Sunday, Evan spiked a fever and he wasn’t up for eating anything.  We figured he was just teething again, just getting his two-year molars (which deep down I was already sure he had, but even I can be wrong!)  We rolled with it.

One restless night, several doses of Tylenol and a very noticeable (popped up overnight) rash around the mouth later… we figured it was probably time to call the pediatrician.

For a moment I thought we were over reacting.  It’s been a little cooler out and the rash was most noticeably around his mouth (I’m thinking it’s just a simple case of wind burn from all the slobbering and what not.)  But inevitably when a child is hurting and there seems to be little you can do, sometimes it helps to have some medical reassurance.   So off to the pediatricians we went.  I was optimistic that we’d be in and out with a confirmation that it’s all just normal.

But that’s not what happened.  By the time we met with the pediatrician the rash had spread to both hands and feet, as well as his diaper area.  The poor thing looked miserable!

An hour later we got confirmation that our poor Evan was suffering from a form of Coxsackie virus (hand, foot, and mouth virus) as well as a double ear infection!  In addition, the pediatrician showed me the rash that was also in his throat.  He wasn’t teething at all…he was in pain from the bumps/rash.  Not our proudest parenting moment but we live and learn, don’t we?  So anyhows, we were told it was mildly contagious but it’s most common in children under five and that it would go away on its own.

So Evan is being quarantined.  Mommy gets the honors of supervision until this virus runs its course and I’m so not complaining! I’m honestly thankful it wasn’t anything worse, even though it is still scary.  Other than the ear infection (which he’s getting antibiotics for) there really is nothing we can do to ease his discomfort except to just be here when he needs to be held and loved on and who can really complain about that?!?!