Saturday, July 12, 2014

Roseola

A week before Gavin turned one, he caught a fever which I mistakenly thought was due to teething.
He cried when we touched his gums, so naturally we thought it was the new tooth coming out.
He had a hard time sleep, hence, I had a hard time sleeping too.
He was uncomfortable, did not want to drink milk, ultimately hungry and very irritable.
He was not his usual jolly self.

His temperature rose during night time, sometimes as high as 39.8.
I woke up in the middle of the night feeling his very warm skin beside mine.
The age-old warm cold compress on this whole body helped bring the fever down.
Come morning time, it was down to about 38.

After 3 agonizing days and night, he was back to his usual happy self.
It was his birthday and we were glad that the fever broke already :)
Come mid-morning, my sister noticed that he had red spots at his back.


By the afternoon, it spread to his chest, a bit on his face too.
In the evening, it was on his arms and very few on his legs.
It was then that we realized that it was roseola, baby measles.
It wasn't real measles but tigers hangin as the oldies say.
The red spots should be out in 36-48 hours.

We were prescribed to give him allergy medicine.
On the 3rd day during his birthday party, all traces of roseola were gone...just in the nick of time.

It is very hard to catch roseola early on because a fever can be a manifestation of a lot of things.
The only way to determine is when the rash breaks out and the fever stops.
Also, you can catch roseola rough others but the symptoms come out ten days after.
By the time you feel the symptoms, you cannot infect other kids anymore.
Thankfully, I believe you can only have roseola once in your lifetime :)