growing rhamy family: rash from hell

The weekend of Bo's birthday he broke out with a small rash, mostly around his shirt collor, under his arms, and around his waistline. My first thought was Chicken Pox and then we had all thought he was allergic to the detergent, because we had recently just switched from a liquid to a powder. So we instantly took off his clothes and gave him a bath hoping it would clear it up. We continued on with the day and it gradually got worse and worse. I felt so bad for him!

Well late that night (1230am) Bo woke up, and Bo is typically a really good sleeper (from 830 or 9p to 7 or 8a), and he looked like Will Smith from the movie Hitch! I instantly told Josh that we need to take him into the ER because depending on the reaction I knew that his throat could swell shut and I didn't want to risk that happening. So we packed up a few things and took our baby into the ER around 1 am. We got right in and it didn't take long for the Dr. to come in and thankfully he knew what it was right away. He immediately looked at it and said that he knew what it was but he was going to examine him anyway. He had asked if Bo had been on any medication and we told him amoxicillin. (Bo went to the Dr. about 9 days prior because he had a very deep cough and he ended up having croup and also some fluid in his ear. The Dr. advised that we put him on antibiotics because the last time he was there he had fluid in the same ear and we didn't fill the script because we know that most ear infections are viral and antibiotics won't help. We try to keep him off medication as much as possible-we really hadn't even given him tylenol. She then explained that if he continually has fluid in his ear then he could have trouble developing his language because it would be like Bo was hearing everything through water.) So...turns out that what we thought would make him feel better made him feel worse!

Luckily, the Dr. in the ER was very knowledgable about the type of reaction Bo was having. It is known as serum sickness. He told us that it would get worse before it got better, and my thought was 'how could it get any worse?'. He said that a lot of times it can be very painful and he could also get very swollen joints. Thankfully he showed us some pictures in a book of what the rash could look like and also showed us some photos on his computer. If I hadn't seen the pictures I probably would've have been more worried than ever because this rash is unlike anything you have ever seen. It begins as the typical rash and eventually ends up looking bruise-like. So we left the ER around 245am with 2 prescriptions (1 for prednisone and 1 for hydrocodone....you think why pain medication for an 11 month old, we thought the same thing, but they said the rash could get to be that painful.) We stayed away from the pain meds for the most part except a couple doses before bed, but the steriod definitely helped.

Josh stayed home with Bo on Monday, I stayed with him Tuesday morning while Josh went into work super early and he got off early and stayed with him the rest of the afternoon and Wednesday (Bo's 1st birthday) Grandma came up and stayed with him. Thanksgiving Day Bo's rash finally started turning the corner. He began to look and act better. So we ended up going back home on Saturday for the Gray Thanksgiving, which we were glad we were able to see everyone. The next week Bo's rash would flare up here and there. If he rubs his face or just in random places on his body. When it flares up it looks like he has been scratched in that area. We were warned that it could take 2-3 weeks to completely go away, so we are on week 3 now, so hopefully it will be all over soon!

The good news is that on November 26th Bo had his 1 year check up!

Stats:
21.5 lbs (55th percentile - a pound down from when he was weighed in the ER...darn sickness)
30 inches long (75th percentile)
95th percentile for his head (he is eventually growing out of that big knoggin' of his:)).

Some pictures of the nasty rash!