Meet My Son, Spot

Do toddlers have runny noses all winter long? All the toddlers I know seem to have a lot of problems with snot-leakage. My sweet little toddler boy is no exception--he has had a cold basically since October. Usually, it's a pretty mild cold, but just as soon as he is over one cough, another starts. And we've gone through a ton of Kleenex over the past few months! I think I may buy stock in a tissue company. Anyway, around two weeks ago, I decided it was time to have the doctor check out Colter's latest bout with boogers, and it turned out he had an ear infection. The doctor prescribed some antibiotics, and everything was fine and dandy. Or so we thought.

Four or five days after starting his antibiotic, Colter starting looking like a leper. It started with just a few spots here and there but soon turned into this:

Ack! My boy was spotted (and a little itchy)! It actually got quite a lot worse than these photographs show. It seemed like more than just a viral rash that babies get pretty often, so we went back to the doctor (two weeks in a row! Yippee!). Our pediatrician looked Colter over and determined that he is allergic to penicillin. Great. She told us to give him Benadryl for the itchiness and gave him a prescription for some steroids. Yes, steroids--he's preparing for the major leagues early. Actually, I only gave him the steroids once and decided that is wasn't worth the side effects. They were supposed to make the rash go away sooner, but they made him a little irritable and kept him awake. I still love my boy even if he's spotted, so we tossed the steroids in the garbage.

Hopefully, Colter doesn't ever get an ear infection again because apparently, like the 5-8% of the population that share his allergy, Colter should avoid amoxicillin. My mom is allergic to penicillin too, and according to what I read, the allergy can be inherited. Thanks, Nana.

Penicillin+Colter=Bad