Big B: my middle red

Big B, my middle red, was born on November 16, 2006, at a very healthy 8 lbs 14 oz. He looked gigantic next to the other babies in the nursery, and was a handsome little redhead. We noticed right away that he had two small spots on his stomach. When we mentioned it to the doctors and nurses, they thought the spots were birthmarks. So we took him home, excited to have a new baby boy.

The first few days proved to be very scary, as we watched our baby boy develop strange symptoms. He began to flush, out of nowhere, on his entire body. It would start right around his nose, and spread slowly until his whole body was red as a tomato, and when he did this, he would squirm and cry and seem like he was in lots of pain. Soon after that we noticed blisters on the spots. This was in just the first 3 days after bringing him home. We brought him in to the pediatrician, and they thought it was inpetigo. When the cream didn't work, they gave us a referal for the dermatologist.

When we called the dermatologist, they said B couldn't be seen for 4 months. We described his symptoms and how worried we were, and the best they could do was put him on the cancellation list. So we prayed, and our prayers were answered because the next day, they called back and asked if we could come the next day. And when we brought him in, the dermatologist knew right away what he had: mastocytosis, a rare blood disorder where the mast cells contain too many histamines that have to be released into the skin and cause spots, flushing, and blistering. We were reassured that his spots, thought they would continue to spread over his body, would slowly fade until he reaches adolescence.

We love having Big B in our family and hope to touch the lives of others who have children with mastocytosis as we share our stories about him.