January 29th

January 29th, 2009

A child at Nicholas's daycare got fifth's disease and spread it to all of his friends. Nicholas was one of those lucky friends. Fifth's disease is generally harmless. It is mostly like a cold at first, and is only a problem when there are complications (like say you were exposed to h1n1 and fifth's disease at the same time...) Then, when you are no longer contagious you get a rash. The first part of the rash to show up is on your cheeks (they call it "slap cheeks" because your cheeks look like someone slapped you). Unfortunatley in winter in wisconsin these are hard to distinguish from the very common chapped cheeks that kids are sporting from playing outdoors in the cold dry weather. When Nicholas got the cheeks his doctor said that it wasn't 100% that he had fifth's disease, but he could guarantee that he wasn't contagious. We now feel pretty sure that it is fifth's disease because after the cheeks comes the spider web rash on the arms and legs and torso. He is so cute. He keeps taking his shirt off and just looking at his arms, in amazement. It doesn't seem to bother him or itch, he just seems fascinated by what it looks like!