopic mites. We did not wash down our legs after the hike (which most hikers in MO do) and had a 1.5 hour drive home before showering off. By next morning hubby had the itches.

He treated it a 'just bites' and put on a topical cream - however it got worse and by the second day he has a bracelet of red itching lumps around both his ankles. Ended up going to doctor, who said it was a bad case of chiggers and provided strong topical cream together with an antihistamine jab.

Nasty little devils. However from your description of the rash going up the body (which chigger rash does not normally do) it could have been a reaction to brushing against something like Poison Oak.

Lorna at Vicenza

It went slowly up the body to reach armpit level.

Lorna at Vicenza

What he really said to me was, "mummy, my balls are on fire but I don't want to show you them."

Lorna at Vicenza

His armpits had it.

Jerseygirl

Otherwise known as no-see-ums.

Geordieborn

If it is them,when they attack they first of all use an anticoagulant which also numbs the area of the bite, so quite often you are not aware of it. I’ve become used to noticing a mild burning and often caught one of the blighters on me. They tend not to move fast and almost have to be pulled out of the skin, then you bleed! I’ve found lots of Anthisan works, but on real bad cases I use very hot water or a spoon dipped in hot water to stop it itching for up to 8 hours – great at nights!

BEVS

Black fly is called sand fly here in New Zealand and the barstewards are a protected species !
I have a rather nasty reaction to them .

To start with Lorna it did sound like chiggers. We had common land opposite our childhood home & at certain times getting bitten was likely. Same for a walk through the fields.

From what you write though this rash spread upward so unless it was a timed bite fest by the critters , it doesn't quite match.

SanDiegogirl

..... which being bitten by chiggers does not happen. The red lumps stay where the chigger has bitten and/or burrowed into you.

So unless your son got bitten all over his legs and torso, it was not chiggers.
More likely a reaction to plant toxin etc.

Jerseygirl

I thought that was odd too.

SanDiegogirl

Oh yes, I forgot about the fact they have this anticoagulant so you don't notice them straight away! and that they can burrow under the skin - hence why wise hikers in MO scrub their legs down when they have finished hiking!