Or simply Roseola Infantum, is apparently an extremely common Children sickness, that occurs mostly in children from 6 months to 2 years old, however it could get to you at any age if you didn't have it yet. Once you have had Roseola, your body is immune to the virus which causes the disease called HHV-6b - a type of Herpes Virus, Herpes 6.
It's super scary for first time parents especially for me as I'm probably the most jumpy father this world has seen, and I suspect this world has seen many! The Scenario would be something like this: Karsten has a raised temperature, it's 38.7 and my first reaction is "OH SNAP!!! Hospital RIGHT NOW!!! if we don't do this he'll overheat and his temperature will go to over 9000 and then ...."
Well that's me! I usually tell myself, "better safe than sorry".
But sometimes, I overdo it! YES! I said it. but this won't change me!
This however is not the topic at hand, the topic at hand is Roseola, Roseola infantum, Exanthema Subitum or Sixth disease, and it's as mentioned before scary as hell, especially because People don't seem to talk about it, it's not dangerous though. Many of the Symptoms, and effects and the progression of the Sickness seem to confuse parents that have never seen or heard about it and I'm here to tell you about my sons tale of his very first, very own "self immunizing Child Sickness", Roseola.
It all Started, on a Sunday the 17th of June, (probably with an incubation time of 7 days prior) Yes! Fathers day.
In the morning the little one had Red eye lids, red eyes and tears as well as mucus coming out of his eyes constantly. then in the evening, Karsten had high temperature and even though we gave him "Calpol" or "ibobrufen", his fever wouldn't go down, I'm not accustomed to "Spongebaths", (quite frankly up until last week i thought a sponge-bath was the act of putting your child in a bathtub filled with cool water and washing him down with a sponge, I know better now and I suggest, YOU! look it up if you don't know better either!) so I didn't really bother considering it.
At 11:30 pm I decided the emergency room ought to get his fever down!! So off we went to American Hospital to get him checked in at the emergency room.
After the Triage Nurse panicked a little when she saw the little one's fever which reached 40.3 (CELSIUS!) she disappeared into the backroom and returned with a little bullet shaped object, also called, a "suppository", oh yes! Karstens favorite, and there is a reason, because he can't do anything about them! Anything Oral and he spits it 15m across the room. once administered, we waited.
And waited.... aaaaaand waited, then finally the Triage nurse came back to check his temperature which has gone down to a comfortable 37. 5. She then turned around and left, but not before letting me know, that the "emergency pediatrician in charge", is currently attending another child and that karsten will be next.
"Great" I thought, at 12:45am, with my pregnant wife sitting next to me tired like she hadn't slept for 10 years and with a 12 year old girl Screaming from the emergency room like her arm was missing, and to be honest, I have no idea what happened to her (in fact, I hope she's alright!).
At 1:30am, the "docs" - as my son calls them - finally attended to us, and after a painless, but very loud (because kaedi was crying like there was no tomorrow since he's scared to the ground of doctors) checkup, the doctor said, "it's just an upper respiratory tract infection, probably viral, and there's no need to worry about that!"
We were subscribed Voltaren suppositories for the fever, an antibiotic (and at this point I want to mention that i know that an antibiotic cannot take care of viral infections) and some more stuff, which I'm too lazy to list down now!
Okay. Emergency room was done. "Let's see where this is going".
His fever wouldn't go down, in fact it kept spiking, the Voltaren took it down, but once his 12 hours subsided, the fever went back to 40+, I thought "THIS CAN'T BE RIGHT!!!! better go to the doctors!!"
4 days have passed, nothing changed! So there we were again, this time with an appointment at the pediatrician.
He said the same, "It's viral!! No need to worry, it'll go away!" It's not that I don't trust him, it's just that I felt so bad for my son being sick! The Funny thing was, He didn't seem sick! Yeah, when he had fever he was in the low low, but once the voltaren was in and taking care of his temperature, our little devil, was more active than a tornado! The Doctor told me, that if he is normal or playful and not tired or exhausted there's nothing to worry about!
Once he lies down and is exhausted and doesn't want to move! You have ALL the reasons to worry!
The Great thing is, He never stopped eating, yea he may have had less appetite but he never said no completely to a meal, he never threw up, although he had a little diarrhea, but that was apparently due to the medication so he was actually doing great.
Another Visit to the doctor done, and no more clever than I was 3 hours before.
However sure enough, the following day my son decided, he wants to stay in bed, my 2 year old son, decided that it was more fun to sink down into his pillow (even while the fever was gone) rather than playing hide and seek with his dad! I was worried, but for some reason had no headaches about it. I stayed with him, gave him a proper sponge bath, and gave him a paracetamol (as I decided no more Voltaren!) good Idea I thought, and I was right, his fever went down, not permanently though, it did come back at 10pm, and Karsten still didn't want to come out of bed! so I was still worried.
After a VERY long night, him sleeping next to me and the wife on the couch (for undisclosed reasons). The next day - Saturday, his fever was just gone, Karsten was back on track, playful excited and he ate, as usual!
One day passes (obvioulsy worried his fever comes back) but no sign of that.
Then suddenly on Sunday morning .. Rashes, they started on his chest and back then moved on to the arms, neck and face. My Heart stopped, pre-occupied with this I decided i better take him again to see what this is!
In the meantime, after self diagnose websites suggested Brain tumor, multiple sclerosis, Hepatitis A,B,C, HIV, syphilis and more awesome stuff, my wife sends me a message, informing me, that her colleagues kids just had Roseola, I checked it up online and it ABSOLUTELY matched his symptoms.
- Sudden onset of high fever for 3 to 5 days
- Rash
- Fatigue
- Irritability
- Mild diarrhea
- Decreased appetite
- Swollen eyelids
- Red Eyes
(THESE SYMPTOMS DON'T APPEAR IN THAT ORDER!!)
It all matched, and I was suddenly really comfortable. I went to see the doctor and he confirmed it was Roseola. He said, it would go away by itself, which it did. I am Super happy now, he is finally over this and now (probably) immune! His Left eye is still a little swollen, but the red is gone and he has been more active than ever!
I was scared to the bone in the beginning, I didn't know what was going on, was is scarlet fever? german measles? but now we know! It was just Roseola!
For any parent out there! This is not intended as a guide or professional Medical advice, If your kid has an unusually high Temperature! Take him to the doctor and make sure it's nothing serious, like "Kawasakis Desease" which is very very similar to Roseola, but if left untreated, could leave permanent heart valve damage!
for more info, visit The following websites,
MayoClinic
Wikipedia
BabyCenter
to everyone else, I'm signing out now, have a great weekend,
Game On!
-Alex
Thanks Alex. Really helpful
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