Last week was a little bit stressful for a magnitude of reasons.  First, we were threatened by Hurricane Sandy and I spent most of Monday and Tuesday worrying that a tree would fall on our house (it didn’t).  We also had Baby Jumper’s 12 month well visit the week prior, and had been given the go-ahead to start her on whole milk.  Transitioning her from formula to whole milk was a nightmare, and Chloe absolutely did not want to take her “big girl milk.”  On top of that, she was cutting another tooth and was sleeping horribly.

Despite all that, Chloe and I had a lovely week together. We played princesses and snuggled during the rain storm.  By the time Papa Jumper got home on Tuesday, though, Chloe was lethargic and spiked a fever of 104.5.   She had barely had anything to eat or drink all day, and didn’t have many wet diapers.  I was panic stricken.  The last time she acted this way, she had a febrile seizure and had to be taken to the ER twice in one day, where she was diagnosed with a UTI.  I had given her a dose of children’s ibuprofen, but her fever had only dropped .5 degrees in 90 minutes.  We called our doctor’s office, but got the on-call answering service.  A pediatrician called us back within 5 minutes, and instructed us to head straight to their office: they were open until 7pm that day to see sick patients.  He, too, worried that Chloe had a UTI.

Because Chloe had no symptoms other than an out-of-the-blue high fever, the pediatrician first suspected a UTI.  It’s likely to be a recurrent issue for her since she already had one at such a young age, and she was exhibiting the same signs and symptoms of the last time she was diagnosed.  We took her to see her pediatrician that night, who examined her from head to toe.  Chloe didn’t have a runny nose, vomiting or diarrhea.  Her mouth was free of sores, and her ears were clear of any fluid.  Since there wasn’t a visible sign for her illness, the pediatrician worried that she either had another UTI or roseola.

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It seemed more likely that Chloe had a UTI, so we decided to go ahead and have Chloe tested.  The doctor’s office could run a rapid dipstick test to let us know if she was infected or not.  Fortunately, her urine test came back negative which meant she did not have a UTI.  This most likely meant that she had roseola, a disease we’d never even heard of before.  The pediatrician assured us that it’s common in infants and toddlers, and that there had been a recent outbreak in our community. It’s likely that Chloe contracted this viral illness from another toy at the doctor’s office (that hadn’t been sanitized yet) or from someone in public, like at the grocery store.  We’d been at their office just one week prior for her 12 month well visit, so our best guess was that she caught it from another infected child.

Our pediatrician explained that Roseola is a viral infection characterized by the onset of a high fever followed by a pinkish-red rash.  The time between becoming infected and the beginning of symptoms (incubation period) is 5 to 15 days.  The first symptom is usually a high fever, which comes on quickly, and can last up to a week.   There isn’t a specific treatment for Roseola, but it’s important to keep hydrated and you can treat the fever with tylenol or ibuprofen.  Our pediatrician said to let Chloe have any liquid that she wanted, including her bottle or Popsicles.

Because of the high fever with Roseola, it’s possible that a child could have a febrile seizure.  Since Chloe has had one before, she’s more susceptible to having another in the future.  Chloe’s fever got as high as 105, but she never had a seizure.  She wasn’t quite herself, though, and wasn’t having many wet diapers.  She was also refusing food.  On Day 2 of her high fever, the nurse at our doctor’s office instructed me to give her a dose of Tylenol on top of the ibuprofen.  That broke her fever down to 101, and stayed low enough that we were able to feed her and get her to take a bottle.

We decided that now wasn’t the time to wean her from formula, and let her have as many bottles as she’d take from us.  On Friday, her fever broke and her rash appeared. It started on her belly, and if I didn’t know any better, I would have thought it was chicken pox.  Her rash was few and far between, but as the day went on it became more pronounced and spread.  It was mostly on her belly, and behind her knees.  It didn’t bother her and it didn’t itch.  In fact, you wouldn’t even know it was there unless you were changing her clothes or diaper.  She had mild diarrhea for a day after her fever broke, but it didn’t seem to bother her.

The rash lasted two days, and is completely gone.  She’s back to herself and is running through the house.  It’s unlikely that she’ll ever get Roseola again, and we’re so glad to see her feeling better.

Has your child ever had Roseola?