Roseola

Caleb is not teething. He has roseola. (http://www.askdrsears.com/html/8/T083600.asp)

When he woke up from his almost 4 hour nap this afternoon, I noticed a strange red rash on his right leg. It was really big and felt warm to the touch. He didn't seem to have any fever and was acting normal. Rather than panic and rush to the ER, which I knew was not necessary, I tried to talk to my next door neighbor who is a pediatrician. Of course she wasn't home. I kept an eye on the rash for a little while and it started to fade away. By the time I took Caleb up for his bath at 8:00, it was gone. However, when I took his shirt off, there was a splotchy rash on his chest and belly. This one wasn't warm, but I was definitely concerned. I went ahead and gave him his bath and put him in his PJ's and tried to wait for the neighbor to get home. I finally gave up and put him to bed. About 5 minutes later, I saw her pull into her driveway. I ran upstairs and pulled Caleb out of bed to go next door. She was very sweet about it and took one look at him and said, "He has roseola." When I told her about the fever that we thought was a result of teething, she said that it was a viral infection and that's what had caused the fever. Roseola is caused by a virus. Kids have fever for a couple of days, then get a rash. Once the fever is gone, they aren't contagious anymore. That's good news, but I feel so very bad for taking Caleb out to all of the public places that we went to this past week while he was contagious. I'm sure he passed this on to several other kids.

Just when I thought I was in the running for "mom of the year" I had to go and goof up like this. Okay, maybe I wasn't in the running, but I sure missed this one completely.