A few weeks ago, my poor little guy woke up covered in hives from head to toe. We had just started using a new detergent free of dyes and perfumes, so I blamed it at the time. However, over the following week, I tested the new detergent one article of clothing at a time, and the hives never returned. So I discounted the detergent as the cause.
A couple of nights ago, before dinner and after playing at the park, I noticed that the outer corner of Ethan's eye looked a little puffy, almost like he'd gotten bonked. By the next morning, it looked like this.
I couldn't figure out what could have caused it! (Neither could he.) I thought, if he'd gotten hit or banged it somehow, it would have swollen immediately instead of slowly getting worse over the next 15 hours.
Then I wondered if maybe he'd gotten some sand or other irritant in it at the park-but the eyeball itself was not pink, nor irritated, and he wasn't in pain, other than if you touched the actual puffy parts of his eye. Obviously this wasn't a scratched cornea or anything of that sort.
I had three daycare kids that day and Danny was working, so it just wasn't convenient to up and take him to the pediatrician. (Mind you, I would have, if I thought it was an emergency)
I consulted my neighbor (who seriously knows everything about everything, and not in a snobby "I know everything about everything way") and she suggested I give him some Benadryl and see what happened before taking him to the doctor. So at this point, we figured he must be having some kind of allergic reaction. To what though? The same thing that gave him hives two weeks ago?
So I gave him the Benadryl and over the day I took pictures of him to compare. He did end up looking better throughout the day, although I don't think the medicine really did much.
By the end of the day, a slight little welt had manifested itself at the corner of his eye, so I came to the assumption that he must have gotten bitten by an ant or something at the park the evening before. Again, he never really complained of pain, other than when we prodded his swollen eye, and he could see out of it just fine, so I never did consult the pediatrician. I hope that he was indeed bitten and that he's not experiencing reactions to some mystery allergen. Any ideas, anyone?
PS: our computer is back up and running and thankfully, virus free.
8 comments:
My sister had this happen to her once a few years ago when we lived together. She thought it might be from the cat that liked to sleep with her and scrubbed the apartment top to bottom. After some reading it was probably a clogged pore or duct from makeup or some chemical or other. If the eye doesn't hurt its most likely an allergic reaction.
I think hot compresses are the way to go. Some people say tea bags, but if you don't drink tea they are harder to have on hand.
When Steve was little he got a gnat in his eye and it got so swollen he couldn't open it. The doc flushed it out and it got better. You never can tell what makes these things happen, at least it really didn't bother him.
Ouch! The poor thing! I wonder if it was an ant or bee? I hope he continues to improve and doesn't have any more allergic reactions to anything!
I can tell you it didn't have any affect on his happy little character. He is one happy boy!
Kaseys Eye has done that twice in the last couple years, when she gets bit by mosquitos to close to her eye. It probably was a bug thing!
Mystery indeed. Whatever it was he had a certain reaction to it.
Im going to email you this weekend to let you know what the allergist told me about my rash.
Im glad the lil dude is doing much better!
I think it's definitely a mosquito bite! thanks for the help, guys!
Noah got that once and we realized later it was a mosquito bite just inside his eye lid. It went away like Ethan's and he never experienced it again. Hopefully that is what it was. I'm glad he got better quickly.
Post a Comment