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My baby’s been burnt!

14/2/2019

The mother was frantic.

“I don’t know what happened” she cried to the Paediatrician, “he was just a bit irritable when I put him to sleep last night and had a bit of redness around his mouth, but this morning his skin is falling off!” She then dissolved into floods of tears.

The Paediatrician took one look at the blisters and broken skin around the baby’s umbilicus and nappy area and asked “could he have been scalded with hot water at all? He looks burnt!

When do cold sores become a medical emergency?

7/2/2019

“Can I discuss an unwell baby?” asked the Neonatal Registrar.

“Of course, what’s the story?” replied the Microbiologist.

“We have a baby who is just over 24 hours old. They were born at term in good condition but started to grunt and looked mottled by 4 hours. We brought them to the Neonatal Unit, did blood cultures and started IV Benzylpenicillin and Gentamicin as per guidelines but they’re not really improving. Do you think we need to change the antibiotics? Has anything grown in the blood culture?”

The Microbiologist chose to ignore the last question as blood cultures are incubated in an automated incubator which scans the bottles every 10 minutes. If the blood culture where positive then it would have been phoned already.

“Is the baby’s mother okay? Have there been any problems during the pregnancy. Was the mother fully vaccinated? Was the labour normal? Is there anything else you’ve noticed about the baby, any odd lumps, bumps or spots?” asked the Microbiologist.

My baby’s been burnt!

When do cold sores become a medical emergency?

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