So here I go, about to get personal. My sweet little 4 year old has a disease called Lichen Sclerosus. There isn’t a lot known about it. The doctors believe it’s an autoimmune disorder but nothing is known for sure. Basically her private areas are affected. Here, this can explain it better than I ever could, (we are fairly new to this diagnosis) http://www.naspag.org/index.php/pagepediatricvulvar . So it’s kind of been my mission to spread the word because you hear all over about these little girls and women having permanent, painful, awful disfigurations and damage to the area. It can affect having children, sexual relationships, and a lot of people, unfortunately, go untreated for a long time, this was the case with my Lydia, The doctors thought forever it was just a severe yeast infection and would treat for that and it wouldnt work, finally they thought maybe it was just a very serious UTI, and when that ended up not being the case they finally sent her to a pediatric gynocologist who (thankfully) finally had a diagnosis. This is a scary thing to hear as a mother. VERY scary. First of all there is no cure. at all. and sometimes, I repeat, sometimes the treatment will help the symptoms. She can’t wear underwear anymore because it irritates her so badly, she can’t wear jeans, she can’t go swimming for more than 20 minutes, she cant sit in a bubble bath, or a regular bath for that matter for fear of infection, She can’t take a dance class because of the leotards they wear would be to close to her privates and it would hurt very badly, which is heartbreaking because this child has said since she could talk that she wanted to be a dancer. Then I have the added worry of my little one getting the same thing. It is thought to possibly run in families (not at all contagious mind you, just like psoriasis or something of that nature)
So I watch my daughter with a broken heart because I see that it has already affected her self esteem. That is crazy!!!! she’s 4, and she’s smart, and funny and gorgeous and amazing, it saddens me so much that she has a hard time seeing that because of these issues. The itching with this is SO severe that she would be scratching or pulling at it all the time, it’s made her very self concious. also now, she’s having accidents again. She says it’s because she doesn’t feel the pee. I’m going to discuss this with her doctor on Tuesday. I just wanted to post this because if it helps ANYBODY, that would make me happy. I would have loved to have known something about this. If anyone thinks anything is going on with them and has any questions, feel free to contact me and ask. This is something that not much is known about but what I do know, I’m happy to share or find out for you. Also, if this sounds like you or someone you know there is a great group you can find on facebook by typing in the name of the disease. Thanks for listening, and I hope this helps someone! 
