Brittlynn’s Rash

This is a present-time post 🙂 The next one will be back to chronological order but I thought my facebook friends who saw my status about Brittlynn’s rash would want an update!

Last Tuesday night (May 15th) Brittlynn stayed the night at Mrs. Charlotte’s. Kye had his post-surgery check up on Wednesday in Tifton (literally they pulled down his pants, said “looks great” and we left…) so it made sense for her to stay with her G-Mama. When I got her back I noticed she had some green poop and it seemed more runny than usual. My first concern was that the milk I’d given Mrs. Charlotte to feed her was bad or something. She also was more fussy than normal, but didn’t have a fever of any kind.

Then Friday night (May 18th) when I was giving her a post-bath massage I noticed some small red spots along her forehead. I figured her skin was just splotchy from the bath and put her to bed like usual. Saturday morning I hosted a baby shower for Robyn so I was running around pretty crazy getting all the last minute things done. Zach called me into Brittlynn’s room at 8:45 when he was putting her down for her nap and showed me her body. Her torso was covered in little red spots. GREAT. 

I was way too swamped to stop and do a good google search so I called Casey (as in the Parker family she’s def the 2nd best with the internet after me!) but she didn’t answer so I called Rachael. I knew she’d be a pro at finding something as she’s practically a private detective when it comes to online searching 😉 Totally could be the girl with the dragon tattoo haha Casey ended up calling back so she hunted around too for me. I’m SO appreciative of their help, both pretty much told me that since she hadn’t had a fever AT ALL that it wasn’t worthy of an ER visit. I tried to relax and ENJOY the shower (which turned out to be pretty dang cute if I do say so myself!).

Zach got her up to take the kids over to Jordan’s during the shower and everyone said she looked fine. You couldn’t even see the spots anymore at all! But when she woke up from her next nap we could see them again and they were spreading. Here’s some pictures of how she looked:

 I gave her a bath to really show them since the warm water brings it out

The rash would come and go and she was HAPPY as can be! Not fussy at all, plenty of wet diapers, eating fine, no fever. She has yet to have a fever her entire life actually and has a low body temp like the rest of us (it was always in the 97-low 98 range each time I checked it). We decided to continue to wait it out and just watch it. Sunday morning she woke up with it on her face so I stayed back from church with her. She was still totally fine but I didn’t want to risk someone else catching it just in case. My plan was to continue to wait it out and just go to the walk-in clinic first thing Monday morning.

I mentioned on Facebook about her rash and had a blog reader write me (thanks Breanna!!!) saying that her daughter would get the same symptoms (a light rash with no fever and some diarrhea) whenever she was cutting teeth. Brittlynn has been drooling like a crazy woman and I had been thinking that maybe the diarrhea was teething related. I didn’t really think the rash could be though?!?! But…when we checked her gums guess what we saw?!?!

Hello first tooth!!!

(you can see the white spot between the glares…you may have to double click to make it bigger)

Um. She’s not even six months old yet, she should not be getting teeth already (Kye was over 8 months old until his first one popped through)!!! It did make me feel like that’s probably what the rash was from, but I still got up early Monday morning to get myself ready to go before waking the kids up. OF COURSE when I woke up Brittlynn she had no rash. Typical right? It was still very faint on the back of her neck and I was up and ready so we were going to the dr! My GUT told me she was 100% fine and the whole thing reminded me of Kye’s rash (which looks a MILLION times worse than hers huh?!?! WOW I had forgotten how horrible it was!!!). BUT at the same time I didn’t want to assume just because Kye’s wasn’t a big deal that it would mean her’s wasn’t a big deal, ya know? Our walk-in clinic doesn’t take the first patient until 8:30 but you can go earlier and get in line. My mission was to be FIRST so we left the house at 7:45 just to be sure. We enjoyed sometime outside the doors singing “Wheel’s on the Bus” while we waited to be let in (like every living creature was riding that bus!). 

