Help! Ingrown toenail--I need advice.

[Julie in CA]

My dd10 has what I think is an ingrown toenail. I don't think it's the top edge of the nail, but it's along the side of her big toenail. Over the course of a week or so, it's developed, grown, pussed, popped open like a blister(then she picked off the loose skin on the blister), and now her toe just looks awful. We've been doing epsom salt soaks, and at this point she says it really doesn't hurt very much, it just looks bad. Was I supposed to take her to the doctor for this? I've never had an ingrown toenail before, and I didn't realize it would be this bad!

Do I take her to the doctor?

Am I supposed to be doing something other than the soaks?:bigear:

Somebody, please, just tell me what I'm supposed to do...

Thanks,

Julie

[RoughCollie]

I'm sorry this has happened to your daughter.

 

Here are a couple of websites with some info:

 

http://www.aofas.org/scripts/4disapi.dll/4DCGI/cms/review.html?Action=CMS_Document&DocID=48&MenuKey=#

 

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00154

 

http://www.epodiatry.com/ingrown_nails.htm

 

RC

[Oakblossoms]

Have her take a good long soak in the bath. Then take a cotton ball and soak it in alcohol or tea tree oil. Take a clean pair of tweezers and pick off pieces of it and try to make a little ball. Then squish that little ball into the pocket under the toe nail. Change everyday. This will clean, heal it and keep it open. It can, also, help it grow better. Never, ever pick or clip off the sides of your nails. Keep them longer or shorter...whatever keeps them from having the nail grow into that corner.

[OnEaglesWings]

My dd10 has what I think is an ingrown toenail. I don't think it's the top edge of the nail, but it's along the side of her big toenail. Over the course of a week or so, it's developed, grown, pussed, popped open like a blister(then she picked off the loose skin on the blister), and now her toe just looks awful. We've been doing epsom salt soaks, and at this point she says it really doesn't hurt very much, it just looks bad. Was I supposed to take her to the doctor for this? I've never had an ingrown toenail before, and I didn't realize it would be this bad!

Do I take her to the doctor?

Am I supposed to be doing something other than the soaks?:bigear:

Somebody, please, just tell me what I'm supposed to do...

Thanks,

Julie

 

Take her to the doctor...here's our story:

 

My husband is a family doctor. When my son's toe got all red, he had him do the soaks. When it got pussy, he immediately started him on antibiotics. My son's been off the antibiotics for a few days now, but the toe is still looking nasty and has started getting pussy again. My husband is starting him on another round of antibiotics, but said he will most likely need surgery (yikes!) to cut away the toe nail. He said that needs to be done when it keeps getting infected. He will need to go to a podiatrist for that.

 

HTH!

[melissel]

When I was a young teen, I had to have a part of the root of my toenail cut away to solve a problem that sounded a lot like that. It was gross and freaky, but really quite simple, and now you'd never even know to look at it. The doc numbed the area with a local, cut out the root in a few minutes, I had a stitch or two, and that was it. You might want to visit a podiatrist to be safe. I suffered for weeks with that thing, and the ultimate solution had it fixed up and comfortable in a few days.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

Ingrown toenails hurt -- a lot! Since your dd's toe doesn't hurth, I wouldn't assume it's an ingrown nail.

 

The first thing I would do is buy her larger shoes! Really! My 2yo had a similar problem with her big toe. Her's was a red, swollen, pus oozing, blood-blister-surrounded-by-a-callous kind of thing. It didn't really hurt much, but looked disgusting. I realized (duh) that she'd been wearing the same shoes for a very long time! She hadn't complained about them hurting her feet, and they still went on easily, but it occured to me that maybe they were too small. I stopped putting her old shoes on her (just kept her at home or in flip flops), and her healed within a couple days. I got her bigger shoes last week, and we haven't had a problem since.

[Sandra in NC]

He had both ingrown nails taken care of with surgery about 4 years ago. The podiatrist removed a thin sliver of nail + root on the ingrown side. Now his toenails are narrower, but he is ingrown-nail free!

 

Occassionally another toe gives him trouble, and that's a sign for me to check his shoe size. (My son once wore shoes until they were 1.5 sizes too small w/o complaint. He said they "fit fine", so I had no idea they were too small until we happened to be in a shoe store, trying on shoes.)

 

After the ingrown toenail experience, I buy only New Balance shoes with an SL-2 last for him. They have a high toe-box. He has worn New Balance 880's until they stopped making them....then he wore the 881's.....now he's wearig the 882's.

 

The podiatrist says shoes are key to preventing ingrown nails (as well as cutting toenails properly).

[JFSinIL]

I had to have the surgery to cut away the ingrown toenail on one big toe last spring - it turned out my shoes were 3 sizes too small. I have gone from being a size 6 (pre-kids) to an 8 (post kids) to a 9.5!!!!!!(fat old lady!). What hurt the most was having the giant needle stuck clear through my toe (or so it felt) to numb it so the foot doc. could do his work. I hope to never have another in-grown toenail again!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do not let you kidlet read my post ;) in case the

home-based remedies mentioned by others fail. My toe was too far along the in-grown path for anything less than having the side of the toenail cut away clear to the root.

[Julie in CA]

What I really want to do is bury my head in the sand....

What I will probably do is the cotton ball thing today and then see if it's any improved tomorrow, then call the doc.

I read about ingrown toenails before I posted the first time, but could not decide if that was really the problem because the top edge of her nail is clearly visible--it's just a problem on the side of the nail.

