Hello,
Last week my family went to Chuck E Cheese, and there was a toddler there that was following my 4 year old daughter around, climbing up onto the rides while they were already moving, to join my daughter. This toddler was completely unsupervised. Just as we were about to leave, my 4 year old daughter told me that the toddler bit her on the finger.
In my area there are high rates of HIV and perinatal HIV (FL) and this family appeared to me to have risk factors. I am terrified that my daughter could get HIV from this incident, because:
-the toddler was rough-playing, and climbing onto moving rides, so she certainly could have bumped her mouth and been bleeding in the mouth
-my daughter had a hangnail, a pinpoint scab from several hours earlier, and a fingernail that was cut too short that morning, so the skin was red (there was no white part of fingernail, that’s how short).
My daughter said that this toddler put my daughter’s finger into her mouth, moved it to both inner cheeks, chewed on the side of the finger, and then bit hard on the nail. I saw no teeth marks anywhere and it didn’t look like there were any new scabs, or any scabs from what I remember under the nail. I could be wrong though, if it was very small. I'm so worried that the “biting hard on the nail” could've separated the nail from the finger and opened the skin. I didn’t see teeth marks, any new scabs, or any blood, however the lighting was bad in there when I looked, and I washed her hands after that.
I'm so scared. My pediatrician seemed irritated that I was calling off hours and said “I have no way of knowing whether she’ll get that.” Her nurse said that I don't need to worry. None of my kids have ever been bitten before and I had no idea this would happen. I don’t know if testing is warranted. I desperately want to know that she doesn’t have HIV but also don’t want to put her through testing (pain, trauma) if it's unnecessary.
I tried to post this question to Dr. HHH and Dr. EWH, but I couldn't get it to work.
As for the risk, please let me know. Thank you so much.