Darius has been down with fever since Sunday night when we came back from Marina Square.

It has been a tedious few days taking care of him as the fever come and go. He would be totally alright and suddenly have a high fever again in the afternoon or middle of the night. He was especially uncomfortable in the night so we have been taking care of him by sponging, patting him and feeding him medicine. As a result, he was tired and suffered from loose stools. He also had no appetite to eat his porridge and even vomitted after he has eaten most of it.

I thought his illness was due to me as I was having a little sorethroat during the weekends and the doctor diagnosed him as having a viral throat infection which caused the fever. He advised us to continue sponging him, lookout for rash and told us what to do if he has a fit (If this happens, your baby may become unconscious and jerk his arms, legs, or facial muscles for two or three minutes but it’s alright, just wait til he calms down on his own, don’t put anything in his mouth).

Until today, his fever was gone and I noticed pink spots appeared on his face and body.

Checking with hubby, he showed me information on ‘Roseola‘ and we finally nailed this mysterious fever to it though we still need confirmation with the doctor.

From babycenter:

Roseola is caused by a virus, human herpes virus type 6 (HHV-6), and is passed on through saliva (think of all those toys going from hand to mouth). It’s often difficult to identify the source of the infection, as roseola is infectious before the rash is visible and has an incubation period of five to 15 days. It usually strikes children between 6 months and 3 years of age.

Symptoms coincides with what Darius has been experiencing for the past four days

• a sudden fever of 38.3-42.2 degrees C /101-105 degrees F, which lasts for three to four days, before suddenly disappearing
• other symptoms of illness alongside the fever, such as, listlessness, irritability, a runny nose, cough, mild diarrhoea, or decreased appetite
• once the fever subsides, a pinkish-red, spotty rash starting on her trunk, sometimes spreading to the neck and extremities, which fades within a few hours to two days.
• The sudden onset and disappearance of the fever, followed by the rash just when your baby seems to be better, are the telltale signs of roseola.

Roseola is contagious especially among young children and almost all adults have immunity to it by age of 4. It is spread when an infected person sneezes or coughs. Because a child is contagious before he has symptoms, there’s often no way to avoid exposure.

Now I think he might have contacted this from the enrichment class he attended last Friday or maybe Saturday, probably from another child.

That’s the bad thing of attending classes but the good thing is, ‘once your child has had roseola, he’ll probably have lifelong immunity to it’.

He’s better now, finally back to his laughing self since last night, though still having a loss of appetite and is constantly thirsty.

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