Noah's Dad

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• It has a name! My son gets this across his nose like freckles if he cries hard or if he strains. When he had an ear infection a couple of weeks ago he got them from crying and his doctor had us have his blood drawn. I have had it happen to me before too I never knew it could mean anything bad!

• Yelp, crying hard and straining can cause petechia. Have you ever asked your pediatrician about it?

• No, I just pointed it out when I took him in for the ear infection. His blood work came back normal though. I didn't even think it meant anything. It has happened to me before, it makes sense, crying hard, or in my case throwing up or giving birth, burst blood vessels in your face! I will be sure to discuss it with his pediatrician at his next appointment!
  (you can see his from crying because of his ear infection in the picture)

• Gotha! What an adorable little guy you have! Thanks for sharing his picture!

• awww he's a sweetheart

• Awww!! Poor little angel! <3

• My son gets this a LOT!!!! I never knew what it was, our pediatrician always said it was a viral rash. I'm happy to gain this knowledge,however, I am already starting to worry a bit more

• Jennifer Britt, This pic of your son reminded me soooo much of my son, Griffin. Adorable!!

• I get those too :D // don't worry Rick!!! he is going to be super. Just take care of the little guy. is not any blood test that can help?
  Anyway petechia can have different reasons, is not always leukemia. KISSES AND HUGS! keep calm Rick!!!

  PS: I forget too that my little guy (13 months old) has Down syndrome lol.

• Yes, there is a CBC test like I mentioned in the post. But they always come back negative.

  Thanks for the kind words! Does your little boy with Down syndrome have any brothers or sisters?

• No, not yet. But he has an uncle who is 12 years old (MATI). OMG he loves him, BOTH LOVE EACHOTHER and sometimes when i go to pick up my brother from school all the school stop there to see Vincent. i think i will send Vin to that school, they have two kids with down syndrome, one in primary and the other in kindergarden.
  So he is like his brother two.

  Have you ever thought how to tell his future brother or sister (of course more in the future) how to tell her/him about Down syndrome? I remember when i went to the down syndrome foundation here in Argentina, a father told me about his son and that he told his daughter that her brother has down syndrome when she was 8 years old, because that was a good age to tell her and that she will understand better. And that made me thought i should tell my brother Mati about it. What is going to be very difficult for me i think is telling Vincent what is Down syndrome and that he has Down syndrome, when do u think is the best (age) to tell a son or daughter about their condition? well greetings!!!

  PS: Im going to pray for your little one! he is going to be amazing!!! :D

• By the time your next child is 8 years old, believe me, they will know ALL about Down syndrome. ;) My 7 yr old is an expert! She helps with her little brother's physio. (By playing.)

  You will never have to 'tell' child #2 'about Down syndrome'. If you are an open family who regularly speak to each other, it will be a fact of life in your home, just like blue eyes or jam sandwiches in the lunchbox. xx

• I agree fully. It is not a secret that you keep. It is just part of life.

• I just had a little boy with Down Syndrome 3 weeks ago. I also have a 5 year old. We have not yet told him that his brother has DS & are not sure whether to do so at this point or wait until he is older. Any thoughts or experiences with this? Thanks!

• Amen. Down syndrome is just one thing about my children, not who they are. My daughter, The Boys older sister by 3 years, has always known because it was just a regular part of our world. The Boys have always heard it and so they know it as part of who they are. No Big Deal!

• Well, thanks, I would've just thought she had little red dots on her head. : ) I remember when my Ada was first born and I read all these books about DS and I freaked out about all the things that could go wrong. I decided to stop reading and just enjoy her. I know that others have to deal with much harder things in relation to DS and I am grateful for the health Ada has had. We take Ada to her regular check ups so I just pray that if something were wrong that we'd figure it out but not to stress in the mean time.

• What a great way to live life! I've learned the most of the things I worry about don't come true anyway. I even wrote about a few of them.

  Thanks for sharing the picture of your little girl...she is ADORABLE!! How old is she and where are you guys from?

• Thanks! We think she's super cute too. She is 22 months and we live in Rochester, Michigan. :)

• Awesome! Be sure to keep us posted on your story!

