Erythema Multiforme

Sebastian woke up yesterday morning as usual and as we were getting ready for daycare, I noticed what looked an insect bite on his hand. Just a few bites clustered together. I commented to David about it and didn't think much thereafter. When I dropped him off at daycare, I showed Ms Kristal as Sebastian is mildly allergic to mosquito bites and they tend to flare up and get infected and instructed her to use hydrocortisone cream.

When I picked him up from daycare he had several more spots on his arms, but not really noticable anywhere else on his body. We came home, ate supper & played around until about 8:30pm. As I was getting him undressed & in to his pj's I saw huge welts all over his body. It seriously freaked me out and I called my sister immediately. She is in nursing school & works at Piggott Community Hospital. She came over right away & looked at him and like me, had never seen anything like it before.

My husband breaks out in hives [red raised welts all over his chest & back] from time to time; however, we think it's stress/tension related. Sebastian's rash/hives were 10x's worse than David's have ever been. I instantly went over in my head all possibilities...haven't changed soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, supper had been a tv dinner he's had a million times, he had been taking an antibiodic & cough medicine for a week & he's had them both before, not been around anything different that I know of. Called Ms Kristal to follow-up all details of his day with no likely conclusions as to why he had a ruge rash all over.

I gathered him up & decided to take him to the ER in Poplar Bluff. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait long as they seen him right away. When the doctor came in he diagnosed him right away with "erythema multiforme". They gave him a dose of a steroid medicine and wrote out some prescriptions. Of course when I came home, I googled!

Erythema multiforme is an acute inflammatory disorder caused by an allergic reaction that occurs in response to infections, medications or illness. He had been sick, coughing & congested, for the past week and with that had been on an antibiodic & cough medicine. One website said it was rare in children under 3 and another said it was common in children...so take your pick. I was much relieved to get him home & in his bed last night.

Today he is doing TONS better. Most of the welts have disappeared, he has some spots of discoloration, especially around his waitline & booty [where it was the worst]. He's been running around saying "my booty is red, my booty is red" after he watched me upload his pics. I'm not surprised that he would get another wierd disorder that we've never heard about. It seems that everytime he's sick, some sort of rash comes along with it. He's always had such sensitive skin, but it's beginning to get ridiculous!

this is what he looked liked in the ER

huge spot on his belly

right side of back

beginning to spread to his face at the hospital