Nathan's Scary Rash

I have been absent from blogging the last couple of days, but with good reason. On Friday I was out helping a friend for the morning and got a call from Daddy D. Nate had a rash. All over. And he had no idea what caused it. He had given him some benadryl to see if it went down some, but Nate was not showing any other symptoms. No fever. It didn't itch. Just red raised splotches everywhere.

When I got home a little later I checked it out. I have to say it alarmed me. These spots were everywhere. But on the positive side, only the sight of the spots were the only thing annoying my newly minted four year old.

We placed a call to our pediatrician's office and were waiting for a call back. In the meantime we took pictures of it and txted them to Daddy D's sister, who is a nurse. She called back with some specific questions and things to look for.

And then she said the magic words. Google "Amoxicillin Rash". I did it, and there in the images in front of me was exactly what was happening with Nathan. It looked something like this (this is not an actual pic of Nate, but is exactly how it looked)...

After confirming with the doctor, it is indeed what was all over Nathan. It can arrive around days 5-8 of a course of amoxicillin treatment. Nate had started the medication while on vacation in Massachusetts as he had come down with 104.4 fever and a case of strep courtesy of his dad.

I had never heard of this particular side effect, and none of Nate's brothers or himself had ever had a reaction to amoxicillin previously. It is a common reaction. On day four now most of the rash has faded and is on its way out. He is done with the medication now, but as per the instructins from our doctor and what I have read online we did not need to discontinue the medication. He finished the course of treatment. But if a rash does appear with your child, please be sure to have them examined by your physician because occassionally this rash can be confused with symptoms of mono.

So I share with you, many who probably know about this, but probably many who do not. I am an "experienced" mom, and was thrown for a bit of a loop with my third child's reaction.