Boils or Red Lumps on your Baby’s Head

What is a Boil?

A boil is caused by a staph bacteria. It looks like a big bright red skin lesion above the scalp. It commonly occurs on your baby’s head or forehead. It can spread to other body parts too if the infected area is touched and then comes in contact with other body parts. It often occurs in areas where there is so much sweat like the head scalp, forehead, armpits, diaper area, ears, and nose.  It is not harmful and will go away on its own without any treatment. They usually come in summers and monsoons when there is so much heat and sweat in the body. Many elders say that eating so many mangoes at a time in summer can also cause these boils to show up in kids and elders. For a parent, boils may look scary and painful. But there is no need to worry about it at all. You should just take care of those boils properly by cleaning them every day and maintaining proper hygiene for your baby so that the boils don’t spread to other body parts.

The staph bacteria enter our body if there are any cuts, injuries, or big pores on our skin. Since our scalps have big open pores, they can enter the scalp more easily. They usually start with a very small tiny red dot. As soon as the bacteria enter our body, the white blood cells present in our body come to the infected area to fight the infection. This usually takes 3 to 4 days. Till that time the lump gets a little bigger and bright red. Once the white blood cells fight off the infection, the dead bacteria, white blood cells, and hair follicles combine to become the pus and blood in the lump. They come out of the lump slowly after 3 to 4 days. We can also try to clean it off or remove the puss with a clean cloth or tissue. One boil takes one week time to completely vanish away. They start small and become big and again become small and fade away. Many kids get boils one after the other after a gap of one to two weeks. Thatshwy you should always try to keep your baby clean, and dry, and avoid sweating in them as much as possible.  If they sweat too much due to any other reasons, give them a warm bath right away or change their dress and clean them with a wet cloth or wipe.

It is very important to clean and dry all the pus in the boil as it can affect other body parts if not cleaned properly. In the olden days, elders used to clean the pus and apply a plaster on the lump so that the kids wouldn’t scratch it and wouldn’t infect other areas. But nowadays, doctors don’t recommend plaster. They give an antibacterial ointment to apply on the boils 3 times a day. For some kids, these boils may be painful, and may also get a fever due to pain. For some kids, it doesn’t bother them at all. And some kids, may not get any boils or lumps though they sweat too much in summer. It all depends on the body type. Some people have heated bodies and some have cold bodies.

My personal Experience:-

I have 2 kids. My elder son has a different body type and my second daughter has a very opposite body type. My son has a cold body, so he doesn’t sweat much when we go out in summer or play in parks. He never got any rash, boils, lumps, or any other things due to sweat or hot weather. He used to feel cold even if the air conditioner was at 27. When he was a baby, he used to wear head caps, socks, and mittens and never sweats. Only in very hot temperatures, or when he runs in the playground, he used to sweat a bit. Sometimes when I was not feeling well, I didn’t give him baths the whole day, and still, he was ok with it and he didn’t get any lumps or boils.

But my daughter has a heated body. She sweats a lot even in AC and fan. When we go outside, she is the one who feels hot instantly. She needs a full high-speed fan or the air conditioner temperature to be at 21 or 23 to feel normal. She didn’t wear any head caps or socks when she was a baby, as she used to sweat a lot just 10 minutes after she wore her head cap. She needed a bath every day and headbaths thrice a week to feel fresh. If I don’t bath her she will start to sweat again and feel oily all the time. Before I didn’t know about her body type as she was very small. Slowly when she got rashes, boils, and lumps on her head and skin, I understood her body and started taking care of her more accurately.

I was in India, and it was a summer season. And in the summer, we get different types of tasty mangoes. Since everyone is fond of mangoes, we also bought so many mangoes at home and ate them happily. At that time, my daughter was one year old. She was also very fond of mangoes and ate them as much as she could. Just one week after she ate the mangoes, she got a tiny red dot on her left side forehead. We thought it was a small pimple and would go away on its own. Slowly on the second, and third days, it started getting bigger. On the fifth day, it was as big as a small blueberry and its color was bright red. At that time, she also needed a vaccination, so we went to the hospital and told her pediatrician about the pimple. The doctor told us that these are called boils, and it is common in some children during summer. He gave us an anti-bacterial ointment called T-bact (Mupirocin ointment) and told us to apply it on the boil thrice daily for 3 days. He also told that some babies might also get a fever along with the boil due to the severe pain of the boil.  We did the same, applied the ointment daily, cleaned the lump with a clean wet cloth and the boil went away completely after 5 days, and my daughter got no fever. She was completely normal and happy.

