What should I do if my baby has roseola infantum? Why does he get roseola infantum?

Roseola infantum is common in babies under six months old. Babies with roseola infantum will have large patches of small red rashes on their skin and fever. Roseola infantum has a certain degree of self-healing ability, but parents still need to pay more attention.

What to do if your baby has roseola infantum

Roseola infantum is a common acute febrile rash disease in infants and young children, caused by infection with human herpesvirus types 6 and 7. The infection usually occurs in children under 2 years old, especially in children under 1 year old. It is characterized by a sudden drop in fever after 3 to 5 days of fever, the appearance of rose-red maculopapular rash on the skin, and the condition is relieved. If there are no complications, it can be cured quickly.

This disease should focus on general treatment, strengthen care, especially skin care, and emphasize daily bathing with appropriate water temperature. Generally, the rash can disappear on its own. If the rash is more and itchy, you can apply an appropriate amount of calamine lotion. Note that you do not need to apply hormone ointment.

Children with mild symptoms can take a proper rest, drink enough water, increase their intake of vitamin C and vitamin B, and choose a nutritious and easily digestible diet. When the body temperature exceeds 38.5℃, physical cooling or oral antipyretics such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen can be given. The prognosis of this disease is good, and serious complications rarely occur, so parents do not need to worry too much.

Why does infantile rash occur?

The virus that causes roseola infantum hides in the mouth of adults and is transmitted to babies through saliva. The incubation period is about 5-15 days. After the baby is six months old, the immunity obtained from the mother basically disappears, so it is easy to be infected by various pathogenic microorganisms and become sick. More than 95% of roseola infantum occurs in children under 3 years old, and the peak age for the disease is 6-18 months.

The typical characteristics of roseola infantum can be summarized as: the rash appears after the fever subsides. The disease itself has no complications, and basically does not require any special treatment except for reducing fever and replenishing water. However, when the baby develops roseola infantum after 8 months, due to fever, 5%-10% of the babies may have febrile convulsions in the early stage of high fever. Although simple febrile convulsions will not have any adverse consequences, the first convulsion will still make parents panic and at a loss.

Especially if the parents had a history of febrile convulsions when they were young, they need to be mentally prepared. When convulsions occur, there is actually very little that can be done. Most people, although anxious, just turn the baby's head to one side to prevent aspiration, and take him to see a doctor after the convulsion. During the convulsion, never put anything in the baby's mouth, and there is no need to press the philtrum.

How to care for infantile rash

Before the rash appears, it is difficult to diagnose infantile exanthema. The fever usually lasts for about three days. When the fever is high, physical cooling or a small amount of antipyretic can be given. Then the fever subsides and the rash appears.

During the rash period, children should rest in bed until the rash subsides. Due to high fever before the rash and a large amount of water loss, they should pay attention to replenishing water and nutrients in time. They can drink easily digestible foods such as milk, rice soup, and soy milk.

After the rash appears, the child enters the recovery period, but some children may have mild diarrhea symptoms after the rash appears, so children should be fed more light food and less raw, cold, greasy and indigestible food. At the same time, they should pay attention to keeping warm and avoid catching cold to prevent symptoms such as cold and fever caused by catching cold.