Is it the devil-may-care attitude? Perhaps. The ratty hair? Only after particularly messy meals. The drug and alcohol addiction? Not as far as I know. The millions and millions of dollars? Oh how I wish. No, what Elsa and Amy have in common is a nasty little skin infection called impetigo. Now, mind you, I don't follow the doings of Miss Winehouse too closely, and apparently her courageous battle with impetigo is old news. Newsweek, that bastion of serious journalism, covered it back in April. But I wasn't aware until we got home from the doctor's office yesterday when I did a Google image search for impetigo and up came dozens of shots of Amy Winehouse's bumpy-looking face (along with a bunch of grody photos of much worse impetigo than Elsa has).
In Elsa's case, it's a quarter-sized sore on her upper arm that looks rather like a popped blister. When it first showed up a few days ago, as a little red spot, we thought maybe the strap of the carseat or stroller had chafed her, and it had gotten a little irritated. It didn't seem to bother her at all, though, so we didn't think much of it. But a couple of days later it was suddenly much bigger, and there were some other little red dots around it, so we took her to the pediatrician. It took the doctor approximately .08 seconds to glance at her and say, "impetigo." (Which, when I'd seen written on lists of 'common childhood ailments' I'd always assumed to be pronounced im-PET-i-go. In fact, it's im-pe-TIE-go.)
Here's what it looks like....
"It's a summer thing," our doctor explained. In warm weather, when more skin is exposed and kids get generally grubbier, bacteria are more likely to get into little scrapes and cuts and things, and the body sometimes just doesn't fight them off. Then she told me it was highly contagious, at which point I immediately began to itch. So far, though, it doesn't look like anyone else in the familiy has gotten it. Elsa's on antibiotics now, and seems just fine.
Even though this is a very common ailment among small children -- and hard-living British rockers, apparently -- I couldn't help feeling slightly guilty. But only slightly. Though we're relaxed about letting the girls get grubby when they play -- something I feel is an important part of being a kid -- we're also pretty good about cleaning 'em up afterward. Some microbes are just really damned wily. So, you let your kids play in the dirt, it's the chance you take, I guess.
What I want to know is: what's Amy Winehouse's excuse?
