We did not bring DD to the doctor at any point, because there was no need, but I am curious about what other mamas think about these symptoms. DD is 18 months old.
Timeline:
1. On day 1, DD and three other unvaccinated children her age and our/their families spent the day together.
2. On day 9, DD spiked a fever of around 102.5 and was inconsolable for more than one hour. She also did not want to nurse. This is VERY unusual for her - as in, she has NEVER been inconsolable for more than 10 minutes or so in her entire life. We brought her to the ER, but by the time we got there, she was fine, so we waited in the parking lot for 20 minutes to see if she would nurse and stay calm. She did, so we turned around and went home without stepping inside the ER. Her fever went down and the next day she was behaving as though nothing was wrong.
3. Day 10 and 11, we notice what appear to be bug bites on DD's hands, feet, and face. They could have been bug bites, because she was outside and those parts were exposed. She itches the bumps where she has access to them, but mostly leaves them alone when they are covered.
4. Day 12 and 13, she has new bumps cropping up - they are absolutely NOT bug bites because she was not outside and because they are in places that she was not exposed at any point. These were mostly on her legs and behind her knees. Also, where one bump touched her skin, another bump cropped up - elbows and knees.
5. Day 12 we learned that all three of the other children also spiked fevers and had bumps on them at exactly the same time that DD did. Two of them were brought to the doctor, one doctor diagnosed the child with herpatic whitloe (sp) and the other one was diagnosed with an illness in the chicken pox family, but not chicken pox.
6. The bumps heal. The early ones healed first, and so the marks were in different stages. That was it. At about day 16, everything was completely gone.
So I really don't know whether DD had chicken pox or not. It was so incredibly mild! The symptoms seem like chicken pox, but I just don't know. Then the other kids had what she had (only theirs was milder according to the parents) and the docs did not think they had chicken pox. All four kids are still breastfed at 18 months, and I suspect that if it was, in fact, chicken pox, that the reason it was so mild in all four kids is that they are still breastfed. I also think that it is possible that someone came in contact with a recently vaccinated child and that is how it was spread, so I'm not sure if that makes the illness more mild or not.
Ultimately, it doesn't really matter because I want DD to have wild chicken pox and not get the vaccine. We will be pulling titers at some point to find out what she has immunity to (probably around 4 years old or so) to avoid any vaccines she does not need, so we will know then. Because it's over, it won't make any difference with respect to treatment, I am just curious.