• Hi Ann! My son will be 2 on Halloween! We too live in MI right by metro airport! Are you part of any groups in the area?

• I was reading this blog and then as I was scrolling down I was like "Wow, she looks a lot like my niece, Ada!" And she is Ada! :)

• I know what you mean. Juju's sister gets mouth sores whenever she gets sick. Juju had a low WBC count and I freaked out, knowing the connection b/t DS & leukemia. Thankfully, follow up bloodwork showed the WBC heading back up towards normal.

• Glad everything is ok! Does JuJu have any brothers or sister's?

• I saw petechia on my daughters stomach at age 13 months . Pointed out to my pediatrician and he seemed not too concern . My gut feeling "mothers intuition" was telling me otherwise . the petechia didn't go away and in fact it started appearing all over her body . Six weeks later , I took my baby back to the same doctor and demanded a CBC . Test came back with her platelet counts being at 22,000 ( normal is 150,000-400,000) . She was admitted to our children's hospital and more tests were run and my 15 month old was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia on March 15th 2013. She finished her last round (4) of chemotherapy on July 13th and is in remission , thank The Lord. She will have a bone marrow biopsy next month to make sure the cancer has not returned. She will have a bone marrow biopsy once every 3 months for the 1st year post chemotherapy . Kate's Corner- Leukemia Journey is her Facebook page if anyone would like to read and follow Kate's journey with Leukemia . Petechia may not always mean cancer but I believe a mothers intuition is stronger than any doctor diagnosis . We are our child's best advocate !

• I love this!! Thanks so much for sharing. Your little girl is adorable!

• Love this picture of Kate, Tisha!:) So blessed to have you guys as friends and to know sweet Kate!

• That is so true! And a good doctor knows that. I have been parenting across 3 decades now and we have 9 kids so our pediatrician never questions when I call. But 22 years ago when our first was a newborn I knew he was the doctor for us when my daughter just seemed out of sorts. I called him up feeling funny that he would think I was overreacting because I couldn't even name a symptom. She just didn't seem like the baby I had come to know in the month since her birth. He didn't think I wasting his time at all. In fact he said, well, if you feel something isn't right then we had better take a look at her because mother's know these things. We took her in and in an hour she was admitted to the hospital in kidney failure. He is retired now. I miss Dr. P!!! Our KK is now a wonderful young woman helping her baby brother with Ds to get big and strong and working hard everyday to change the face of Ds.

• Hi, my daughter gets those all the time. She has DS and had Leukemia when she was 2. Even though I know she shouldn't get it again, every time I see petechia on her, I get nervous at times. I never want to go through that again with her. It is amazing the feelings a few small spots can produce in a person. Thankfully she is 17 yrs old now and her health is so much better now than it was when she was young.

• I have actually used the internet to diagnose and treat a lot of things in our big family. It has saved us from so many doctor visits. Of course, if things didn't get better right away I'd go to the doctor (actually, she comes to us :). We use natural remedies, mostly essential oils. Our ped. is totally supportive, even when we were dealing with croup. She encouraged us to keep up the oils for a couple days. I'm so thankful for her! I sometimes fear being forced by a pediatrician to do something against what I think is best for my child. We are losing our parental rights! When something scares me I go right to the God who knit my little Max together. What freaked me out once though was when Max (18 mos) kinda looked up and crossed his eyes like he was looking at something right in front of him for just a second. He did it a couple times but I decided he was kinda being silly. He was blabbing and playing and just kept playing. I hadn't put his oils on him that day so I went and got them. We put Frankinsence and another blend called Valor on him everyday for the past 4 mos. Wow! What a difference that has made in how active and motivated he is. He had an eye that was acting kinda lazy (he may have gotten boric acid ant stuff in it :( ) and the oils fixed that! Another blend called Digize has really helped him poop everyday (in the potty!!!). The frankinsense is used to prevent and treat cancer but it does much more for him. Another friend has a 6 yo with DS and uses Melissa oil. Her therapists have said not to stop the oil because they see a huge difference and are telling other parents about it. For 2 mos she was only SMELLING the empty bottle someone gave them and it was making a huge dif. Now she's actually applying the oil. We use Young Living oils and Native American Nutritionals oils. I thank God for using these oils to keep us healthy. Don't use cheap oils. Sorry, didn't mean to go on and on! Hehe :) Hope this helps someone!

