Friday, August 14, 2009

What the heck does my kid have??!?

Day 5 of missed work due to Jamie's illness. It was thought by the doc on Tuesday that he had Hand-Foot-and-Mouth Disease. Now we aren't so sure. He has a rash (red dots, not raised) all over his body and his cheeks are very rosy. The red cheeks are an indication of Fifth Disease but the all-over rash might be Roseola (ironically enough known also as Sixth Disease).

He is also alternating cheerful and extremely cranky. He pulls on his ears and hair, has sores in the back of his throat which make him not want to eat (but he will nurse thankgoodness). He is waking up multiple times a night. He had a high fever a couple of days ago and on and off low-grade (around 100 degrees) since then. Last night he woke up every 15 to 30 minutes until after 3 a.m. He is urinating a LOT due to me pushing nursing fairly often so dehydration is not an issue. He actually had two soaked diapers before 3 a.m. (Can a baby pee TOO much??)

I'd never actually learned about this whole fifth, sixth, whatever disease stuff until Jamie came down with whatever-this-is. In the interest of sharing knowledge, I will now share with you the list of common childhood rashes during the turn of 20th century:

  1. Measles
  2. Scarlet Fever
  3. Rubella (German Measles)
  4. Duke's Disease (which may or may not even exist)
  5. Erythema Infectiosum (know I know why they just call it Fifth Disease)
  6. Roseola
I got this info from an article titled "Fifth disease is one of six common childhood rashes".

So, he's napping and I will too. He has an appointment with our pediatrician at 3:15 so hopefully we will figure this junk out.


1 comment:

twirldawg said...

Sorry he has a mystery illness. I hope he's feeling better soon.