Help! How Do I Get Rid Of Ringworm Forever?

DD has ringworm and it is being incredibly stubborn. It is much better since the ped changed her cream, but I want to know if I need to treat the house. When she was an infant, she had one little small spot on her belly that went away easily with treatment. This case is not so easy. The large area on her bottom is almost gone, but these little spots keep popping up on her bottom, thighs and groin area and I just keep putting cream on her.

We have a dog and I have an appt. with the vet Monday to have him checked. DD loves him and is always petting him, crawling into his beds, and playing with his food/water bowls. I don't allow her to play in his dishes or beds, but she gets in there before I can stop her. I take her away immediately, but she still has contact. The other possibility is that the previous owners of our house had cats. If the spores are in the house or yard, that could be the source. I am washing the dog's bedding and vacuuming today as a start since I have to work the rest of the week and can't do everything today.

Do I need to treat the house, lawn, linens, clothes, etc.? What do I use? I have only heard that bleach works, but I can't bleach the carpets and furniture (he's a small dog and gets up on the sofa with us). I know regular vacuuming is supposed to help (you have to throw away the bags immediately). If I vacuum the furniture would that work? I can use bleach on the tile floors then rinse later, but how do I treat the wood laminate floors?

Again, I don't know that the dog has it - no evidence of it - but the cats that were here before us have me wondering.

Thanks,

I don't know about treating the house, etc. but I had a stubborn case of ringworm back when I was a teenager that wouldn't go away with any of the creams. There were two patches on it on the back of my leg (I think I got it from a stray neighborhood cat). My grandma suggested that I take a little bit of bleach, dilute it with water, and rub it on the infected areas. I did and it went a way immediately and never came back!

***Latia
Birth and Postpartum Doula

Conner 8/19/03 (homebirthed water baby)
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/aug2003angel
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Would you recommend using bleach on a 17 month old?

My sister does the bleach thing as she works with animals and has gotten ringworm a couple of times, but I personally wouldn't do it on a baby. Yes, it kills the ringworm for good, but at least in my sister's case it also leaves slight scarring.
Sorry I don't have any batter advice than to wash everything (sheets, etc) in hot water, which I'm sure you are doing, and to be really vigilant about proper hand washing with everyone in the family. How long has she been on the cream? It may be time for another ped visit.
Hugs, hope it's gone for good soon.

The first cream wasn't working, so we just went back last Thursday. We are using a new cream and it is working better. I just talked to the ped yesterday and he said to give it another 48 hours. It's not that the new cream isn't working (although it is taking forever to go away completely), it's that I want her to stop getting it. I know she probably got this when she was outside playing in the sprinkler and she fell down and sat in the dirt. But, how does a 4 month old get ringworm? She certainly wasn't falling down in the dirt then - lol! The ped said that time it was probably something in the house.

Thanks for your input - I don't think I would use bleach on a child either.

My sister and brother both got ringworm as kids, most likely from the cow barn, and while the creams worked on my brother, they didn't on my sister.

My mom heard somewhere that cold could get rid of it, so my sister held an ice cube on her ringworm for 10 or so minutes every couple of hours, and I think it took a week (give or take) to clear up.

Our vet, when called in to look at the calves that had it, said to spray the spots with something you can get at Agway called blu-kote (maybe blu-cote?), and that it worked on people, too. We never tried it for ringworm on people, but it sure worked on the calves.