Wednesday night I noticed Emir had some red bumps on his feet. I thought it was mosquito bites. Feeling irritated with the mosquitoes I checked all the windows and switched on the vaporizer. That night Emir woke up several times, crying irritably and scratching. Thursday morning when I sent him to the daycare I mentioned on the mosquito bites which looked by that time have multiplying in amount. At 11 am I received a phone call from the daycare that Emir red rashes have spread throughout the body.
My heart was doing this flip flop (nothing to do with the PM, if you know what I meant , wink). You see Emir has a medical condition called G6PD which is hereditary from me. It is a very common human enzyme deficiency and said to affect about 400 million people world wide. The X chromosomes (boy XY chromosomes) caused the body to lack an enzyme called Glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase or in short G6PD. The enzyme’s function is to help red blood cells to function normally. This deficiency can cause hemolytic anemia, usually after exposure to certain medications, foods and infections. In rare cases, G6PD leads to chronic anemia requiring blood transfusion. For a girl, we have double XX chromosomes therefore if one lacks the enzyme, the other will cover for it. That’s why normally G6PD affects mostly boys.
I have always been careful about Emir. I have had his medical conditions detailed to any of his caregiver. When he was born he had jaundice for an extended period, longer than any baby I know. He had his little feet punctured for blood test so many times. I couldn’t bear to see him going through all that. Luckily he recovered fast enough and since then he is as healthy and active as any child. Nevertheless, every time he gets sick, I get very worried.
I began to search the internet for information on children rashes and the list is long and ranges from “nothing to worry about” to “very-very worrying possible causes”. So we brought him to the SJMC. He does not have fever or flu just the itchy red spots all over his body. The pediatrician diagnosed the cause to an elergy reaction, possibly from something he ate or touched. He was given some medications and calamine lotion. Throughout the day he was active. Over the night the red bumps reduced significantly. It becomes less worrying now but I still need to establish what was his body reacting to when he developed the rashes, and whether these rashes are something more serious. I hope it was nothing but I just don’t want to overlook anything more serious.
