We had a moment of panic last night when my 2-year-old came running over to me saying “Mommy, my leg so itchy!”  I took one look at his swollen leg and thought…here we go again.

Last year Pinkie ended up with a bad case of cellulitis on her leg after a few bug bites (yucky pics here).  We never saw her actually get bit, so a mosquito-bite infection-turned-cellulitis was the final determination.

His leg had the same red ring around a central white area, was hot and you could actually see it throbbing.  I gave him a bath the night before and never saw any bites, so of course we immediately searched the room for something flying around.  Nothing.

The area didn’t look like a bite at first glance because we couldn’t find a central puncture mark…it was just bumpy all over.  They had told us with Pinkie to draw a line around the visibly red area, in the future, to monitor her reaction-site, so we decided to also do that with our son last night.  I took his temperature, which was normal, so that was a relief. 

Then I found another bite on his hand…which certainly wasn’t there before — where the heck did they come from?

I applied a little Bactine (it always helps relieve burns and bites really well for me) to keep it from itching/hurting too badly and we just decided to watch them for the rest of the night to see if it got worse and extended beyond the drawn-line.  He didn’t mention it again for the rest of the night as he played.

It then occurred to me that when I get a mosquito bite it ALWAYS shows up more the next day and I get rather huge welts that itch like crazy!!  Always the next day too.

He was watering the garden over my parents’ house the night before, so it made perfect sense that’s where it came from.  I didn’t notice any bugs around and didn’t use our All Natural California Baby Bug Repellent Spray that I usually use on both of them (and LOVE!) that night – stupid of me.

So I checked on him throughout the night as I remember how quickly my daughter’s bites turned into cellulitis – but he was fine.  I even found a 3rd bit on his elbow this morning.

He told me a few times this morning that “Mommy, I so itchy”, so I put more Bactine on them and he’s been running around like a goofball without any other mentions of them.

Gesh these kids…always keep you running and guessing! :)

Pinkie is actually being a cranky cuddle-bug today, so we’ll see what is next…

This occurred right on top of hospitalization due to febrile seizures from her recent round of immunizations. As you can imagine — it was a mega double whammy and we still don’t know what bit her in her crib that night?!?!

Fast forward to this morning.

NOW – it’s myBuddy’s turn.

Hubby & I just returned from our mini-vacation to Orlando for IZEAFest and picked up the iTwins from my parent’s house last night.  Of course my parents were so proud to show off their in-perfect-condition-just-as-we-had-left-them grandchildren.

Not even one boogie!

We carried two sleepy tots to their cribs when we arrived home last night — shut the doors and we all went to sleep.

This morning I woke up to myBuddy singing in his crib.  Went it to give him some more missed-him-worlds hugs and found about 10 bites (what I’m thinking they are) total covering the side of his face, forehead, neck and 4 on his arms.

I’m guessing they are bites because they weren’t there last night and they were only present on his exposed face and arms…he had on a short-sleeved onesie with PJ pants on.

I immediately tore off all of his crib bedding and fed it into the wash and thoroughly inspected his entire crib and room – nothing.  Déjà vu from just 2 months ago!

The difference is, Pinkie’s bites were kinda oozie and looked like mosquito bites.

MyBuddy’s bites are barely raised and are a solid red color.  They don’t have the characteristic center to them like with a mosquito bite.  They have not swelled up or changed in any way throughout the day and he is acting perfectly.

He does not have a fever and doesn’t seem to be bothered by them — I did treat them with Bactine (first aid antiseptic) to prevent any kind of infection and to prevent them from starting to bother him.

I’m clueless.

We DO indeed have a plethora of disgusting insects out here in Pennsyltucky, so who knows…

From GOG (good ol’ google):

– they don’t appear to be bed bugs – ewww can’t imagine that…I wash their bedding twice a week – but WHO KNOWS what we could have brought home from the hotel with us on our luggage that was in the car with them — ewww.

– don’t look like mosquito or flea bites (just a thought since they were around my family’s dog this weekend)

– and they don’t at all look like spider bites – we have so many stinkin’ spiders around here this time of year – that was my first thought.

So, I have no clue.

Our house has been closed up for 4 days with the air conditioning running as needed while we were gone.  Their bedding was just washed before we left and their rooms were recently cleaned top-to-bottom.  Also haven’t used any new laundry detergents or soaps.

Any ideas from you guys?

Ugh.  For those of you who follow along here, you know this month has been a rough one.

Our one-year-old had a reaction to her Prevnar shot at the beginning of the month – putting her in the hospital with febrile seizures.  At the same time she developed cellulitis from some sort of bug bite that is STILL a mystery to us.

THIS past Thursday woke up with a fever.

So of course, when I took her temperature and it was 103.6°, I freaked.  Here we go again.

Even though I know the febrile seizures are a “protection mode” that the body goes into when little ones spike high temperatures, it’s still VERY scary to see your, usually normal child, convulse like that.

I was scared that I was going to see that happen to her again.

She had no other symptoms what-so-ever.  So, I started her on the Motrin and Tylenol regiment to get her fever down.

I was TRYING to find something else wrong with her.  She was still eating and drinking normally and even playing.  When she took her afternoon nap — it lasted 4 hours…that was strange and as if the fever wasn’t enough, I knew she had “something going on”.

So her temperature continued for the next 48 hours to go up and down with the doses of Motrin/Tylenol.  103.7° was the highest reading I took, last night, at 2am (actually).

She was VERY sleepless from 2am on (hence so were PapaBoss & I) and would burst out crying with huge tears one minute and the next moment, she would be fine and laughing.  She also had blue hands and feet at one point — that was scary looking!

