Spots! Ahhh! We have SPOTS!

My baby could have been afflicted with a pox!

She was fine Saturday morning. Maybe a bit crabby and clingy but she's cutting two teeth so I attributed it to that. The only odd thing I noticed was that she seemed kind of warm before her nap.

We went out to FILs house and then on to the Wal-Mart. Well, under the morgue lighting that is the florescents inside the store I noticed that Bitty Girl looked like she had a fine rash over her cheeks. That's weird, I thought and filed it away as soemthing that I could perhaps blame on FIL's Wife . By the time we got back to the pharmacy you cold see definate spots across her face. I began to panic and snagged the pharmacist, Dr Looks-like-she's-in-high-school, with one hand while searching for our pediatrician's phone number with the other.

"Sorry ... I know this is not your thing but ..." I gasped, gesturing helplessly at my marred youngest child.
"Looks like a rash" she says, helpfully.
"What ... what? I know - a rash - but ... my babies are never sick!" I wail.
"She doesn't look sick."

She was right. Bitty Girl acted as if she felt fine, smiling and happy, just rashy.

"Has she been around any kids with chickenpox? Or measles?"

My mind raced. We had all just been to the Pediatrician's office for check-ups. I always dread going because it's invariably full of snotty, hacking kids. I mean, it is the doctor's office.

Then something clicked in my brain. Measles. What were those vaccinations that they gave Bitty?

MMR. Mumps. Measles. Rubella.

Ahah!

So after a clandestine, whispered convo with a sweet but vague nurse during a high-speed trip around the rest of the store we determined that she was, indeed, having a mild reaction to the MMR.

Here she is at FIL's prior to the Wal Mart:



Here's my Dalmation baby at breakfast the next morning:



Notice the rash is just starting on her chest. Here she is that evening (Sunday) at supper:




Pox baby! This is the rash at it's peak. It also covered her torso and there was a bit on her legs. She never showed any signs of feeling bad and it didn't seem to itch her overmuch - she did swipe at her ears some (where the rash was the worst) but never seemed too bad.

This morning it's faded considerably to a light brown dusting of spots with no red.

*Whew*

After all that trauma I got to thinking what it would be like if my sweet baby had actually HAD measles - which, thank Science, she should never get. Here's some things I learned on that subject while obsessively Googling. These quotes are from the CDC.:

Before the measles vaccine was made available in the United States in 1963, about 500,000 cases and 500 deaths from measles were being reported annually ... (emphasis mine)

After the introduction of the vaccine, the incidence of measles was reduced by more than 98%
Did you know that your children might be playing with - even going to school with - kids who are not vaccinated against measles (or any other disease)? Some parents choose not to vaccinate:

... We shouldn't assume that our children are safe from the threat of measles. In 1989 and 1990 we saw a large increase in measles, partly because many parents didn't have their preschool-aged children vaccinated.

And this is just the stats for Measles.

For facts on the MMR vaccine see here.