Fifths Disease and more...oh my!

It is Eli’s Mommy here. Eli is too sick to update today. It seems like my little is getting sick a lot lately. In his short little life he has had numerous ear infections, bronchitis twice, tonsillitis, strep throat, the flu, many colds and the latest ailment…fifths disease. I have noticed an increase in sickness since he started going to the day home at age one. Kids are sponges when it comes to viruses, germs etc! We have spent many hours in the urgent care clinic, walk-in clinics and his doctor’s office. He is a trooper though and doesn’t take long to bounce back between sicknesses.

The fifths disease, otherwise known as “slapped cheek” disease was noticed when a rash on his cheeks appeared. Google has been a godsend to the Kirby family in making diagnoses. And after a trip to the doctor’s office, fifths disease was confirmed.

Link

The thing with this disease is by the time you notice he has it with the rash appearing, he is no longer contagious. His symptoms appeared about two weeks earlier when we kept him home from daycare for two days because he had a terrible cough and runny nose with congestion. At the time we just thought it was another cold. This time it wasn’t. A few days after the rash appeared, his whole body was covered! My poor little man. It didn’t seem to bother him much, until about a week of having the rash. It slowly made its way down his body and just when it appeared the rash was gone except for the tops of his feet, he became itchy, very itchy. He would cry in discomfort and we would slather him in calamine lotion (could they make that stuff any runnier?) and it seemed to help only 50% of the time. He would wake up crying in the night. He kept saying “It still itches” after putting the lotion on. I felt so helpless! But that is behind us now, thank goodness. A few days after finally being rid of the rash and itch, he came down with another cold (at least that is what I think it was).

So, this Friday I made an appointment with his doctor to discuss his history and determine why he is getting sick so much. I am sure nothing will come out of it though. It probably doesn’t help that he is such picky eater and never eats vegetables etc though he does get vitamins and omega supplements. Who knows? Chris and I have had to take quite a bit of time off of work as well to stay home with him when he is sick. Whenever he comes down with something, we look at each other and wonder “Whose turn this time?” Thankfully Chris’ employer gives him 5 days a year with pay to use when a child is sick. My work? I get to use my holiday time. Nice! So it looks like Chris will be using one of those days tomorrow.

Eli will be back in a few days once he is feeling a bit better.

Wendy