I thought my kids had athlete’s foot but the doctor said they had excema. She said children under 10 rarely get athlete’s foot. When I looked on the internet, there were cites verifying that children rarely get athlete’s foot but I couldn’t find anything that explained why. So, why don’t kids get athlete’s foot? I can walk barefoot at a public pool and pick it up but my kids are immune until they grow older?
Kids don’t tread as heavily, even on a public pool floor - maybe that’s one reason… They probably don’t get as much exposure to the same fungi as adults, if they don’t go to athletic clubs to work out…And maybe, their moms scrub them better or dry them better, or see to it that they scrub better in the tub and dry more thoroughly, while us older folks give it more of a lick and a promise…Their feet may not sweat as much during the day as an adult’s, giving fungi a less hospitable spot in which to flourish (my best guess).
Also, kids are more pure of heart.
Nah.
Athlete’s foot is too big. Kids generally carry a rabbit’s foot.
I’d bet that since children are more frequently barefoot than adults, they would also see a decreased incidence of athlete’s foot.
Basically, your bare feet are relatively cool and dry when compared to shoed feet, and I bet it isn’t so much exposure to the fungus (it’s likely EVERYWHERE), but providing it a hospitable environment to live and thrive in.
That’s why, in my limited experience, the people who get athlete’s foot regularly usually tend to wear shoes without socks, or probably have some sort of hygiene issue.
And while we’re on the subject, what’s the deal with ringworm? For a long time, I was warned never to go barefoot because I would, not might, get ringworm. I think* Dr. Spock even confirmed this, and gave a specific age range of susceptibility.
*No cite; I just think I remember it. If I’m wrong I’m wrong. In fact, I could be wrong about all of it.
This wins the thread.
Children do get athlete’s foot , and I don’t think it’s rare.
You are correct that some references suggest it’s uncommon. I’m not sure there are any studies about how uncommon it is…
If it is less common, I doubt the reason has much to do with immunity or exposure. Organisms responsible for Tinea pedis are ubiquitous and in my opinion clinical disease should be considered a problem of host defense rather than exposure to an invasive organism. Perhaps in adults there is a larger amount of dark and damp skin between the toes, or perhaps adults more commonly have cracked and flaky skin that traps moisture and provides a nice medium for the fungus to grown. Perhaps pediatricians are not attuned to diagnosing it.
If I had to make a guess (not all that educated), I’d say the smoothness and intactness of the skin on children’s feet is the primary reason tinea pedis does not take hold. Baby skin, basically. But it’s just a guess.
CP I can confirm that it is uncommon, whereas we see contact dermatitis on the feet not at all uncommonly. Most of the time bullous lesions are bullous impetigo and resolve accordingly. Indeed the texts agree that it is rare: “Childhood tinea pedis is rare.” It is interesting that kids get tinea capitus (of the scalp) commonly and pedis rarely. It is also interesting that under two oral thrush is common and that after two it would make us worry about some immune compromise. What changes and why? I don’t know.
The organisms that are implicated in athlete’s foot are much more responsive to an environment that has male hormones present. When puberty arrives, male infections rise, while females of all ages are much less likely to be infected. I could get a cite if required.
I believe that athlete’s foot and ringworm are the same infection, just on different parts of the body.
I don’t think it was the same species as athlete’s foot, but when I was a kid, I had a long-term (many years) fungus infection on the sole of one foot. It didn’t itch much, but the skin on that sole was always peeling away. Eventually, they managed to find an antifungal that worked on it, or maybe my body just finally managed to kick it.
The number of times I got athletes foot after age 12 is exactly zero. Before then I probably got it 2-3 times. I think it was due to improper drying between the toes after daily swimming.
I used to get it so badly as a child that they barred me from taking gym (so that it wouldn’t spread in the locker room) for one year.
What did they have you do instead? That sounds like many dopers’ fantasy.
They put me in remedial gym. I played croquet and other things that didn’t work up enough of a sweat to require a shower. There was a girl in there with a bad hip and two kids who were obese enough that they couldn’t do regular gym.
It stands to reason (but no citation) that puberty and sweat production are largely responsible, as well as the fact that kids’ feet have younger skin which is less prone to tears and cracking.
Kids don’t have to use deodorant because their underarms don’t sweat much. Their feet would be less sweaty, too.
First world kids wear shoes most of the time when outside these days. Compared to a third world country where the kids never wear shoes. Third world feet would naturally be more susceptible to fungal infections.
Hookwormis the parasite you are warned about when it comes to barefeet.
I’m not sure the “texts agree that it is rare” and that’s why I gave a handful of primary citations instead of, say eMedicine.
[*
Conclusions.
“Tinea pedis is not a rare occurrence in children and should be considered in any patient with a foot rash.”*](http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/146/7/844?ijkey=17df37f3d723670d76700e900d7df0381954c9a5&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha)
Here also? :
“TINEA PEDIS and tinea manuum were thought to be rare cutaneous infections in prepubertal children.1-2 More recent reports in the dermatologic literature suggest that dermatophyte infections of the feet and hands are more common in children than previously recognized.3-4 The clinical presentation of superficial fungal infections in children may be varied, nonspecific, and somewhat confusing.”
I admit I don’t remember ever seeing it in a kid, and I’m such a geezer I’m willing to say that if I didn’t see it, it’s gotta be rare. Just sayin’…as far as “texts” go. Maybe we don’t diagnose it because the standard teaching is it’s uncommon. Perhaps–more likely–authors like the above one want to position it as not “rare” to give their paper more signficance. (On the other hand, if I had seen it at least once I’d be saying “In my experience…” and if I’d seen it twice I’d be saying, “Hey, Dseid, in case after case…” But you already know that joke, I’m sure.
I had it when I was a kid. I spent all day all summer at the pool back then. The exact age I don’t remember, but it was before eighth grade (no older than 12 for me).
CP, I don’t think we disagree much: standard texts in general agree that it is rare. Yes there are case reports but a Children’s Hospital Derm clinic being able to culture a fungus in 26 cases over 3 years of patients with foot rashes is still pretty rare. 23 years of primary care practice and less than a handful of presentations that I identified anyway, and if any were atypical presentations that I missed then they got better with what I did anyway. Usually it is the other way around - contact dermatitis or foot psoriasis being presumed to be tinea when it wasn’t.
And as far as old jokes go, you heard about the doc who was telling a another doc about the patient he had that day with syphillis of the great toe? “Yeah, I just saw a woman with athlete’s vagina …”