So just after calling our doctor today — who told us to wait it out 72 hours (like I expected anything more from the incompetent Pediatric group of ours)…I went to change her (non-cloth diaper, since shhhh…we use ‘sposies on the weekends) — A RASH!

The SAME rash had LAST month!

It followed the same pattern of 2 days of high fever and then the rash on the 3rd day. Textbook.

Roseola it is.  The red bumpy, flat, but blanching to the touch, rash.

Here are a couple of photos I was able to get of her back today.

…and this was last month.  You can see the “blanching” where I gently pressed my hand.

So the good news is — the fever is no longer a mystery and PapaBoss & I had a hunch this is what it would turn out to be.

She has been sleeping since 6pm…missed dinner, but drank a whole bottle…and has no fever now.

I want to wake her to cuddle, and tell her how much I love her, but I know she needs her sleep.

was VERY concerned about her today and kept trying to make her laugh…he was such a cutie today and kept asking “matter with?” – “matter with?” in his munchkin voice.

Gosh I just love these kids and it breaks my heart to see either of them sick like this….and where the HECK did she pick this up?…10 days ago (when the virus was apparently contracted) we were HOME!  And had it well OVER a month ago.

Hopefully, I’ll have a better report for your tomorrow.

Hopefully, also, we get to sleep tonight.

Thank you all for your well-wishes for .

UPDATED:

We’ve had quite our share of ER visits this month.

The diagnosis was certain-Roseola, and she just has a pretty bad case of it.

We were sent home with a suggestive follow-up with her Pediatrician tomorrow.

So, we’re home now and is sleeping again.

She looks even worse than the photos above, but I just can’t take any more photos :( I’m pooped.

Thank you for all of your concerns.

We’ll eventually rid this house of its cooties — when the kids are like 18….ugh.

If you’ve been keeping up with what’s been going on around here the past few days, you know that Pinkie is on antibiotics for (what we think is) a reaction to a bug bite.

As if she hasn’t suffered enough with THAT…now we have the additional issue of the antibiotics and what they do to her little sensitive little bum.

This has been the PREFECT opportunity to give Bummas a try.

Bummas are a soft, absorbent, luxurious baby cloth used to soak up all the wetness BEFORE you put the diaper back on.  They come in a variety of color sets:

We got to try out the Wild Ones set.  Which since I have my toddler son still in diapers and baby girl in diapers, the variety of colors is just perfect!

With Pinkie’s bottom being so sensitive while she’s on the antibiotics, Bummas allow for us to dry her little bum off quickly before a new diaper goes on.  With 2 little ones being changed most-of-the-time at the SAME TIME, Bummas prevents me from having to let one run around diaper-less to dry off, while the other is being changed…well, you get the picture!

This is what I liked about Bummas:
• they eliminate the use of talcum powder!
• they are 100% Cotton – Woven Velour Terry Cloth (one side super-soft, the other textured like a washcloth)
• come in a variety of color combinations
• perfect size! — handy 5” x 7” size, so they don’t flop around
• reusable and durable — just toss ‘em in the washer!
• didn’t pill, shrink, or fade on me
• variety of uses: wetting them to actually CLEAN bottoms & used to dry bottoms, before re-diapering
• great to have nearby to wet for sticky hands
• can be used from birth and beyond!

In addition, where a regular washcloth was too big, Bummas were also perfect size/softness to use on Pinkie’s swollen leg as a cold/wet compress these past few days.

Happy to give Bummas our iTwins 5 STAR rating.

We’d like to Thank You for saving our little butts! :)

She has been fever-free for 24 hours and her leg is showing signs of starting to heal and is no longer spreading past the line that was drawn Saturday night.  It is blistering and they are starting to open/drain.

We STILL have no clue what caused this!

Some research and advice from our friend/MD GP, suggest that this was a toxic reaction to a bite…most likely a mosquito…that also coincidentally coincided with a fever due to (too-far out) spacing of her Prevnar shot administered on Friday.  Because BOTH happened at the same time, it made her scenario that-bad.

I have found some articles on “Skeeter Syndrome” which is an allergic reaction to certain type of mosquito/bite and also heard from (thanks to Facebook!) a few friends that have seen similar reactions that were tested/diagnosed as allergic reactions to mosquito/insect bites.

Since seeing her Pediatrician yesterday, Pinkie was prescribed a 3rd antibiotic (within 3 days), Clindamycin.  We have heard some nasty things about this drug which pretty much annihilates all bacteria (even the good) causing severe GI inflammation and dehydration, just to name a few. 

So hubby and I decided to stay with the Bactrim (the 2nd Rx), since her infection was looking better yesterday being on this Rx.  (The 1st Rx was Keflex, which was prescribed by the 1st hospital on Saturday night was later discontinued for the Bactrim.)

A BUG BITE is so strange to me because Pinkie did not have any bites on her ankle when we dressed/diapered her for bed that night and then woke up with the “bites” the next morning.  We have had the air conditioner running and windows closed since April!

Of course we absolutely could have let the pesky thing in when opening up the doors going in/out.

For now, we’re going to stay the course with the antibiotics and see what happens.  She does not seem to be bothered by her ankle (which amazes me!) and we are told there is no reason to be concerned about her febrile seizures that accompanied her high fever on Saturday.

We go back to the doctor in the morning.

Thank you for all of your sweet comments to let us know that you are thinking about us and praying for Pinkie’s recovery.  We’ve all been through scary incidences with our children, so you know exactly how we’ve felt…thank you for all of your support.

We WILL be taking her to have an allergy test done when this heals and you BEST BET I am going to do my research on individual shots and their necessity and spacing in the future.

MMR and Chicken Pox vaccinations are next on her list, but I’m of course thinking twice, thrice and then some…

[a tired...]