Saturday 21 May 2011

Does Every Parent Panic?

Do you panic when your child is sick?  I don't panic over colds, or mild fevers, but I did panic last night.

Close to bed-time, BBJ2 was nursing himself to sleep when he started crying then pulling off and then nursing again.  After a few times, I switched sides thinking that might be the problem, although he normally just bites me when he wants to switch.  When I switched him, I noticed a red mark on his cheek, but just thought it was from the pressure against my arm.  Then he pulled off and cried again and I noticed his entire cheek on the other side was red.


I jumped up with him and went into the bathroom (brighter light) and saw that he had some sort of rash on his face.  I took him into my room (bright light), put him on the bed, and stripped him down.  Rash spots on both his shoulders.  They were all different sizes, irregular shapes and had lighter raised parts in the middle.

Panic! I am totally paranoid about allergic reactions & anaphylactic shock.  At this stage, he is eating all kinds of new foods, and he puts everything into his mouth.  The other day at the playground I had grabbed a stir stick out of his hand & mouth.

I gave him some Benadryl right away, called exHusband a bunch of times, no answer, looked up Telehealth's number (for non-Canadians, when you call this number a nurse will interview you and then advise the best course of action - OTC, do nothing, go to Doctor, call 911, etc), and then called.  The nurse asked lots of questions and advised that they were hives and most likely caused by a virus (which makes sense since BBJ2 had cold symptoms & a fever last week), that Benadryl was the right way to go, and she gave me things to watch out for.  Other than the hives he was totally fine, no fever, and he was walking around playing while I was on the phone.  The hard part was that both the boys were busy & loud while I was trying to have the conversation with the nurse.

All in all the call completely calmed me down, and he was fine.  I feel good that even though I was panicking on the inside, I was able to act, and did exactly what was needed.  The hives did return tonight, so I am planning on taking him to the pediatric clinic tomorrow to try to identify a cause.

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