Landon's Skin

The past month has pretty much left me bewildered big-time on Landon's account.  The morning of the 4th of July, he woke up with what would appear to be about a 2x4-inch sunburn on his left shoulder.  (How one would accomplish that, I have no idea.)  At the same time, he had been battling what would appear to be the most severe case of dandruff I have ever seen in my life for about a week or so prior to that.  And it didn't seem like any amount of baby oil was making even the smallest dent in that cradle cap.

Throughout the course of the day, the rash spread from his left shoulder to his right.  He also had some dryness around the outside edges of his eyes and behind his ears.  James's sister, Leah, who we spent the night with prior to attending the Benson parade, said that her son had had something kind of like that about a year or so before and that fish oil had really helped.

Landon and Emerson on the 4th.

You can see where the red patches are.

By late afternoon, we had also contacted one of my brothers-in-law, Derek, who is an anesthesiologist, for his opinion.  Pathetically, he only had a picture message to work with and those pictures are pretty grainy at best.  He was also not feeling so well so I felt bad for bothering him in the first place.  He suggested that it might be seborrheic dermatitis and to try Selsun Blue on his scalp and shoulders.

Landon was pretty itchy and uncomfortable by late afternoon so, in spite of it being a holiday and hating to make people work on holidays, I ran over to Walmart and bought both.  (I have to be honest, I hate shopping pharmaceuticals.  I forget the third thing I was looking for, but I perused the whole pharmacy twice and was just about to ask the pharmacist - who happens to also be a good friend from college - for help when he came out and asked me first.  Bless you, Nick.)

The fish oil gummies seemed to clear Landon's skin up within a few days.  His scalp, however, is an entirely different story.  At first, we were kind of hit and miss with the shampoo, until one night Landon woke me up and was grabbing at his head, saying it itched, it itched!  Since then, we have given him a bath at least every other night, starting with a good baby oil massage and then washing that out with the medicated Selsun Blue. Right after the bath, his scalp looks great!  Maybe a bit patchy and definitely red, but not caked with flakes.  That lasts a few hours and, by the time he wakes up, it's back to severe scaling and flaking.

I have also kept Landon on the gummy critters (and, believe me, I've been getting really good at this because I give Trevy her fiber gummies and take my prenatals at the same time) ever since so you can imagine my surprise when I saw the red patch again last week.

James's brother, Ammon, came home from his mission to Chile last Wednesday and those who hadn't seen Landon for a while all commented and asked what was going on with his skin.  Honestly, I don't know.  Thursday the rash was worse, spreading across his chest and up his neck.  I felt so bad taking him with me to take Trevlyn to school so that he might be exposed to the cruelty of kids' comments.  Fortunately, we heard none.

James and I decided to try the Mustela oil that Leah had also suggested.  (Wow, that stuff is pricey!  But you do what you can for your kids.)  Friday I was glad he could stay home and out of the sun.  It does seem like the heat is a contributing factor to the progression of whatever is going on.

Saturday, the skin on his chest started peeling.  It would get the sprinkle-looking white patches and then peel off.

My brave boy Saturday morning.  

Looking tired, but still wanting to go swimming with Dad.

When I tucked him in bed Saturday night, I could also feel that his skin was hot all over.  We didn't take his temperature, but he definitely had a fever.  That night was horrible.  Much like the previous two.  Landon woke up around midnight to go to the bathroom and then wanted to change his jammies.  I went to get the other pair from the dryer and he was asleep by the time I got back so I left him in just his underwear, as he still felt so hot anyway.  He woke up again about an hour later and wanted me to get him dressed.  He was obviously very uncomfortable.  He wanted me to sleep with him.  Okay.  But then Timmy woke up an hour later so I went back to his room.  Maybe another hour and Landon woke up, wanting me to sleep with him.  Back and forth for the wee hours of Sunday morning.

Thursday and Friday night were long also, but I distinctly remember Thursday and Saturday being the hardest because I was desperate for James to take Trevy to school Friday morning and more than willing to be the one to take Landon home from church on Sunday.

Blessedly, James finished with his meetings early on Sunday morning and was able to come help me get kids dressed.  Landon looked absolutely miserable.  He had let Bridgette rub hydrocortisone cream on his skin the night before so we took it to church with us, hoping he'd let her do it again during sacrament meeting as he wasn't letting James or me touch him.

By that point, the rash was completely across his chest and down the middle of his torso, around his eyes and ears and up the front and sides of his neck.  Much of the upper areas were flaking and he was still running a fever.

