The Day We Learned About Impetigo

One of the nice things about having your third baby is that you know what to expect for the most part.  For example, I knew that around four weeks, Emily would probably suffer from baby acne and that it would go away after a week or so.  When Katelyn had her outbreak just days before her blessing at church, I did the first-time mom thing and immediately took her in to see the pediatrician.  In a nice, but “you are a stupid first-time mom” kind of way, he assured me that it would clear up on it’s own and that she would not be scarred for life because of it.  I was skeptical and left the office reluctantly.  It did clear up and I am confident that Katelyn will not need therapy someday because of her baby acne.  It will most certainly be for other things.

When Brooke had baby acne, it was less severe than Katelyn’s and I was ready.  We were blessing her at church when she was a few weeks older and I didn’t take her to the doctor.  I just waited it out like a seasoned veteran would.

So this time was going to be a piece of cake because I totally had the baby acne routine down.  Unfortunately, Emily definitely had the worst case of the three girls.  In fact, her baby zits were so close together that they actually popped each other and had little baby blackheads.  It was N-A-S-T-Y and sad but I knew it would pass and be done sooner rather than later.  It started in her “T-zone” and just as it should moved down, so I was sure it was about over.  But then, a funny thing happened.  It was actually more disgusting than funny.

Millions of tiny little bumps came back all over her forehead.  Then, the skin under the zits on her cheeks became red and inflamed.  And then, millions of little new zits appeared there too.  Zits on top of zits on top of red rashy skin.  I was mortified.  But I remained calm. I could totally handle this, even though it made me cry every time I looked at my baby.  My sister-in-law Jill was so nice to me.  I would whine and cry to her about it and she always made me feel better.  She really had me laughing when she told me that Kyle doomed his own children when he used to say  in reference to Jill’s daughter Jaleese, "Who puked....oh that's her face!"  She had terrible excema when she was little.  We had a good laugh about it.

Since I had kept her hidden away for so many days waiting for the awfulness to pass, I desperately needed to make a Wal-mart run and that’s when things got worse.

As I got her out of her infant carrier I noticed an oily looking orange stain on the fabric.  Gross.  As I strapped her into the Baby Bjorn I looked at her little face in the sunlight and discovered the source of the stain-maker.  My baby’s bizillion zits were oozing orange.  What made it even worse (if that’s possible) was that is was kind of crusted over in spots so it glistened.  Kind of like Edward in Twilight when he has diamond skin that sparkles, except way more disturbing and infinitely more gross.  Because of her whole jaundice thing, I was sure that she was leaking billirubin or that she was in fact part Oompa Loompa and she would bleed orange.  It was on her clothes, her headband, and even on her tiny little ears.  I would wipe it off and it would ooze right back.  I swear it was even more disturbing than it sounds.  It’s making my skin crawl just typing this.

So as soon as we got home, I put my IMD (Internet Medical Degree) to work and of course concurred with my colleague (Web MD and MayoClinic.com) that this was NOT normal and that I could totally call the doctor without feeling like a crazy vain mom. 

I called and they said I needed to get her in to see the doctor but they were closing in 10 minutes so it would have to be Saturday morning.  Aaaggghh. 

We waited, she continued to ooze and crust and ooze and crust.  The doctor took one look at her in the morning and said she had Impetigo.  When her baby zits were popping each other, those little openings made a nice entry point for a bacterial infection.  But he gave us magic cream and she looked a lot better almost immediately.  This is a picture of her after two treatments, when she was looking A LOT better and not glistening anymore.  I was too mortified to take pictures of it at it’s peak – boy, that was a missed opportunity.  Those photos would scare off boys for years to come.  She looked completely better by day four and has had beautiful baby skin ever since.   So I guess the only thing I know for sure to expect with a third baby is that I can expect for her to continually surprise us and teach us new things.  I am just going to focus on enjoying the educational ride.