Roseola Infantum - a Harry Potter spell or a virus?

Harry Potter couldn't cast this spell

No, it's not a Harry Potter spell but a little known virus that affects children between 6 months and 3 years.

N came out in a rash a couple of weeks ago. As children are, she was fine the day before and we'd been to Wisley having a lovely picnic but the next day she had a rash on her upper back and upper arms.  It disappeared when I pressed it (my first course of action for *any* rash) and she wasn't unwell in herself. No temperature or appearing to be under the weather. I presumed that it was simply a heat rash or hives. Perhaps rolling around on the grass at Wisley something had irritated her skin?

The following day it looked a bit worse and she had it all over her face too.  I made an appointment at the doctors for her immediately and a few hours later hubby took her down.  Having given her a thorough check, the doctor said it was Roseola Infantum aka Three Day Fever.

There seems to be little known about this 'common' virus.  Of course, she was contagious but it turns out that she was up to 10 days ago BEFORE the rash even makes an appearance. Typical of a childhood illness isn't it - you don't know you have it until it's too late for everyone around you!

As she'd been in and out of school with S, I called them up to let them know about it, sending a picture of N's back to help other parents.  The children themselves wouldn't catch it but there are also a lot of younger siblings so best to be warned.

N showed no signs of the temperature during the whole process but the rash did appear on her face so it clearly is different in every child.  Some need Calpol (or equivalent) whereas others, like N, were absolutely fine but it's always worth getting it checked out as you want to eliminate anything more serious such as Measles.

Fortunately a few days later the rash started to vanish (from her face first) and she is back to...errr...the same as she was when she had the rash, just less spotty!

Impetigo in children

Day 1 of impetigo

Poor little S.  She has had chapped lips for a few days and has complained of them feeling sore.  Yesterday she used her chap stick before nursery but when she got home, the area under her bottom lip had gone very red indeed. She said it hurt a bit and we put a little bit of Sudocrem on (no Vaseline in the house unfortunately) to help keep it moist and stop it hurting. Hey, if it works for tiny sore bottoms, it would work for sore lips right?

Last night a 'spot' appeared on her bottom lip. Oh no, must be a cold sore. I popped a Compeed patch on (couldn't find anywhere that it would be unsuitable for children and it can't hurt surely) to help her as it was feeling very sore. Off she went to bed.

This morning when she woke up she clearly didn't have a cold sore. I was convinced she had impetigo and looked it up. Yep, sounds like it. Carefully peeled the patch off and put the towels she has used in the wash and got her a 'special one' just for her face.  Phoned the doctors and off we went.

I expected the doctor to give us some Fucidin cream as it seems that is the common prescription for impetigo and therefore I wasn't too concerned about a bit of the scab peeling off with the patch as the medical websites said that the scabs had to be washed off carefully before applying the cream.

After our usual 1hr 10min wait (our doctor is great but boy can he chat!) we saw him.  He took one look at her and said she had quite a bad little impetigo infection.  He prescribed an oral antibiotic which she started straight away.  Why oh why can't they make these things taste less disgusting for little people? It was foul (I tried a tiny bit) and she cried taking it.  I have a supply of chocolate buttons ready for the rest of the doses as it's 4 times a day for 7 days.  Also bought some Vaseline to make sure her lips stay moist.  She's still got a bit of Sudocrem under her lip in the picture if you wandered what it was.

Impetigo is caused when the germs get into your body, mostly around the mouth, from cuts or sores.  The doc said that her having chapped lips was a good way for it to start.  She's had a bit of a cold too which hasn't helped so a bit run down I guess.

At least she's off nursery for the rest of this week and not back until Monday anyway so no need for her to miss anything (not that they really would miss much at her age).  No swimming tomorrow though which is a shame but after 24 hours on the antibiotics she won't be infectious which is good as she has a friend's birthday party on Sunday.

It seems that impetigo is very common in children.  It looks worse that it feels (she told me) but you need to be so careful as it can be passed around the family quite easily.  S is brilliant at not touching or picking spots or such so I know that she will be good but it's N I worry about as she loves to poke a spot on your face!  S will have to be prepared to bat her away but so far she's been good and just asked about it so we told her and said not to touch.