• Laura,

  Thanks so much for your comments. I'm not a Doctor (but lots of them read our blog so maybe someone will chime in.)

  You mentioned when something is wrong with your child you like to go straight to the One who created them in the womb, and I agree. I find that when I do I'm reminded of all the great resources that God has given us to help our children get well. Modern medicine is amazing, and I often thank the Lord that my family is living in a time such as this. Not to long ago kids with heart problems (like so many kids born with Down syndrome) had lots of complications, and didn't live nearly as long as they do today.

  I personally know several kids with Down syndrome that have had major open heart surgeries and if you met them you wouldn't even believe they had heart surgery! I praise God for that sort of technology, and for medical professionals that know how to use it. No oil could do the work of a trained heart surgeon.

  I'm aware aware that using oils is becoming more popular, and I'm not anti-oil by any means (though I've never used them), but I think the key is making sure you are partnering with your pediatrician, which it sounds like you are. Natural remedies can be helpful, but I'm sure you'd agree that there are often things going on that require more than a natural remedy, like heart surgery.

  You mentioned that we are "loosing our parental rights." I'm not sure what you mean by that. Who is taking your rights away from you? A Doctor can't take away any of your rights, nor can they force you to do anything against your will. What makes you think that they can?

  As I mentioned, the key is partnering with your medical Doctor as they are trained in things that we are not (no matter how good I am at using Google...as my wife sometimes reminds me.) :)

  Thanks for your comments, I always enjoy learning from other parents. You sound like a very caring and loving parent!

• Yes, I agree that we need a pediatrician too and I'm very thankful for mine who totally respects our parental rights. Not all do. Please, please go to parentalrights.org to learn more about how those rights are being eroded in this country. Also, you can learn about the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and why they oppose it.

• Thanks for sharing. I understand the concern, but it's a tough line. I believe the government should protect children, especially from parents that are causing them harm.

  Who do you deal with that tension?

  For example, I know of a parent who is very passionate about "un-schooling." She believes that kid should go to any sort of school, or have any sort of rules, structure, or boundaries. They can do what they want and their child's "happiness "is the most important thing. They are never given a formal education (or really any education.) They can do, say, eat, watch, what they want. In fact I once tried to help this parent see the dangers in this "parenting" style by asking what about baby gates. A baby wants to try to go down and up stairs, but they could kill their self by allowing them to do what they want. So we put up baby gates as a literal boundary to keep them from literally going over the edge. To which she replied "we never put up any baby gates and our daughter is fine."

  I think this type of "parenting" should be illegal (and in mists states it is) as this is likely going to cause that child a lot of harm down the line, not to mention likely being at a kid reading and writing level when he/she becomes an adult.

  Do you think the government should step in and help this child from a parent irresponsibly hurting their child? I do.

  There are to many bad parents out there and lots of kids in need of protection.

• Hi, I love reading all your comments and I love seeing your pictures of your DS children. I am a mother of 9 children 7 are my own and I have 2 step sons, my 6 older children are all girls and my 7 is MY ONLY son, he is 9 months old and I knew from the beginning of my pregnancy that he was DS and had a heart condition, he had a rough 6 month until he had his surgery, and he is now a healthy little boy with DS, unfortunately when I first had him I knew very little about DS and am learning as I go, I am learning by reading all your comments and stories, and learning what Bruce wants, my Bruce is a very special boy, and not just because he is my ONLY son, but because he is DS, personally I believer that God only gives us what he knows we can handle, and (I have spent many days away from my family) to be with Bruce in the hospital. In his first 6 months because I needed to be with him, I was however allowed to travel home for a short time to help settle any issues that could be happen at home without me. Raising a large blended family is far more difficult than raising a DS boy, Bruce is a excellent boy, he is eating solid food, and prefers that over his bottle, he still takes his bottle but its only for a drink or for sleep. Bruce has 2 older full sister and 6 half brothers and sisters so he gets a lot of attention and Love, here is a picture of my beautiful son (Bruce) and his oldest full sister Vienna spending quality time together, oh and he just love her.

