On parenting: Baby’s mouth blisters

Daddy’s new word for today: Herpangina – mouth blisters, usually common in children.

Today started off differently. We woke up at 4AM to the sound of CJ’s crying. This usually indicates feeding time, and so I did my now well-versed ‘rouse-myself-out-of-bed’ and ‘fix-up-a-bottle-of-milk-while-half-asleep’ routine. I was halfway through the motion when Conne, sounding rather alarmed and upset, brought my attention to the fact that the lower part of CJ’s face (mouth area), and the upper part of his pajamas, were covered in dried blood.

Flashback:

He had a slight fever a week ago and had been extremely irritable the past few days due to two large mouth sores located on the tip of his tongue. This was apparently brought on when he inadvertently bit himself while we were attending mass over the Holy Week period (and oh boy, did he make a small scene then, ha!). To compound the situation, his gums were quite swollen and sore partly due to teething-related problems (we initially suspected gingivitis as the culprit), although, after an initial check-up, a dentist friend assured us that there was nothing to be concerned about and prescribed preventive measures and gum care techniques.

He was still feeling a bit uncomfortable and irritated when Tuesday evening came. Although his appetite did improve significantly when compared to the previous days. But because of some minor bleeding of the gums, his pediatrician prescribed some antibiotics.

Today, 4AM:
I was really concerned with what I saw. Even though the bleeding had already stopped (probably hours before while we were deep in slumber land), you can just imagine how the initial shock of seeing CJ’s face and shirt stained with blood really made me weak-kneed for a bit.

It sure is one way to make any parent fully awake even at un-Godly hours. We were off to the drugstore in a jiffy to buy the medicine prescribed the night before. We even treated CJ to some ice cream on the way home. This seemed to lift his spirits because when we got home (at around 5:30AM) he was running about, shouting, jumping, and playing with wild abandon as if nothing happened.

Present:
We finally had him re-examined this afternoon, and it appears that the mouth blisters were caused by a viral infection, Herpangina, which is a fairly common illness among babies and toddlers. Whew!

It’s another Parenting 101 lesson for us. Thank God.