my 3-year-old boy has had this weird nail condition for about 6 months now. neither my wife nor i know how it started, but one day we noticed that one of his thumb nail was disfigured horribly. at first we thought it was trauma, but he doesn't leave either of our sight for long so that's out. then i thought it was a fungal infection so i used OTC stuff, didn't help. in a few weeks after that some of his other nails are showing signs of infection so we took him to see his pediatrician who referred us to dermatologists. the guy took a look, took some samples for analysis, and called in 3 or 4 of his colleagues, and NONE were able to figure it out. they said it's not a fungal or bacterial infection, they prescribed some kind of steroids that we used topically for a month now with zero improvement. i don't think the nail condition bothers my son - he's bubbly and as energetic as ever - but it bothers the crap out of me and my wife. i've looked far & wide on the internet and read about almost every condition possible and saw some nasty pictures, some seems to have the right description (Onychomycosis?) and though it says you'll need 3 ~ 4 months before it's reverted my son's had it for more than that and i'm just worried.

could it be that the infection is long gone and that's why the doctors couldn't find any signs of infection? if the infection is gone how is it that the nail is still damaged and not restored? and what about his other nails? any suggestions?

 

You are going to need more than an anecdote for someone to help you (e.g. pics).

 

It takes around 8 months for a nail to completely grow out. Might have to pull the entire nail out and let it grow from scratch but that would hurt like a bitch.

 

well...it's a bit nasty (not for me since i'm the dad, but for the rest of you...)


thumb


Seems to be spreading to other nails.

i'm almost certain it's a bacterial/fungal infection but the doctors we went to said they couldn't find any evidence of it. how is that possible?

 

Sometimes psoriasis can look like that. That's not my area of expertise, but you could explore that.

 

if 4 derms don't know what it is after a biopsy, I don't think a few MDs here would.
May I suggest UC Irvine or UCLA?

 

that's what the docs said after they exhausted their options. but after reading the description on wiki it doesn't really seem like it...

i may take him back to socal for further tests but i'll need to see if my insurance would cover it.

 

kind of looks like psoriasis to me.





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Have you tried the Dermatology department at IU? They are pretty well known. I went to Med school there, so I rotated through the department.