While we were collecting these impressive stats at the doctor's office, Aidan was also the lucky recipient of FOUR shots. I had to hold down his arms, which was truly heartbreaking: he gave me this completely betrayed look and started to cry even before the needles hit his chubby thighs, and I felt like I was instantly signed up for the Worst Mother of the Year Award. (Thankfully, he was giggling and making fart sounds with his mouth just a few minutes later while I was still wiping my eyes...)
As you can see, he's one happy little dude:
However, a couple days ago, I wake up to find my little munchkin looking like this:
Yup. Reaction to one of his vaccines. I freaked out momentarily - I mean, they do tell you a rash can happen, it's no big deal, blah blah blah, and I fully believe that, but there's something irrational that happens in the brain when it's YOUR child. I mean, it's just strange to wake up and find your kid is a walking polka-dot factory, right?
Anyway, the doctor confirmed that yeah, this was totally normal, and yeah, it would go away in a few days, and no, it wasn't contagious. He wasn't feverish. He wasn't fussy. In fact, he was his usual sweet little self, except that his skin was a minefield. And we took his non-contagious self to church this morning, and the rash was already hugely better than yesterday, and the best part? I didn't meet a single soul bent on lecturing me about the dangers of vaccines and how Aidan would surely be autistic by next week. Because I totally respect parents who choose to take the alternate path, but if you have to lecture me about my traditional, all-hail-modern-medicine path... I just might have to BEAT YOU. So, um, don't leave me a comment saying as much, or I will find you.
(Thankfully, those people don't seem to exist in my little world.)
But as much as Aidan will probably regret me posting these pictures when he's older, I wanted to show freaking out parents out there whose kids also got an MMR vaccine just what it can look like... and that it's okay. As I type this, Aidan's spots are hardly noticeable anymore, and yesterday, he looked like a walking allergic reaction. And the first thing I did when I saw him, besides saying "what the..." was to immediately Google "MMR vaccine reaction", "polka dot child", "insane tropical disease". Okay, so the latter two searches weren't as helpful, but there were only two or three pictures of kids with MMR vaccine reactions, and they didn't look like Aidan that much. Well, enough to let me know what I was dealing with, at least, but I'm adding Little Man to the mix to help allay some fears out there. I will say that if your kid has a fever, is listless, or the spots don't blanch, meaning that when you press on them they don't go white and then immediately back to red... or you have ANY question, call your pediatrician or nurse practitioner. Don't rely solely on a Google search!
And now, back to parenting. Never a dull moment, is there?
2 comments:
Didn't mean to cut you off from viewing your boy this a.m., but we had just achieved shalom in the home and did not want to backslide. He rallied his cute little self and crawled all over the place chasing balls. He's a sweet boy and we love getting our hands on him on Sunday mornings. Momma can sing on the stage and bring home the bacon -- got your back girl!
No problem! I didn't want him to see me, either... he looked like he was doing so well, I didn't want to disturb The Flow. :-)
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