Sick BabyOne of the hardest things about being a parent is to see your child in pain or suffering and be able to do very little about it. This past Thursday, I thought Kaiya was coming down with something because she had been extremely irritable, clingy and looked tired even after a good nap. She seemed sick, but didn’t have any symptoms. She didn’t have a fever, runny nose or even a cough. She was eating and sleeping fine, but she was sure cranky. We put her to bed early hoping she was just tired and needed sleep. Friday was more of the same, but by late afternoon she was running a fever. I called the doctor’s office and the nurse said there were a lot of nasty viruses going around so I needed to treat the fever and just watch her closely. After a dose of Infant Motrin kicked in the fever came down and she was ready to play. Our Kaiya had returned! Unfortunately, Saturday the fever was back and so was cranky inconsolable Kaiya. We continued to give her Motrin every six hours and watch and wait for whatever her little body was fighting to surface. Sunday morning it surfaced, literally. Kaiya’s tummy, chest, back and neck were completely covered with a light red rash. I freaked! I was ready to take her to the emergency room, but the weirdest thing was she no longer had a fever. After talking to a nurse at our doctor’s office, my mom who talked to my Uncle who was a pediatrician for years and a friend with her home medical book, we concluded that she had Roseola, a viral illness most commonly affecting babies between the ages of 6 months and 1 year. Roseola’s trademark rash is the last stage of the illness and sure enough the rash was gone when she woke up this morning.