I got the chicken pox in eighth grade, and it was horrible. I had them in my throat, so swallowing was excruciating, and all over the bottoms of my feet, so I couldn’t easily walk. I missed two weeks of school. I got them from my sister, who got them from her classmates. My face was covered in scabs, and I tried to be so careful to let them fall off by themselves so as to avoid scarring – when all was said and done, I ended up with a large scar at my arm pit and another, sadly, on my cheek.

I read chapters 9 and 10, which covered skin conditions (think rashes and, obviously, chicken pox) and fevers. Today there is an immunization for chicken pox, and I know some people remember their experience with this “childhood disease” and say that the immunizations are unnecessary. Dr. Zibners has this to say: “before children in the United States began routinely receiving the varicella [chicken pox] vaccine, hundreds of children and adults were hospitalized every year with severe infections that could even, rarely, be fatal.” I have ranted about this before – immunize your kids. The risks of not immunizing far outweigh the risks of the shots.

Have you ever broken out in hives? I have. Many times. Little Mama has gotten hives once that I can recall. Dr. Zibners says hives are not always indicative of an allergic reaction (I guess she means this for adults as well as kids) and that sometimes there is no identifiable reason for them. I wonder how much Benadryl I have needlessly taken over the years. There is one time in particular that still bothers me – I randomly broke out in terrible hives one afternoon. We frantically tried to figure out what I could be allergic to (usually it’s obvious) and narrowed it down to some cherry tea (which I haven’t tasted since, but had enjoyed a few times previously) and orange oil, which was in an organic bug repellent I used for the first time that day. Orange oil is in some organic cleaning products, and I have avoided them because of that bout of hives. Maybe I’ll try out those potential offenders sometime soon to see if I really am allergic – I’ll have some Benadryl on hand just in case.

I am particularly grateful for these two chapters. She describes several types of rashes kids get (without photos – you have no idea how happy this makes me – Googling rashes is a terrifying experience). As for the part about fevers, I predict having this book in your library will prevent at least middle of the night call to the pediatrician. I called our pediatrician recently (during business hours) about a low grade fever that lasted longer than I thought it should – I wouldn’t have called if I had read this first (and I ended up cancelling the appointment I made because she was just fine the morning we were scheduled to take her in).