Repeat Strep Throat

[jmjsmomma]

I am pretty certain that this is coincidental, but I thought I'd run it by you Mom experts anyway! My 5 yo has been gluten free since Jan 9 of this year. He had strep throat for the first time in mid Feb, and now he has it again. I'm sure it's genetic, I had my tonsils out when I was five, but I still have that niggling question in the back of my mind that he has had this twice in two months since being diagnosed. Maybe something lacking in his diet or something? He eats GREAT...lots of fresh fruits, veggies, fresh meat and fish. I have him on Animal Parade multi vitamins but nothing else. I'd be curious for you thoughts. Thanks!

[Roda]

Is he or any of your other kids in daycare or are they at home? It is quite common for kids that are not around alot of other people and kids to be quite healthy and after they start daycare or school to come down with everything. It is just where they were not exposed and now their immune systems are finding all kinds of new things. Both my boys have had their fair share of strep and my youngest even had a bout of mrsa in his tonsils. Neither one is celiac, however I do question an intolerance in the oldest. My oldest now 8 really was never sick until he was almost three when we put him in daycare for the first time. After that he got literally everthing. When we discovered his allergies and started treating that he has done well. My youngest who is 4 was around his brother and entered day care at six mo. He caught everything also. He has been seening an allergist since 14 mo. and for the last 1 1/2 years has been pretty healthy too. I actually loose track when they get sick now because it is that infrequent and I chalk it up now to just getting something thats going around.

Edit: Our allergist told us that the bowel is very important in maintaining the immune system. I have been giving my kids probiotics since I can remember. My oldest actually had a scaley patch on his back that would not go away no matter what I tried. After about 2-3 month on the probiotics it went away. The allergist was not suprised. He said that the probiotics help with T-cell production.

[swalker]

I found this on a Doctors forum

If your child has repeated strep throats, it is possible that they may be a strep carrier. This can be confirmed by a positive strep test when they are feeling well without any sore throat. If he/she is a carrier, then the strep test is not useful to guide treatment for a sore throat since strep may simply be an

[Roda]

What swalker said is true. Was he symptomatic? Because my boys had it so much I had all of us tested for strep when we were all well. None of us were carriers. I did have one instance where the rapid strep test was wrong. When my youngest was around 2 1/2 he and his brother got strep. This was confirmed by the rapid strep test in the dr. office. When the youngest did not get any better after the antibiotic I had both of them cultured. This is different than the test they do in the office. They swab them and grow it in the lab. Anyway, they had another test in the office that still showed the strep. Three days later when I recieved the culture on both of the boys it showed that neither one had strep. The youngest had mrsa (Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and the oldest did not have anything. Even after the mrsa positive culture it took us a round of bactrim and two rounds of Clindamycin to clear him up. I have had him cultured since then and there is no sign of any mrsa and he has not had a recurring infection from it. So if he does not seem to be getting better or keeps getting recurrent infections close to ending the antibiotic then it may warrant getting a culture. I'm pretty impressed he went until he was five to get his first strep infection. Also, do you have pets? Our ped told us that pets can be carriers of strep and the kids can pick it up from the animals.

[jmjsmomma]

Thanks for your replies. I am a stay at home Mom, so the kids aren't in daycare. Jackson is in a bridge kindergarten class 2 half days a week, but he's been at that preschool since he was three. He's got to be getting it from school though, both times he's fallen ill with it he's complained of a sore throat the next day after being at school. I'll mention it to his ped next time I'm in about being tested. We do have a pet, a 9 year old Lab. He probably just takes after his old Mom....he is the most like me physically/emotionally and given I had my tonsils out at 5 for recurrent tonsilitis! I did throw out all three kids toothbrushes last time and got new ones, and have done the same this time.

[sugarsue]

I don't have much to offer but your question is interesting to me since my dd6 has had recurring strep in her lower private area since going gluten free. She's gotten it twice and may have it again since going gluten-free in September of last year. Weird.

[Roda]

I don't have much to offer but your question is interesting to me since my dd6 has had recurring strep in her lower private area since going gluten free. She's gotten it twice and may have it again since going gluten-free in September of last year. Weird.

My boys have always got tonsillitis or sinus infections from strep. My youngest was the one with mrsa in his tonsils and we were told that it does not infect there as often as the skin. The oldest has had impetigo on his face and in his nose which on culture was just regular staph. My husband did get a really nasty eye infection that was both strep and staph and he also had orbital cellulitis which damaged the muscle in his eye. Did you have the area cultured? Ususally infections in that area are usually staph or yeast. But then again mine was the odd one out with marsa in his tonsils.

[sugarsue]

Did you have the area cultured? Ususally infections in that area are usually staff or yeast. But then again mine was the odd one out with marsa in his tonsils.

We did have the area cultured (very traumatic!) the first time but not the second time. If it gets full blown again, I'll take her back to the doc to see what he suggests. Before we went the first time, I thought it was probably yeast but then it got so bad I didn't know what it was and was surprised that it came back as strep.

Thanks!