• As a pediatrician who actively writes, I do agree that you can get medical information (even sometimes good medical information) from the internet but there are dangerous pitfalls you need to look out for.

  Secondly, I think Rick's main point is that before you get completely freaked out about something you find on google, go and talk with you doctor about it. If you trust your doctor and they have the time and ability to explain things to you it should trump anything you could find on the internet anyway.

  I agree that we need to be extremely careful about protecting parent's rights and their right to make medical decisions for their children. I try to support my families in their decision making process in any way I can. This includes some very in depth discussions about all kinds of various topics and weighing both the risks and benefits of particular treatments. I believe it is my duty as a physician to be honest with my patients about what studies have shown regarding treatments (particulalarly more "naturalistic" ones as they commonly have less studies and evidence behind their use). As with any treatment, particular patients may see good or bad results with any treatment and I want my parents to be fully prepared for both good and bad outcomes.

  One thing we certainly will agree on is that we should turn to God for every big or "little" thing that comes our way. Unfortunately, there has been a trend I've noticed in medicine that has caused a divide between "conventional medicine" and more naturalistic/wholistic doctors/patients that is harmful to the Church. When I prescribe amoxicillin for an ear infection, I am aware that God have someone the revelation to know that the mold growing in their Petri dish might help someone to fight off illness and wether it's through the prayer of the parent or the amoxicillin, God ultimately is the only Healer of ear infections or any other illness.

• Justin may I ask where you practice?

• I agree that going on line can be useful. I tell my patients to go to reputable sites like WebMD or Mayo Clinic. Otherwise they show up panicked and full of crazy self diagnosis. I don't deal with kids so it is a little easier. But I even used some online sites to finally figure out that I'm gluten intolerant (& found out about cross reactions to oats). My current GI agrees with my assessment. The difference is that as a Midwife / NP, I have the education needed to sort through the data. Many people don't and can even delay proper treatment as a result. By the way, my grandson has DS and petechia issues related to low plateletts.

• I hate Petichiae too, in the case with our daughter Emily who has DS it did turn out to be leukemia. She went through treatment like a champ and is doing great now, but whenever I see anything that remotely looks like a little red dot I go into panic mode. I totally agree you shouldn't use google, I had a feeling when I saw them and they stuck around for a while that we were headed for leukemia.

• So glad to hear your daughter is doing great! Thanks for sharing!

• Ellie tends to get a lot of pressure-point petechaie from things like tourniquets, seat belts, and even the elastic bands of her pants. When she randomly gets them, I tend to freak out. You are correct in not googling. Google petechaie and you get cancer. Add in fever and petechaie and again cancer. Scary stuff. If Ellie gets a lot of petechaie for no reason, then we head in for a CBC for piece of mind.

• Same with Noah! And I totally get the "head in for a CBC for piece of mind" comment.

  Abbie is always pretty calm about this stuff, but I get worried, and you don't know how many times my sweet wife will say "Rick, if you'd like we can call Tanna (our pediatrician) and have her set up a CBC if it'll make you feel better. To which I say, "Wait, are you saying you think there's a reason we need to get a CBC?" (and this after I've asked about 20 times if "she thinks Noah has Leukemia." LOl....

• I hate Petechia too!
  My son had very low blood platelets at birth (he actually required two transfusions) and was covered with these red dots for the first six months of his life. Like, Noah, my son has fair skin and even a drawn out temper tantrum (usually from being held down at the doctor) causes him to get petechia. Still, even knowing the cause, when it gets bad I ultimately bring him in for a CBC. Like you said, they are always good. Glad to know I'm not the only one to occasionally get overly worried about this common occurrence.

  Hope Noah gets well soon! Watching your kid be sick is the worst! Thankfully it's just a common virus.

  P.S. Here's my Logan. I think he is about the same age as Noah. He loves your blog as much as I do!