Sunday morning pictures

When I looked down the row at church and saw him falling asleep against Daniel's chest, I caught Bridgette's eye and we all agreed - Landon needed to go home.  I was exhausted as well so I offered to take him.  Trevy had a talk so we watched her give it and then left.  On our way up and down the stairs to the Primary room, a few people commented, "Oooh, bad sunburn.  Poor thing."  Or just asked if Landon was okay.  For some reason, that just stirred up the hormones and the tears started coming.  I hate it when my kids are hurting.  Especially when I don't know why and can't figure out what to do for them.  Google just isn't doing it for me this time around.

Landon held my hand the whole day, wherever we went.  It was so sweet, but an obvious sign of how miserable he was and how much he just wanted me to be with him and make it all better.  I'm trying!  We got home and I carried him inside (I'm 37+ weeks so it's okay if that sends me into labor.  Although that would have been bad timing...) and asked if he wanted to sleep on my bed or his.  Mommy's.  I laid him down and watched his eyes battling sleep. I told him just to close his eyes and go to sleep.  No!  Then he started almost laughing and told me Timmy's room was cold.  Too cold or just right?  It felt good on his skin.  Honestly, Timmy's room stays the coolest.  It has no east or west facing windows and rarely has too many people in it. It did feel good.  I asked Landon if I could fall asleep.  He said yes and I guess having mommy fall asleep was enough for him to decide he had nothing better to do and he really was tired and he fell asleep before I did.  We both slept until my alarm went off for us to go pick up James and the other kids.  (Wish we had discussed it earlier because I would have loved to keep sleeping and Bridgette and Daniel ended up giving everyone else a ride home.  Somehow, we missed them.)

By last night, Landon's entire chest had peeled and there were little spots of pus.  He didn't want anyone to touch it, but he wanted to be held.  Thank goodness for Bridgette, as I also needed to make dinner.  Jon came over for dinner too and he was shocked at how bad Landon's skin had gotten in such a short time.  It had progressed lightening fast from looking like a sunburn to severe flakes, peeling and pus everywhere.  His scalp flaking used to be contained to the top of his head but even that has progressed to the sides and back a bit.

Sunday night pictures

I love how Landon still tries to smile, even when he's miserable.

Wiping off pus with a cold washcloth.  We even tried aloe vera, fresh from our yard!)

We tried putting on a little triamcinalone cream that we had from Trevy's eczema on the back of her leg as a toddler.  But even that hasn't slowed the progression.  Some parts of his torso have cracked and bled a tiny bit too.  It just makes my heart ache that I don't know what to do to make it all stop.

This morning, I called the dermatologist that two of my friends have seen with their kids and love and he's completely booked out until October.  His colleagues don't have any openings until August 22nd.  There's no way I'm waiting that long.  So I called our pediatrician's office and was given the 1:40 appointment with another doctor.  We've seen him before as well for ear infections and such so I was perfectly fine with seeing him.  It just seemed like forever for 1:40 to roll around.

Just as I was starting to worry that we would be late to pick up Trevy (it's almost a half hour drive or so back to the school) we were called back about 1:52.  Dr. Williams just listened and wrote as I gave him the rundown on Landon.  He checked Landon out as I remembered more details - like the fever - and even had to take the small tip off his otoscope to see inside Landon's left ear.  (I have been at a loss how to treat his ears because they are flaking inside where you can't even reach.)  His feeling is that it's an impetigo infection. Oddly enough, I was thinking that, since none of the other kids have even so much as a rash, it was probably not contagious.  Impetigo is highly contagious.  On the upside, it's also very responsive to antibiotics.  So we were given a prescription for cephalexin and told that things should be looking better even by Wednesday.  If things aren't looking like they're improving, we'll call Thursday morning and work through the pediatrician's office to get Landon into a dermatologist.  He really can't wait.  At this point, he won't even turn his head because his neck hurts.  Last night, he couldn't lay down to sleep.  I placed the pillow against his back, had him lean on it and slowly lowered him back and, even then, only to a reclined position.

Tonight, James and I were with him when he was changing out of his clothes.  The rash has spread and is now down his legs, on his sides and more on his back.  I'm hoping we just missed it earlier because of his clothes.  It's still the bright red of the early stage, but he's already miserable enough.

 Monday night photo shoot.

 (That's antibiotic ointment, not pus, but the dark spots are where the skin has cracked open.)

Hoping and praying that the antibiotics kick in and do the trick.  If not, we'll be meeting more of the medical community on Thursday or Friday.

I am honestly drained of any more thoughts on what this could be.  We've been treating it like severe eczema (which it really doesn't look like anymore) and dermatitis, but nothing seems to be working.  We'll go with impetigo for a couple of days and see if things clear up.

Feel free to post a comment with your guess.  We're up for anything!