Elliot is sick, again! This time we thought he was just teething, so he and I mostly stayed at home Wednesday and Thursday. He was incredibly fussy, wasn't eating much, and wasn't sleeping well at night. He seemed better on Friday, so we sent him to daycare. When I picked him up in the afternoon, he was covered with spots on his back, stomach, and a red rash on his cheeks. Gary came home and we all headed to the doctor. Our pediatrician took a good look at Elliot, left for a couple of minutes, then came back with the diagnosis of fifth disease (aka slapped cheek disease, more info here). She also had a big book of pediatric illnesses, with photos, so we could compare Elliot to the sick kids in the pictures. Fifth disease is a viral infection that causes, prior to the rash, cold symptoms (low-grade fever, runny nose, etc), and is otherwise not really a big deal. Historically, fifth disease is the fifth of 5 childhood rashes, the first 3 being measles, scarlet fever, and rubella. Fourth disease is no longer around. We are hoping Elliot does not plan to collect the whole set!
We were pretty surprised. Gary thought that the rash was an allergic reaction to something, and we had tried to come up with a list of all the new stuff Elliot had been exposed to in the past week. I thought maybe the rash on his cheeks was from teething (since he constantly had his finger in his mouth), but that didn't explain the rash on the rest of him. Our daycare provider suggested it might be acid related (apparently her brother had a stomach acid problem as a child, and it partly manifested itself as a rash around his mouth). Elliot hadn't been eating well, had spit up on me the day before, and was gassy, so this seemed possible, too. So when the doctor came back with an illness with a name, we were surprised, and a little relieved. Not that I enjoy Elliot being sick (far from it!), but while we were sitting in the office Gary and I started worrying that we were being over-neurotic. Of course, it's not like we can *do* anything about fifth disease, but at least we have a name for the symptoms, and can possibly separate out the teething symptoms from the viral infection.
Gary and I are taking bets as to whether either of us get it. If neither of us had been previously exposed, there is a 50% chance of contracting it. Gary is betting on me catching it and him not (since that's what happened with hand-foot-and-mouth). Woohoo, can't wait!
Posted by Jen at September 2, 2006 07:11 AMI guess if he gets all these childhood illnesses now, he won't miss too much school when he gets older!
Posted by: Mom at September 2, 2006 05:26 PM