What Do You Mean My Kid Has MRSA?

A few days ago I noticed that 2 of my 3 toddlers had sores on their noses.  My first thought was that we had been on vacation and in the moist ocean air and upon returning to the desert they just got really dry.  But as it wasn’t looking any better and actually started to move from one nostril to another…literally overnight…I knew it was time for a trip to the doctor.

**scary music**

After the doctor said MRSA…I don’t remember much after that.  I remember sitting there thinking how the hell did this happen? I am always telling my kids to wash their hands.  When I take my girls into a public restroom I won’t let them touch ANYTHING! And we still all scrub our hands when we are done and I open the door with a towel before chucking it in the trash.germs antibacterial MRSA kids health

I clean my house regularly and wipe all the doorknobs and light fixtures with a bleached rag.  My kids take baths and showers and practice as good of hygiene as kids at their age can.  Mind you…I have never been one of those mothers that is spraying every place she goes with an antibacterial spray or carrying bottles of hand sanitizer on her belt loops….but now I am.

After coming out of the fog of the doctor saying those dreadful words I scooped up my kids, dropped them off at home with daddy, and off to Wal-Mart I went where I spent $80 on anything and everything from Lysol to 10 bottles of hand sanitizer.antibacterial MRSA  I also picked up 2 tubes of prescribed antibiotic ointment and some children’s probiotics which were recommended by the doctor.

The doctor informed me that I needed to cut their fingernails pretty much to the quick and to apply the ointment up their noses and onto the tips of their fingers…3 to 4 times a day.  And to keep them from coming in contact with each other since my 4 year old doesn’t have any signs of it.  Do you know how hard it is to keep 3 toddlers from touching their faces and each other?!?!?  She wouldn’t know cause her kids were 10 years apart! germs germ-X antibacterial hand sanitizer MRSA health kids

Now of course I did as every mother does and started looking up everything about MRSA on the internet.  To the point where I just had to stop because the more I read the more it all started to scare the shit out of me.  The only thing that was helpful in reading is that they could have gotten it ANYWHERE! And all they had to do was touch the infected area and then touch their face.  Not that it’s good news but it made me feel a little relieved in knowing that it wasn’t my fault.

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49 thoughts on “What Do You Mean My Kid Has MRSA?”

  1. I saw this post in my email and I just had to come over and comment. I am a pediatric nurse, and not that MRSA isn’t something to worry about, a lot of kids get it. MRSA is one of those things that can live on your skin and you never know it until it gets into a wound. It is a big deal, but it is also treatable, thankfully. Good luck in keeping your kiddos apart though!

    Yeah, and I have to add DON’T USE GOOGLE FOR MEDICAL ADVICE, please!! I can’t tell you how many times a mom or dad has googled something just to come to the hospital acting like their child is dying, and they say “well I saw on Google…” and usually it is almost all wrong. My mom was one of those, she hear a co-worker has MRSA and she instantly texted me and told me to get my daughter checked because she didn’t want her to get sick and end up in the hospital and so on. But as a nurse I am always a carrier of MRSA as are a lot of people.

    Good luck with your kiddos! And if you have any questions I am here to help!

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Thank you so much for your reply and kind words. I really do try not to be a “Google” mom but I was so confused upon leaving the doctors office due to my own mind trailing off while the doctor was shooting out all these big words that I needed to do a bit more research. Thanks again for reaching out 😀 appreciate it so much!

      Liked by 1 person

  2. How terrible!! Gosh, there’s no doubt in my mind that this had nothing to do with you not being cleanly or taking care of your kids. Completely out of the question. Ugh. This is just one of those things that happens that you’d never expect. I’d be spending all the $ at Walmart, too! Hoping this all goes away quickly and that you can keep your sanity with all the med dispensing and touching avoidance! Positive thoughts coming your way! Xx

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Thank you Katie. I have calmed down a lot more today then I was yesterday. I was just so upset yesterday but yes the truth is it’s something they could have gotten from anywhere and we have been so many places lately. Kids are just little germ carriers and of course now that they need to keep their distance from one another they all want to wrestle! Thanks for your kind words and positive thoughts Katie 😀

      Liked by 1 person

  3. It’s crazy how contagious MRSA is. I’m glad you are feeling better about it all today. I’d have done the same thing – freaked out, bought everything imaginable to try & fix the situation & then do a mad google search & freak out more…then pry myself away. Yup, done that so many times. It’s impossible to keep them away from each other. Good luck hun & keep us posted x

    Liked by 2 people

  4. I actually never heard of MRSA until a few years ago when a family member said her son had it. I had no idea what it was. My sister told me (because she is around this family member more than I am on account that I live in a different state), that the kids rarely gets bathed, doesn’t wash his hands and mom isn’t clean either. I had no idea you could actually catch it from somewhere. That’s scary! I hope your kids get better soon, and good luck!

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Anyone who knows me and sees me regularly knows that I am almost OCD about cleanliness which I’ve also read can be hurting sometimes too because then when you’re kids are exposed to something they are more proned to get it. We have been to so many public places lately that it just could have been anywhere.

