January 9th, 2007
Fever + Rash + Sick Toddler =
Scarlet Fever! Can you say surprised?! When Xan’s daycare called saying he had a fever I wasn’t exactly surprised. He gets sick so easily but it’s usually a cold or an ear infection. I picked him up and gave him lots of love and cuddles for the rest of the day. By the next day his fever was still up but not high for him (he often hits 103 and this time he was only around 100). Friday afternoon a soft red rash started to appear and we thought maybe heat rash from the fever? By Sat am the rash was darker and spreading so I knew something bad might be up. Of course I did my usual internet research and decided it was maybe Roseola or Fifths disease. I called and got him in with the doc for Sat around lunch.
The doc asked if he had a sore throat – sorry lady I can’t tell if my 2 year old has a sore throat, his communication skills aren’t that awesome, especially when he is lethargic and feverish. She checked his ears which were surprisingly clear but after inspecting his throat and the rash she diagnosed scarlet fever and gave us antibiotics.
I hadn’t really thought Scarlet Fever was still around in developed countries – isn’t that ignorant of me? I went right home and looked it up of course and it’s not as scary as it sounds thankfully. It can be serious without treatment, but since we caught it early and started treatment right away Xan should have no lasting problems. He has actually gotten better quite quickly thankfully – I’m even back at work finally today!
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Before I went on mat leave one of the girls, who happens to also be my neighbour, called in sick saying her son had scarlet fever. I totally did not believe her because other than my cousin having it in the early 70s the only other person I had ever heard of to have it was Mary Ingalls! But yeah, way more common than I thought.
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Wow! Scarlet fever sounds scary!!!! It’s like when my 16-month old was diagnosed with pneumonia. I freaked because you always hear of people dying of pneumonia. Apparently, same thing. With antibiotics, not that big of a deal! But scary nonetheless to us mothers, no?
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