The school nurse just called, said LilMiss has Fifth Disease/Slapped Cheek Syndrome. I’ve read up on what it is, and understand it. However, every site says she has to simply “ride it out”.
Poor kid.
She has an orchestra concert Saturday, a birthday party to go to Friday night, well, she has a full schedule.
Anyone have/had this? What was your experience? Anything we can do to ease how miserable she is? How long did it last?
My nephew had it. I don’t recall it being all that traumatic…
My oldest son had it last winter at age 1 1/2. It really wasn’t a very big deal. He ran a low-grade fever for a few days, and was a little less active than usual, but otherwise didn’t seem to be very uncomfortable or miserable. Mostly, it was a good excuse for the two of us to skip work/daycare and curl up on the couch for a couple days of quality cartoon catatonia. 
IIRC, he came down with the rash mid-week and it was gone by the end of the weekend. He was back in daycare by the following monday.
Depending on how your daughter is feeling, I don’t see why she’d have to miss her planned events. She might be a little self-conscious about the rash, but once that shows up they’re past the point of being contagious so you don’t need to worry about passing it on. I’d say as long as she’s feeling up to it and eating/drinking well, then go ahead and let her go if she wants to.
Your daughter is very lucky that she’s got this now. Like German Measles, there’s an increased risk of birth defects if a women gets it when she’s pregnant. So by getting it over with at a young age, she’ll not have to worry about that.
I know this because my daughter got it when she was 4 (had a mild rash and fever for 2 days and then was fine). I was told it wasn’t any problem for anyone unless they were pregnant. Major bummer because I was pregnant with her little brother at the time. After some researching it appeared that I was too far along for it to be a major concern, but it did add some worry to the pregnancy.
Been there, had that. All that happened was I turned funny colors ( the red lacey rash).
I had it in 5th grade. I got to stay home for a couple of days and watch tv. It wasn’t horrible.
I had that when I was 7 or 8. I don’t recall any symptoms at all, other than the obvious rash… I was running around in the yard on the days I stayed home from school.
The funny thing was the way I was treated by the hospital staff, after they figured out why I looked like that: they all kept their distance from me and insisted that my mom and I leave through a back door, so as not to expose anyone to me (as if I hadn’t been sitting in their waiting room for an hour with two dozen other people!)
We all thought it was hilarious, especially when this “terribly contagious disease” didn’t even affect my sister, who was with me almost constantly.
I’ve never heard of this before, and I’ve raised two children! Can someone give more information, or will I have to spend my evening surfing the web?
I’ve never heard of it before, either! But here’s what I found at webmd.
Thanks. I checked out a few other sites, and some say it’s common, some say uncommon. I just don’t understand how I got through two pregnancies and raised two kids (in the last 22 years), reading everything I could, from Dr. Spock to every flyer in every doctor’s office we ever visited, and not ever hear about this. Roseola, yes. Measles, yes. Fifth disease, no. Amazing.
I sympathize - it’s running all over the place in my daughter’s day care right now. It’s kind of tricky - it’s winter so flu-like illnesses are all over the place, and not everyone gets the “slapcheek” rash, so I have no idea if my kiddo has had it or not. On top of that, I don’t want to expose anyone else to it, knowing that people can miscarry as a result. And having had two miscarriages in the last twelve months, I do not want to be remotely responsible for anyone else going through it.
Still, it’s hard on the kids, and I know I might be going overboard keeping my daughter away from kids other than those at the daycare. However, my kid is two and personal hygeine is not her thing, while an older kid would probably have a better understanding of ways to prevent the spread. Good luck!
I did when I was probibly in 5th or 6th grade. My arms and legs got all red and splotchy but fortunately it never got to my face. I felt only very mildly sick and it was during the Summer so I harly noticed. The rash freaked me out at first but it went away in a couple of days.
My daughter had this a few years ago. She had a low-grade fever for about two days and the rash lasted about a week before it was completely gone. Her rash was mostly limited to her legs and arms with a little on her face.
I’d never heard of it either until she got it.