      Liked by 2 people

  5. No need to freak out! Unfortunately our bodies see Staph as normal flora, something that is supposed to be there, so our immune systems don’t fight it off. MRSA is spreading through the population, and sooner or later everyone will be colonized. All the frantic cleaning in the world won’t work, and neither will keeping them apart for a few days, because colonization is forever. The only thing that seems to help keep the population down is a bleach bath once a week (1/4 cup of bleach in a regular sized bathtub, then rinse off in the shower. Treat wounds with the prescription topical quickly, and keep their nails short and clean.
    On the positive front: if it was just a sore on the nose it was likely not MRSA, but the old fashioned staph that causes impetigo. MRSA generally gives you deep abscesses, not just crusty sores. Break out that google app we all hate so much and search “impetigo.” I bet it matches.

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  6. To lighten up the tone and give you a much needed laugh… might I suggest you put the kids in the cones they put dogs in to keep them from touching their noses? 😉
    I hope they are all good! Xoxo Melanie
    P.S. I’m a mom too and I know this is a nightmare for ya. Sending my love!

    Liked by 1 person

  7. I didn’t know anything about MRSA before reading your post and all of the comments. I think I would have done the same and freaked out and consulted Dr Google. It’s horrible to be reminded that we can’t protect our children from everything and sometimes we’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hope your children recover quickly! #bestandworst

    Liked by 1 person

  8. It’s actually pretty misunderstood MRSA, alot of people don’t realise that actually we all carry ir around and until we have an open wound it isn’t always discovered. Don’t panic, you’ve done nothing wrong at all. I was mortified when I found out that my son had worms, gahhh!! Thanks for linking up to the #bestandworst 🙂 Hope you’ll pop by again.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Glad you caught it and is being treated and I have never heard of it before but bless you it’s not your fault and these things get caught anywhere as you say. Hope it’s on it’s way out and you are back to your routines of toddlers touching each other. I have two tots myself no way could I keep them apart and not touch each other. lol Thank you so much for linking up to Share With Me. #sharewithme

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It’s hard to keep them germ free… Let me rephrase that…it’s impossible! I am happy to report that they are all healing up and now we are getting ready to go camping again **shrieks** Thanks for popping over for a visit from the lovely #twinklytuesday


  10. Stressful! Are they selling bubbles to put your babies in? We’re clean but we’re not hand sanitizer clean. Dreading what bugs the baby will bring home with him from school.


    Liked by 1 person

    1. 2 of my 3 started preschool last year and for 2 months it was a constant snotty noses in this house! It drove me INSANE! And then when I would take them to drop them off there wasn’t a single kid that didn’t have snot oozing from their nose. I was about to say forget it…I will home school but yeah I don’t want to be one of those mothers either. I want my kids to have fun and play in the dirt and get dirty and be kids! I want them to have friends and run and play and BE KIDS! Luckily everything is cleared up and the 4 year old never got it. My best advice is if you see a sore that doesn’t look like its healing within a day or so take them to the doctor. Early detection is key. Thanks for popping over from #TwinklyTuesday!


      1. Yes, I work at a school so I know how it is. It think after the first year immunity builds and life gets easier. Good tip on early detection. We’re worry warts who rush to the Drs for everything anyway 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

    1. I went through a mad woman cleaning frenzy and disinfected everything even though though the doctor assured me that it didn’t come from my house unless I live in some type of hoarder conditions which I am far from. But I just felt so out of sorts when I left the doctors office. So now I have huge bottles of germ-X sitting out all throughout the house and remind the kids throughout the day to wash their hands really good and use the germ-X. I have also been keeping their nails short since bacteria strives underneath there and we managed to keep the 4 year old from getting it. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment.

      Liked by 1 person

  11. This is a great thing to share to reduce the stigma from being a carrier of MRSA. Undoubtedly we all are from time to time and its totes normal, as a lot of medics and nurses have said above! Bacteria are everywhere and normal, you can’t every get rid of them, you just have to live with the good and not so bad ones (and annihilate the ones that make you really sick) #twinklytuesday

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yes at first I was just terrified but we saw a different doctor a couple days later who assured me that they were going to be fine as long as I followed the instructions with the ointment. The 3 year old did have to do a round of antibiotics for she has eczema which interfered with the impetigo. But they are all healed now and I am just finishing up the cream and antibiotics. Thanks for popping over and saying hello.


    1. They went in again to see a different doctor and it was diagnosed as impetigo which can still be serious if not caught but I caught theirs in the very early stages and they are pretty much healed up now. And (knock on wood) thankfully the 4 year old is clear! Thank you for popping over…hope I didn’t scare you…doctor said they most likely got it from one of the beaches we visited. We were in so many public places on our vacation it’s just hard to say. But we have to get out of the house…can’t stay cooped up worried about impetigo right?

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you. The 5 year old is all cleared up, luckily the 4 year old didn’t get it, and my 3 year old had to start a strain of antibiotics because she has eczema and it was causing some problems. But she is doing much better. Thank you so much for hosting and I will be there!


  12. Ah bless you all, hope the 3 year old is doing better, eczema and anything like that must be horrid! I would have also turned to google and had to pry myself away. How scary :(. Monkey had salmonella at 10 months…picked it up from the child minder but I had to have conversations with environmental health and had visions of them coming and telling me its my fault because I hadn’t kept the house clean enough!! Que working mum guilt!! xx #TwinklyTuesday

    Liked by 1 person

    1. YES! It didn’t matter how many times the doctor assured me that we most likey picked it up at a beach or one of the million public restrooms we had to encounter on our vacation but I still felt like a horrible mom. Needless to say it didn’t keep us at home cause here we are camping again right next to a river. I just refuse to be one of those moms who doesn’t let my kids be kids and get dirty either. What fun is that?

      Liked by 1 person

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