When you talk about strep exposure what do you mean?

[Guest pandas16]

When you say that strep exposure has caused a dramatic downturn do you mean a strep infection?? Just to clarify.

[peglem]

What I mean, not speaking for anyone else, is just that my child has been exposed to somebody who has strep- not an infection, which I would call an infection.

The reason I cite exposure is because you can get (actually SHOULD get) an immune response to exposure only as the body's way of preventing full infection.

[airial95]

My son is very sensitive and reacts to just exposure to strep - without actually contracting an active infection.

 

For example, we will see a startling increase in symptoms OCD, tics, rages - even while on abx. We'll take him in to get cultured, it will be negative, then, around day 2-3 of the backslide, we'll be notified by the school, another parent, etc... that their child, who has regular contact with our son, has strep. We've seen this pattern at least a half a dozen times last year (strep was RAGING through our day care.)

 

The way it was explained to me, the body can be exposed to the bacteria up to 2-3 days before any physical symptoms may show up (sore throat, fever, etc..). The body's immune system starts to mount a defense almost immmedately upon exposure, if it can't fight it off - you get sick.

 

In our children, it's the immune response that causes the symptoms, not the actual bacteria. So he reacts before anyone even has a sore throat.

 

The good news, in our case anyway, is that his reaction to exposures tends to be brief - usually only a few days, and then he'll return to baseline, or fairly close to it.

 

This may be a simplified explination, but it works!! Hope this helps.

Edited March 10, 2011 by airial95

[MomWithOCDSon]

Yes, because my DS is symptomatic and remains on antibiotics, he doesn't actually "catch" an active strep infection. But if one of his friends or family has strep and he's around them, his antibodies go into excessive production (hyperdrive) nonetheless, and his behaviors deteriorate.

[butterflymom]

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Edited October 5, 2015 by tampicc

[Haileymadison]

My daughter on the other hand does not seem to react to exposure. I just found out my daughter's best friend has had recurrent strep infections for 4 months. Her mother does not know if she is not clearing them or they are separate infections. She has spent the night with us. They sit together on the bus and class. My daughter is not on prophylactic antibiotics, so shouldn't she be showing some signs of exposure?

[butterflymom]

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Edited October 5, 2015 by tampicc

[airial95]

Hailey,

 

I think that there are some children who aren't as sensitive to exposure as others. It goes along with the varying degrees of severity we see in kids as well. Some kids remit entirely after abx treatment (either standard or prolonged), some take months and months of a slow grind to get back to where they started.

 

Maybe it takes a higher concentration of the bacteria for her immune system to react, on that occurs when she gets the infection, but not just comes into contact with it?

Edited March 10, 2011 by airial95