Hey Everybody,
I've been a member here for years, but I seldom post. But I wanted to get some advice on something my little boy just went through.
About a week ago my 6 year old came down with a 102 degree F fever and no other symptoms. This is not unusual for him as he has had fevers occasionally before with no other symptoms. I never treat a fever unless there is pain involved, like with an ear infection, and these fevers usually clear up in 24 hour hours or so. He probably gets these fevers about 3-4 times a year. Aside from that he's a pretty healthy little guy. So I generally put these fevers down to some kind of virus which his body is able to throw off fairly quickly.
Not so this time. At the end of this first day with the fever he had what I though were a couple of mosquito bites. But he woke up early in the morning covered from head to toe in this wicked looking rash that was intensely itchy.
I ended up taking him to the ER, and after 6 hours and multiple tests came back with a diagnosis of Erythema multiforme caused by Mycoplasma pneumonia. Apparently this type of rash is not uncommon with this type of pneumonia. But I was baffled by the pneumonia diagnosis as aside from the fever, he had had no cough or any other symptom.
By the end of the ER visit the rash had stopped spreading, and I got him home and started on the antibiotics. By the next day the rash was significantly better, but still covering his entire body...just less red and not itchy.
It's been a little over a week and he's gotten a clean bill of health from the ped...the rash is almost completely gone, just some skin mottling...but she did warn me that this could reoccur. If it does reoccur she told me that it was an automatic ER visit as some type of illness would cause this rash and that they would need to get on top of it asap in order to avoid it developing into a more severe type of Erythema multiforme called Stevens Johnson Syndrome, which can be fatal.
Just wondering if any other mommies here have had to deal with this. I'm a little leery of all the potential illnesses that can cause this. My son is completely unvaxed, and considering that certain vaccinations can actually cause an outbreak of this rash, it's just one more thing that has reinforced my decision not to vax. But other illnesses can also cause this rash to occur. I'm just trying to educate myself on what I can expect in the future.
Thanks for any help.
I've been a member here for years, but I seldom post. But I wanted to get some advice on something my little boy just went through.
About a week ago my 6 year old came down with a 102 degree F fever and no other symptoms. This is not unusual for him as he has had fevers occasionally before with no other symptoms. I never treat a fever unless there is pain involved, like with an ear infection, and these fevers usually clear up in 24 hour hours or so. He probably gets these fevers about 3-4 times a year. Aside from that he's a pretty healthy little guy. So I generally put these fevers down to some kind of virus which his body is able to throw off fairly quickly.
Not so this time. At the end of this first day with the fever he had what I though were a couple of mosquito bites. But he woke up early in the morning covered from head to toe in this wicked looking rash that was intensely itchy.
I ended up taking him to the ER, and after 6 hours and multiple tests came back with a diagnosis of Erythema multiforme caused by Mycoplasma pneumonia. Apparently this type of rash is not uncommon with this type of pneumonia. But I was baffled by the pneumonia diagnosis as aside from the fever, he had had no cough or any other symptom.
By the end of the ER visit the rash had stopped spreading, and I got him home and started on the antibiotics. By the next day the rash was significantly better, but still covering his entire body...just less red and not itchy.
It's been a little over a week and he's gotten a clean bill of health from the ped...the rash is almost completely gone, just some skin mottling...but she did warn me that this could reoccur. If it does reoccur she told me that it was an automatic ER visit as some type of illness would cause this rash and that they would need to get on top of it asap in order to avoid it developing into a more severe type of Erythema multiforme called Stevens Johnson Syndrome, which can be fatal.
Just wondering if any other mommies here have had to deal with this. I'm a little leery of all the potential illnesses that can cause this. My son is completely unvaxed, and considering that certain vaccinations can actually cause an outbreak of this rash, it's just one more thing that has reinforced my decision not to vax. But other illnesses can also cause this rash to occur. I'm just trying to educate myself on what I can expect in the future.
Thanks for any help.
