Funky Flu

Just when I thought this week couldn't get any better, I discover that my babies are sick. Both of them. The littlest one caught IT first. She already had a runny nose and mild upset tummy due to the grand appearance of two molars and an eye tooth. Then ontop of that we discovered that she was running a mild lowgrade fever which we (at first) also assumed was due to the teething. So we just alternated infant Tylenol and Motrin around the clock every 6 hours until the fever had gone on it's not-so-merry way. However, we were surprised to notice the next morning that she had broken out in a rash from head to toe. It looked like a cross between Rosiola and Chicken Pox. They were small pinhead sized pink dots all over her body. When "A" was only 6 months old she had a similar rash as the result of the passing of a virus. We ALMOST took her to the doctor, but she was eating fine, playing fine, and no longer showed any signs of any of the previous symptoms so we decided that whatever virus it was that she had been hosting had already run it's course. And of course there is the fact that you can't do anything about a virus anyway other than treat the symptoms, because unlike a bacterial infection which can be cured with antibiotics, there is no cure for a virus...it just has to run its course. Two days later, "A's" rash was gone. We get up the next day and our three year old is complaining of a bad headache and running fever. Oh no! Not again! We break out the Children's Tylenol and Motrin again and start our little routine all over. Then I get a phone call from my brother-in-law whose home we had visited about a week before all this started, and he informs me that some of the kids his wife babysits had come down with this rare strain of the flu! I told him that "C" and "A" had also been sick. He said that Michelle (the kids' mom) had taken her daughter to the doctor when she complained of a severe headache and ran a lowgrade fever. The doctor told her that it was an unusual and mild variation of the flu virus, and that you just had to let it run it's course. He told her to alternate tylenol and motrin to ease the pain and keep the fever down, and not to be surprised if her daughter broke out in a rash after the fever broke. He also said that by the time the rash appears the child is no longer contagious. Bingo! The light bulb came on in my head. Guess that's where my kids got it from...(since we never go anywhere). The good news is that them getting this weak strain of the flu now, according to the pediatrician, make actually help them build an immunity and avoid the severe flu that goes around later in the season. That would be a most welcome benefit of this mild but annoying little virus!