After a week again, she got the same boil on the scalp of the head. It also started slowly and grew into a big bright red boil with puss and blood inside. I applied ointment again, and it went away within a week. After 2 weeks, she got it again on the back of the scalp. Applied ointment again and it went away within a week. And the last time she got the boil was on the left side of her forehead. And this was a little scary. At first, it started with a very small red dot. After 2 days, it started getting bigger and got filled with yellow-colored puss. After 4 days, when she woke up in the morning, her left eye was fully swollen and she was not able to open her eye. Initially, I got very scared. I didn’t understand why it happened. After some time, when she was not feeling any pain, and was totally normal and playing happily, I thought maybe it happened because of the boil. Since the boil that she got this time was very near to the eyebrow, it spread to the eye. And on the same day in the morning, all her pus came out of the boil automatically. I cleaned all the pus with a soft tissue and applied the ointment again. The swelling slowly cured till night. I didn’t apply any cream or oil on the eye.

After 2 days, her boil went away and she became completely normal again. Now I understood the cause of her boils and started giving head baths to my daughter thrice a week and daily body baths. After a few days, we removed all her hair too as it was summer and her hair was also a little thin. She didn’t get anything like that afterward. Proper hygiene is very important in some kids. Some kids can handle the sweat, dust, and dirt. Some get allergic to it and develop rashes, infections, boils, lumps, etc. Many people think that those who get boils on the head, will not get hair on that part of the scalp. But this is not true. They will get their hair back within a few months.

In my childhood, I remember my sister got this one boil on her scalp that was so big and painful that she used to cry with pain. At that time she was 8 years old. It was as big as a strawberry. Bright red with full of pus leaking from the boil. At that time doctors gave bandages to apply on boils so that it doesn’t spread to other parts of the body and due to the bandage pressure the puss and blood will come out automatically. They also gave her antibiotic medicines to cure fast. She didn’t go to school for a few days due to pain. It slowly healed after 2 to 3 weeks. It took time as it was very big.

How to prevent boils?

1. Avoid more exposure to the sun mainly in summer.
2. Avoid more sweat as much as possible.
3. Maintain good hygiene every day.
4. Have baths daily. In summer you can have 2 baths a day.
5. Have head baths thrice a week.
6. Wash your hands after you touch any dirty surfaces.
7. Apply moisturizers in summer and sunscreen when you go out.
8. Drink plenty of water.
9. Eat more watery fruits like watermelon, musk melon, coconut water, and oranges.
10. Drink buttermilk and fresh homemade fruit juices in summer.
11. Use mild shampoo on the scalp.
12. Avoid perfumed oils and hard conditioners on the scalp.

Treatment:-

• Many boils don’t need any medical treatment. They come and go away on their own.
• If your baby feels severe pain in the boil or if she gets a fever, give her paracetamol after consulting your pediatrician.
• Don’t let your baby touch the boil or scratch it with their fingers. It might spread to other areas.
• Clean the boil with a soft wet cloth every day.
• Keep the infected area dry.
• If your doctor prescribed antibiotics for your baby to fight off bacteria, give them on time.
• Always check for any other symptoms coming along with the boil.
• If your baby is feeling irritated, low appetite, and crying continuously take her to the doctor.
• Some boils that are very large and impossible to drain all the pus from them, need surgery, to remove all the pus from them and clean it properly.
• Apply T-bact ointment on the boil for fast recovery.
• You can give a head bath to your baby if she has a boil on her head. Just make sure the infected area is kept dry at the time of the bath. A head bath will prevent your baby from getting more boils on other parts of the head.