I am always stumped about writing posts on topics that have been blogged about before, but in the end I always feel like they’re somewhat useful because each person has a different take on things. Maybe someone will read this post and gain something useful from it. Thus…my post on Roseola.
Baby Romi is nearly 8 months old. Last Wednesday, she woke up fussy and had what I call “sicky” eyes. She felt warm so I took her temp. It was 99.9, so nothing too worrisome. About an hour after she woke up, she went down for a nap and stayed down for almost four hours. This was highly unusual, as her morning typically nap ranges from 1-2 hours. But I figured she was fighting something off, so sleep away. When she woke she was crabby and not wanting to breastfeed much. I took her temp again and it was up to 101.4. So she definitely had a fever, but still in the range of what I would consider “low grade.” I decided to give her a dose of ibuprofen, not necessarily to bring down the fever but because she seemed achy and absolutely miserable. She was up for an hour and was nodding off so I put her back down. She slept for another 3 hours. While her daytime naps were solid, her night sleep Wednesday was not great and she ended up sleeping in bed with us.
The next day, her fever hovered around 100 and she was so fussy and clingy. She cried a lot. She had no other symptoms of a cold – no runny nose or cough. I was so confused. I was trying to pin this on teething, but the lethargy and level of discomfort was throwing me off. Her night sleep on Thursday was really bad again.
Friday the fever was gone but her general demeanor seemed worse. She wouldn’t tolerate being put down at all and she just wanted to lay her head down as if she had a headache. It was so heartbreaking. Her naps deteriorated to 45 minutes where she would wake up screaming. She was exhausted but couldn’t seem to stay asleep. She had several, short naps during the day. Friday night was our worst night of sleep, with her waking up screaming on an hourly basis. I think we got one stretch of 2 hours. I was starting to get really worried and went back to my teething theory. Romi has been a champion night sleeper since ~8 weeks and, aside from occasional hiccups, has regularly slept 12-14 hours per night for the last six months. So anytime her night sleep is weird, I know something is going on. This BY FAR was the worse episode we’ve ever had with her. We co-slept with her Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights.
Saturday I bought teething tablets and gum gel. They didn’t seem to make much of a difference. She was better Saturday, allowing us to put her down for a few minutes to play. She also ate a bit better but her appetite was definitely still off. We surmised we were causing some of the crappy sleep by co-sleeping (since we usually don’t), so we decided to keep her in her crib that night. I put her down at 6:30pm and by 8:30 she woke screaming. I went in and put my hand on her head to soothe her and she went right back to sleep. That was the good part. The bad part was this went on just about every 2 hours all night long. She would wake up screaming but would very easily go back to sleep when one of us would go in and touch her/soothe her. It was baffling.
Sunday she woke and seemed better. Missus Scooter and I even commented that she seemed to be back to herself. Around noon I got into a bath with her and I noticed she had a rash on her trunk. I thought maybe the hot water caused it. A couple hours after the bath, I was changing her diaper and noticed the rash was still there. It was red and blotchy (not spotted) and had no texture to the touch. It was only on her trunk. I text a picture to The Village, and of course they all knew what was happening with her sleep. My girlfriends guessed she was fighting off something viral and one girlfriend said it sounded like Roseola.
Not great quality pictures, but you can see her blotchy rash
Sunday night she went to bed at 6:30pm as normal and I kept waiting for the screaming wake up….but it never came! Thankfully she slept through the night.
After follow up research on my friend’s hunch, I am pretty clear this is a case of Roseola. While I have not had a doctor examine her, I did call the advice nurse and she concurs. According to Wikipedia, Roseola is a viral infection which begins with a sudden high fever (102.2-104). After the fever subsides, just as the child appears to be recovering, a red rash appears, usually on the trunk, spreading to the legs and neck. The rash is not itchy and may last 1 to 2 days. Once the rash appears, the virus has run its course.
Roseola is caused by two human herpes viruses. There is no way to prevent or treat Roseola. Of course a child with a fever should always be given plenty of fluids. Apparently Roseola is quite contagious and common amongst children between the ages of 6 months and 2 years.
A couple things made me question whether this was Roseola. First, her fever never got too high and second, her rash was much more mild than those pictures I saw on the internet. The thing I had to remind myself about was every child is different and every presentation of a virus or infection is different. So while it wasn’t *exactly* as the Internet described, it certainly was consistent with the general characteristics of Roseola.
I am very thankful this appears to be over, and in the big scheme of things, it wasn’t that bad. I am super thankful there was a “reason” she was so off the last 5 days and not just unexplained fussiness or teething.
Have you had experience with Roseola? How was your experience consistent/not consistent with that described on the Internet?
blogger / kiwi / 675 posts
my girls have been through this too, its so sad. It goes on and on I feel like. Glad shes feeling better! We have had a horrible lingering cough and fever
guest
We went through this just before Thanksgiving with my 16 month old. Fever was 104.6! No other symptoms. We alternated Motrin and Tylenol around the clock to keep her fever down. Terrible sleep. I googled it and was waiting for the rash to show up. Sure enough 4 days later there it was. A terrible rite of passage if you ask me.
guest
My daughter had Roseola and a febrile seizure at 14 months or so. I had never heard of a febrile seizure before, so I was scared and we took a trip to the ER. Luckily Tylenol and Motrin got it under control.
coffee bean / 35 posts
My 9mo just got over roseola last week. His temp never got over 101.6 for the three days of fever. On what would have been the fourth day, the fever was gone but the rash appeared on his legs. Then the next day was his torso and face. After three days of rash, it finally disappeared and he was back to normal. All throughout this time, he had a runny nose and a bit of a cough. It was a full six days of fussy baby who wouldn’t be put down or sleep well. My older son had it when he was 2 but we went in to the pediatrician because I had no idea what it was that time and the fever was way higher. This time, when the fever disappeared suddenly and the rash appeared, I knew what it was. We were just lucky it cleared up right before the holidays.
pomegranate / 3225 posts
Oh man. Hate hearing about those horrible nights of sleep but I’m glad I’m not alone! Glad she is better.
blogger / apricot / 310 posts
this sounds EXACTLY like our experience with roseola last spring! Will was about 10 months old and had the same symptoms- lethargy and lowish grade fevers for about 3 days. seemed to be completely fine and BAM a rash all over his back and belly that also didn’t seem as bad as the pics on the internet (ha!) I got lots of snuggles for sure those days, but very little sleep.