6 yo Son has bullseye and Bartonella rashes... need advice

I am so thankful to have found this forum! I have already read quite a bit on the site, but need some advice...

My son is 6 years old and we live in a tick infested area of VA and my boys play in the woods all the time. We found a tick on him (tiny) 4 months ago. Of course he could've been bitten another time and we didn't know. We just found the tick 4 mos ago and stuck it in the freezer.

We were camping this past Thursday and on Friday morning we noticed a bite on his arm that looked like a bee sting - red whelp. On Saturday morning, it was a clear as day bullseye. Today (Sunday) it's also got a line going up his arm that looks like Bartonella (or an infection following a vein!).

He's had zero other symptoms besides the rashes. We took him to a pediatric urgent care the day the bullseye showed up (before the bartadella line appeared) and they almost sent him home saying "just keep an eye on it and come back if it gets worse"... Then, the doc came back and said she spoke to the other docs and they were going to call in 2 weeks of Amoxicillin and that they couldn't do doxycycline for anyone under 8 years.

Now I don't know what to do. We started the amoxicillin yesterday, but the Bartadella showed up today... I want to beat this early before it turns into anything more. I know early treatment is important. I don't know if I need to see a LLMD for an early infection like this. I don't know if amoxicillin is effective enough for LD and the Bartadella. We are VERY comfortable with herbals as I make most of our medicines already... so, I wondered if I should get a herbal lyme book to support whatever we're doing. It's all overwhelming, but I don't want to miss my chance to hit it out of the park when it's early...

Thank you for any advice you have!

I wanted to post the image, but it's not on a website to link to.

Hi trigirl - welcome to our community!


With an acute infection, treating with several weeks of antibiotics is very effective...but since he has the red line up his arm, I would make an appt. with a LLMD - you may not get an appt. for several weeks. Keep treating with the amoxicillin.

I would not just buy a book and self-treat your son.
If you want to add herbals in...sure, in addition...but I would definitely have him take the abx.


For members recommendations, you can start a new thread: "Looking for LLMD for a 6 year old in/near______" and fill in the blank.
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Antibiotics for sure! Especially since you caught it early. Very good chance for full and complete recovery 😊😊

Thank you all so so much for your advice!

My copy of Healing Lyme should arrive today. I already had astragalus root tincture made, so we're starting that as soon as I can figure the dose for a child.

I spoke to the urgent care office 2 days ago about the red streak and they assumed it was staph - I don't know what it is / was, but it's going away with the rash. I had asked them for a longer course of abx than the 14 days. They didn't want to do it, but with the potential for the streak to be staph, they moved him to Augmentin for the 14 days and said I could do the last week (total 21 days) with amoxicillin. That's the current plan - 21 days with augmentin -> amox. And, following everything with at least astragalus tincture.

At this point, I have been hopeful that that's all we need. HOWEVER, I have a friend that has chronic lyme now and the more I learn, the more I fear not truly getting rid of it and seeing it come back 2 years later or something... I have not seen a LLMD for him. I also have many friends telling me that they (or their child) had the same bullseye and took 2 weeks of amoxicillin and have been totally fine.

We already have a very low sugar / processed diet. I am giving lots of gut support from probiotic pills, but also sauerkraut, kombucha, kefir, etc. So, I feel good about his diet / general health other than this...
So, I don't know what is best... I'm doing 3 weeks abx, and planning to supplement with herbs and diet.

If you all have any additional recommendations or think I'm being naive to think we may not need to see the LLMD, please let me know. We are open to going to a LLMD, but my friend told me that there isn't one in VA, that she has to travel to Rockville, MD (2.5 hours from me) and they don't accept insurance, but she's happy with the doc. That's fine with me if I need to do that! Just don't want to go and have the doc be like, "why are you here?... he's totally fine!"

Thanks!

I want to chime in here as someone who has kids with Lyme (2 - 6 year olds and a 10 year old - all given Lyme by me when I was pregnant). Having kids with chronic Lyme SUCKS, and I wouldn't want you to have to experience that.

I would definitely find an LLMD / LLND in your area who can help you navigate this.

I would also find out about treating co-infections; many of those won't respond to the same antibiotics, if they respond to antibiotics at all as Borrelia. We use herbs to treat, and there are plenty of herbs that are great for co-infections.

I hope you can get your son in soon so he doesn't have a long interruption in the treatment.

i'm not sure what that behavior is - it does sound like a tic.

Sometimes children get PANS/Pandas from Lyme and co's.