fifth disease | Imamother

shabbatiscoming

Wed, Jun 03 2009, 10:32 am

has anyone here had a child that ever had this? if so, what did you do to help ease them? my daughter is hardly drinking at all, forget about eating.

my daughter now has a terrible terrible rash all over her body (its a virus) and is in such a terrible state, its so sad to watch and she keeps on spiking a fever.

the doc said to wait it out for a few days to see if it goes away (and if it is just fifth disease it is supposed to after a few days) but we are IYH supposed to fly to america next thursday and it is not looking good.

cindy324

Wed, Jun 03 2009, 6:28 pm

I had it myself, but I didn't have the rash (adults rarely have it, rather they get terrible joint pains, like I did).

Usually the rash of fifth disease appears at the end of the virus, after the fever has passed. One of my kids had it like that, she got the "slapped cheeks" one day, but no other symptoms. I would takeher back to the doc to make sure it's not a bacterial infection rather than 5th disease, in which case she may antibiotics to clear it up.

Do it asap, so that you won't have a problem before your trip.

amother

Wed, Jun 03 2009, 10:05 pm

elf123 wrote:

As a kid, I actually had it more than once. Not to scare anyone but I'm pretty sure it can be dangerous for a pregnant woman to be exposed to it.

It depends on which trimester and if the mother has immunity already. I had a child with it and was also pregnant at the time. Had a blood test, and everything was fine B"H.

shabbatiscoming

Thu, Jun 04 2009, 2:24 am

thanks everyone for your replies.

of course we went straight to the doc already. he was the person who said it was probably 5th disease.

I actually think it broke this morning. the whole splotchy look on her face is MUCH less than it was and her body is still covered, but the past two days her fever got very high, so I was very nervous. she is not scratching at all, but I can tell that she is very uncomfortable. she altogether stopped eating and is only taking a bottle, and even that, not all of the time. and she has been sleeping a LOT, but I am sure that that is normal.
if things dont look much better before shabbat I am going to take her back to the doc anyway. thanks all.

Inspired

Thu, Jun 04 2009, 5:17 am

elf123 wrote:

As a kid, I actually had it more than once. Not to scare anyone but I'm pretty sure it can be dangerous for a pregnant woman to be exposed to it.

Technically it is dangerous to the fetus, not the woman. I had it at 8 weeks. I had to have an ultrasound every other week for the whole second tri. to check that the fetus wasn't developing fetal anemia for which it would need a fetal blood transfusion. Earlier than 8 weeks if the fetus caught it it would likely mean a miscarriage. The likelihood of a pregnant woman catching it is pretty low, passing it to her fetus even lower. Luckily even though I caught it, I didn't pass it to the baby. It was a scary pregnancy.

amother

Thu, Jun 04 2009, 3:05 pm

shabbatiscoming wrote:

Doctor's daughter here. Patients are way too nervous about bothering their doctor. Sometimes it's hard to tell right away and as the symptoms progress you can tell a little better what is really going on. Call the doctor and have him look at her again today!

shabbatiscoming

Thu, Jun 04 2009, 3:09 pm

amother wrote:

shabbatiscoming wrote:

sorry, I wrote that wrong, I just realized that I wrote that wrong. when I said that it broke, I meant it got better, that the dat before she was VERY VERY splotchy and it was red. today, thankk g-d it was much much much better, thats what I meant. I am going to wait tiill next week to see if it totally goes away.
and I am so not the type to be nervous to bother the doc. I dont even care if they laugh at me. I go whenver I have a question for them no matter what.