We saw one of my favorites up there but the one who doesn’t want to be named…anyways…he didn’t even know I had a baby! He looked her over and said he couldn’t see the rash either but he could feel it. He said hand, foot and mouth is going around like crazy but her palms and soles looked totally fine. He drew an “x” across her back with his finger nails to check her skin sensitivity and he said she doesn’t even have sensitive skin at all (something about how the “x” never even showed up on her skin so that’s a good sign!). When he did his check he said her ears are perfect and she’s super healthy. I asked about it being from teething and he said “that’s not possible, babies don’t get teeth until they are at least 5-6 months old.” I said “um..she’s almost six months.” He about died! He couldn’t believe that she managed to stay this healthy for this long!!! He went on and on about what a good mom I am and how that breastfeeding is so amazing for immunity of babies. Can I visit the dr everyday for the self-esteem booster??? I even mentioned how I’m holding off on solids and he said it bugs him how many people start so young and that it’s totally smart to wait and he re-enforced my feelings by saying that really they aren’t a necessity at all the first year.

He ended up prescribing some lotion (Desonide) to put on the areas at night after bath for 5-7 days. He said we’ll quickly stop feeling the rash at all. He asked what I use to moisturize her with and I told him baby oil. He said it’s great but that it traps the moisture in really well so it’s important for her skin to be moisturized prior to applying it. Us doing it after bath is perfect, but if we want added moisture to use Cetaphil Lotion. He said it’s the best thing on the market and it won’t cause dryness like we experienced with Kye. He didn’t really tell me the cause of the rash but he said multiple times that she’s so healthy so I’m assuming the rash isn’t anything to worry about. He’s VERY conservative with his diagnosis of things so I’m sure if there was a chance it was something major he would have mentioned it (right Crissy?).

The rash is already completely gone and we applied the lotion for the first time last night (more to just feel like we did it than her actually needing it…). He gave us plenty of refills of the prescription lotion too so if this IS a thing that happens whenever she cuts teeth at least we’ll be prepared! Really, the rash is better than a fever. She was happy and content the whole time, she just looked sickly! Much better than her feeling horrible right?

I’m SO thankful she still has yet to be sick and that this random thing (with my kids it always seems to be something RANDOM instead of the typical ear infection or fever or something) wasn’t a big deal. I kept thinking how truly blessed I am to have such a healthy baby!!! Hopefully we won’t be visiting the walk-in clinic for a long time 🙂

What’s I’m NOT looking forward to is these early teeth…I checked again today and OMG she has TWO about to poke through…for a nursing mother my fear is that she’ll be a biter!!! 😉

6 Comments

  1. Danielle Eckerle
    May 23, 2012 / 6:16 pm

    I don't know how long it takes a baby to get in all their teeth, but a script is only good for one year. I suggest that if you expect it to go on for each tooth get all your refills as soon as they are available (about 3 weeks after the initial fill date) and ask for the lasted date bottle at the pharmacy, this way you will have plenty on stock at home and they will be in date for at least a year or two. Glad it wasn't anything serious. 🙂

  2. Elizabeth Drucker
    May 23, 2012 / 6:37 pm

    The exact same thing happened to Damian at about her age and about a year later.  His were all over his tummy and chest.  The pediatrician told me as long as you can press them and they go away for a second it is ok.  Now I'm paranoid over rashes becasue of RMSF.  You can never be too careful with your baby!

  3. Crissymegow
    May 23, 2012 / 6:43 pm

    this guy is hilarious! I knew exactly who you were talking about by the "commentary" he was saying ;)Stevie at one years old still had only a tiny spec of a tooth coming in, but Titus had like 5-6 teeth by one years old.  Titus was such a terrible biter!

  4. Ashley Troutman
    May 23, 2012 / 6:56 pm

    Sounds like Harry Potter-The one who shall not be named.  I love him though.  He is always SO nice, and always lets me know that it was a good thing when I have brought Preston is. I tend am pretty overprotective about Preston when he is sick, but daycare did a number on him!  He is wrong though, typically babies don't teeth until 5-6 months, but one of my friends' babies had his first tooth at 3 months!  He also told me Preston's first ear infection at 6 months was due to teething, but Preston never cut his first tooth until after 9 months…hmmm…glad she is A-OK, and super healthy!  You are a super momma for sure!

  5. Mallory Thompson
    May 23, 2012 / 8:59 pm

    I think teething is a total mystery no matter what the doctors say.  Emery started teething before 4 months old and by 9 months had everything up to her 1 year molars.  By 15 months she had her 2 year molars.  Every kid is different!  Glad the rash never got horrible or had a fever!

  6. Rachael_Copponex
    May 30, 2012 / 8:03 pm

    I'm glad I could help… some 🙂

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