One From the Bloopers Reel

Recently we decided Emily was old enough to be trusted with her own eczema medication. Every night, we instructed her to put on her cream and then asked her where she had applied it. It turns out 6 year olds don't always give it to you straight. That's where this whole saga starts.

This past summer we discovered that eczema can develop under fingernails. A couple weeks ago our eczema knowledge base expanded even more. It turns out that, if not treated, eczema can become infected. So, you can imagine that this is what happened after Emily stretched the truth when we asked her if she had applied her cream.

The doctor prescribed a medicine that combined an antibiotic with a sulfa medication. The taste was, apparently, unacceptable to Emily's fine palate. After cleaning up the milk and dissolved pill mixture she so considerately spat upon the floor, we decided a carrot and stick measure was appropriate. The stick was conveniently provided by the internet in the form of gangrene pictures. I won't share them here, but needless to say, she was quite frightened after we told her her infected thumb would look like that if not treated. The carrot was a gallon of chocolate milk, which is normally forbidden in our house. If she took her pill, she could drink a glass of chocolate milk with it.

This all worked fantastically, until she took her final pill last Saturday. Sunday morning, she woke up covered  head to toe in a rash. The doctor identified it as a reaction due to a sulfa allergy. We would have to wait three or four days for the medicine to clear her system.

The next few days passed in a Benadryl haze for Emily. We had to tell everyone she came into contact with that she did not have chicken pox, measles or the like. She became an after school special for drug allergies. "You, see class I can't get sick from touching Emily or from breathing the same air as she does." Finally, the drug cleared, Emily was able to come off Benadryl and life resumed as normal.

I guess the moral of the story is - Never trust a six year old. Rookie mistake. I won't make it again.