We thought it was a fistula but it's....a tropical parasite!

[tanyaya]

Good news - we went to the paediatrician this morning, who monitored the progress of the parasite, said it was definately a tropical parasite as he thought, and prescibed us an ani hook-worm syrup to treat it. Banana-flavoured, so my DS will actually drink it! Thank goodness there is no treatment such as freezing it off involved - we're hoping it all clears up within the few days treatment now.

@shanti - we were in a tourist area 3hourz south of Bangkok on the east coast, in my MIL's villa at a little Swedish resort called mango spa, about 30km westof Hua Hin. According to the paediatrician, this is one of the better things to get in Thailand! It's fairly commong over there, and easy to treat (once diagnosed). Not meaning to scare you. I don't know how you avoid stuff like this, aside from always wearing nappies/shoes maybe? We will probably be going back - the doc said it would have happened if DS was sitting on the ground/grass with a bare bum or thin bathers and the worm crawled up from the sand/grass and ate through the skin. My MIL had the same thing in her feet from walking barefoot (it turns out, as we hadn't wanted to tell her before when we thought it was a fistula before we had a diagnosis, as she has a tendency to freak out.)

@raven - that sounds exactly the same - you can see the track it's made, about 3 cm up and down eastward over two months, although you don't see it actually moving.

So, a very relieved mamma over here - let's see how it goes with the meds - fingers crossed.