I don't think the nail has been improperly cut, but dd has probably been wearing shoes that are too small. I'll have to check on that today. It's one of the things that falls between the cracks sometimes. Unless one of the kids tells me their shoes are too small, I forget to check!

That thing with going to the doctor sounds nasty. If any of you are pray-ers, would you please pray that home-care things will work for this one?

Thanks a bunch,

Julie

[hose]

My son had the same thing on his toe a couple of weeks ago. I, too, thought it was an ingrown toenail, but it didn't hurt him at all, so I wasn't sure. My dh finally figured out that it was a blood blister. We just put peroxide on it for a few days to keep it clean, it popped, and is healing up nicely. No problemo! I hope it goes as well for you.

[frogpond1]

was always to sand the very top of the toenail in the middle until the nail itself is very thin. This allows the sides to spring up and out of the ingrown skin. It always helped a lot for my toes. I know it won't fix the infection, but it will take the pressure off of the edges. By the top, I mean the area you look straight down on when looking from above- that very center area of the toenail.

[OnEaglesWings]

What I really want to do is bury my head in the sand....

What I will probably do is the cotton ball thing today and then see if it's any improved tomorrow, then call the doc.

I read about ingrown toenails before I posted the first time, but could not decide if that was really the problem because the top edge of her nail is clearly visible--it's just a problem on the side of the nail.

I don't think the nail has been improperly cut, but dd has probably been wearing shoes that are too small. I'll have to check on that today. It's one of the things that falls between the cracks sometimes. Unless one of the kids tells me their shoes are too small, I forget to check!

That thing with going to the doctor sounds nasty. If any of you are pray-ers, would you please pray that home-care things will work for this one?

Thanks a bunch,

Julie

 

Julie,

 

I've said a prayer for you and her! But I also wanted to let you know that the doc probably wouldn't do the surgery thing right away. As in my son's case, my husband first gave him antibiotics. My son's infection was definitely on the side of the toenail. The antibiotics helped at first, but the infection has come back. If this second round of antibiotics doesn't do the trick, then he'll see a podiatrist--who may or may not decide surgery is needed.

 

I wouldn't think there's any harm in waiting a little longer and trying some home remedies (including new shoes!) first. If it persists or worsens, take her to the doc.

[susie in tx]

I've had surgery on both of my toes, both sides of each toe.

 

One way to keep ingrown toenails from happening is to cut the toenails straight across and never tear the nail. My mother always swore that I needed to also cut a v into the middle of the nail so that my toes wouldn't grow into the nailbed, but I dunno if that really works or not.

 

I've had two podiatrists do the surgery on my toes. The first one did my right toe when I was in high school. It was my 16th birthday and his wedding anniversary. Delightful. He numbed the toe with a local anesthetic and did his thing. I don't recall it being incredibly painful. I did have to be careful of the toe for a few days. I've never had a problem with that toe.

 

On my second toe, I waited way too long before I had it looked at. The podiatrist did the work the same day he saw me, it was so bad. When I say I waited too long, it was a very long time. Probably longer than a month. The infection was close to the bone/joint by that time. He did the same procedure that I'd had done previously, though I was a mom of two by that point, and in a different town. One of those sides has since grown back, which I'm told is incredibly rare. It's been infected maybe twice since then and I do the soaks, tea tree oil, antibiotic cream, etc. to help get the infection to go away. It's a pain but I much prefer the toe that won't get infected.

 

All the best to you and your dd. It's something that can be taken care of very easily, if it's an ingrown toenail.

[LizzyBee]

When I had an ingrown toenail, I couldn't see anything to make me think it was ingrown. I went to my podiatrist because it hurt like heck. He cut away a sliver of the toenail, and the relief was instant.

[GraceinMD]

Sounds like a paronychia. Is it still draining? or just red/nasty/dry looking? Any red streaks up the toe or foot?

 

If it's still draining, that's good and you should just soak in warm water / Epsom salts. If it's looking like a pus-filled blister (not draining), it will most likely need to be drained. May or may not need antibiotics (by mouth). If it's already opened and drained, and not collecting more pus, it will probably just take a little while to heal. If there is a red streak, or it's still tender, you should take her in to have it looked at.

 

For future reference, can also do as frogpond1 said - file down the middle of the nail (parallel to the floor) to thin out the nail and the sides will pull in (away from the flesh).

[Julie in CA]

Sounds like a paronychia. Is it still draining? or just red/nasty/dry looking? Any red streaks up the toe or foot?

 

If it's still draining, that's good and you should just soak in warm water / Epsom salts. If it's looking like a pus-filled blister (not draining), it will most likely need to be drained. May or may not need antibiotics (by mouth). If it's already opened and drained, and not collecting more pus, it will probably just take a little while to heal. If there is a red streak, or it's still tender, you should take her in to have it looked at.

 

For future reference, can also do as frogpond1 said - file down the middle of the nail (parallel to the floor) to thin out the nail and the sides will pull in (away from the flesh).

 

Update:

We are still doing the soaks. There are no red streaks, and though it hurts a bit when she pushes on it, I think that's because of the tender-looking new skin that is now exposed because the blister popped. There's still a little bit of pus during the soaks, but it's not looking really swelled up anymore.

I was feeling pretty negligent for not noticing sooner and taking her to the doc, but I think I'm gonna let myself off the hook now that it looks like her toe will probably survive!

Thanks!

Julie