It's thrush, you dunce

I took Colin to the pediatrician today, kind of half-heartedly. He's had some upper respiratory virus for 3 days, the main symptom of which is copious clear nasal discharge. But, Anthony thought he may have been tugging at his ears, and his mouth ulcers had really flared up. He's had a lot of oral ulcers, but I knew these were usually viral and self-limiting, so I didn't worry too much about them. With this recent virus, though, his poor lips and tongue were covered with sores. I figured I should take him in today, since I was already off.

We couldn't see his usual pediatrician, but I really like our 2nd choice pediatrician's nurse. "You think he has an ear infection?" she chirped as she gave Colin a cup of water to play with. "Yeah, maybe...." I hedged. "Has he been really grumpy, pulling at his ears?" she asked as she cajoled him into an axillary temperature. "Kind off..." I said. "He's got a lot of ulcers in his mouth." "Oh, poor baby," she said, "the doctor will be right in." Actually, it took a while, and I distracted him with the cup of water, raisins, and a bunch of "Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear..." (cute English tickling game).

The doctor said both ears had an early infection. Then she looked in his mouth. "That looks like thrush," she said, "See that white plaque? Has he had it before?" Thrush is a fungal/yeast infection that a lot of newborns get, but Colin had not been diagnosed before. He probably had it before, but I just thought it was a virus. Oops. "I'm going to give him an antibiotic for his ears, which alone would make his thrush worse, and then we're going to treat him with an antifungal for the thrush." "Well, that should make for some really great stools," I said.

Fortunately, the medicines taste really good, and Colin says (like Dora's backpack), "Num num num num num, delicioso." Except it sounds like "num num all-doe." Also ketchup, which sounds like "pickles" in Colin-speak, really burns those lesions, so no chance in using the dip-dip to get those veggies down.