The Latest Ailment - Fifth's Disease

So a couple of weeks ago, our little dude came down with a nasty rash - he had welts all over this face, and although he seemed to feel pretty normal, he looked TERRIBLE.  We finally got nervous and took P to our fave urgent care (they know us well by now) on Monday of Memorial Day, because it was getting worse and worse.  They sent us home with some liquid steroids and said that they didn't know what it was, but thought it was food allergy related.

So the next day, we took P to school and upon looking at him, his teacher sent him home.  She said that one of the other kids in school had been diagnosed with something called Fifth's Disease, and wanted us to get a doctor's note confirming it wasn't this before sending him back to school . 


I immediately took P Diddy to the pediatrician, who said it was definitely not Fifth's Disease, and that's an often misdiagnosed rash.  He also thought it was a food allergy and told us to watch what he ate, and how he reacted (sheesh); he wrote up a doctor's note and sent him back to school.  The thing that just sat really wrong with me was that A) we had done blood testing for allergies and it had come back negative for everything and B) he went on a long diatribe about how I shouldn't send him to an allergist, because they're blood-sucking jerks who just perform expensive skin-testing, because they want cash, blah blah blah...

So of course, the next thing I did was schedule an appointment with a highly recommended allergist for the next day.  He got one look at Patrick's rash, and said "oh, this isn't allergies - this is VIRAL'.  WHAT?!  Three different opinions in 3 days from 3 different doctors.  Exasperation strikes!

So we went a few more days, and the rash moved from his face to his arms to his legs to his bottom... and would get worse when we went outside, or he'd play hard and get hot, or when he'd have tantrums (you know, like 5x/day, LOL).  It just wouldn't go away!!  By the next weekend, Sheridan was ready to take him to another urgent care for another opinion, and I said "you know what, let's google pics of Fifth's Disease".

And we ended up having a GOOD LAUGH, because the pictures we saw of Fifth's Disease were a dead on match for Patrick's rash.  And indeed, it flares with heat, stress, sunlight, and exercise, and once the rash shows up, apparently it's no longer contagious - thank goodness, since our pediatrician sent him back to school!!!

And fortunately, our little muffin Katie didn't pick this one up.  Whew!

Anywho, add it to the list.  Could this kid obtain anymore crazy childhood cooties?  He is such a magnet!!

Just in case your kid shows up with a weird rash, check this out and note - it's Fifth's Disease. (BTW, the name means that it's the fifth disease after Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Chicken Pox.)