bumps...

When Cade came home from church yesterday he was complaining of his tongue hurting.  I thought this was a strange thing to complain about and kind of chalked it up to him being tired...because he is always tired after church.  We sat down to eat lunch and he didn't eat much...again, I thought he was just really, really tired.  I let him go on to his nap and thought, "this will be my afternoon for him to take a really long nap and rest myself.  Well, that thought quickly flew out the window when Cade woke up not even an hour after he fell asleep.  This is not good...he needs at least a solid hour to make sure that he doesn't end up cranky.  He woke up and was still complaining of his tongue.  I finally asked him to stick out his tongue and let me see what was wrong.  I thought I would see nothing...but, what I did see was a tongue dotted with these little dots....like all the taste buds on his little tongue were swollen.  I felt really bad and ran for the baby oragel.  I placed a dab on my finger and rubbed it on his tongue only to hear a shreik and send tears streaming down his little face.  I felt really, really bad now.  I asked him if he wanted a drink and that seemed to help, but not for long.  He had no fever, no tummy ache, no diarrhea, no nothing.  His tonsils were a little swollen but no puss pockets or anything.  I was like, "what is going on here?"  Of course I got online to try to figure out what this was and only scared myself further..lol.  

Could it be scarlet fever?  

No, no rash, no fever.  

Could it be thrush?  

No, no white patches in his mouth, no fever.  

Could it be strep throat?  

No, no fever, no puss pockets on his tonsils.

Hmmm....what is wrong with his little tongue?  I just decided to let him suck on ice...this was all that seemed to help.  I stayed home from church with him to be really sure that if he had something strange he wouldn't spread it to anyone.  

I should mention Cade is a thumb-sucker.  He has sucked his precious thumb since he was about four months old.  I decided to let him since he would be able to self-soothe in the crib without me having to get up and put the pacifier back into his mouth every time it fell out.  Anyway, he decided last night that he couldn't suck his beloved thumb last night when I put him to bed and that prevented him from actually going to sleep...go figure.  He laid in bed for an hour before he actually fell asleep.  I felt horrible all afternoon and into the evening because there was literally nothing I could do to make my baby feel better.

This morning when he woke up all the bumps had gone down except for just a couple.  Literally down from like 12-15 bumps to like 2-3 bumps.  I was literally amazed.  I thought that the day was gonna be better and I wouldn't have to worry about him complaining too much until he began to eat breakfast.  He ate a little and decided he didn't want his cereal or anything else.  Fine.  Lunch came...nothing...."my tongue hurts...**whine**".  Ok, ok...well at this point I'm just frustrated.  I can't put medicine on his tongue...screaming...I can't put peroxide/water wrinse...crying...I can't put salt/water wrinse...more screaming and crying.  Hmmm....I decided to look on the internet again to see if I could come up with some information about what this was on my child's tongue that was plaguing him so.  All I could come up with is bacteria that got on his hands and then to his tongue (did I mention that he sucks his thumb?  lol) or an allergic reaction to something that got on his hands and into his mouth or something he ate, I guess.  He isn't really allergic to much (I/he is so blessed) so it has to be the bacteria thing.  

Well, I still haven't come up with any answers as to what this is/was.  As the evening progresses he seems to be better, but still whiny and complaining.  Has anyone ever had this happen to you or your child?  Just wondering how to make it better.  

BTW...I did find something wonderful that I will stock up on ASAP.  Sucrets makes these popsicle things with an oral anesthetic and menthol that you can freeze and eat for a sore throat/mouth pain.  I bought them up last night wondering if it would help Cade.  OMGSH!!  Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.  I will definitely buy more for later times when sore throats hit and tonsilitis is upon us.  I recommend them to anyone...for children or adults!!  It's almost exactly like using oragel in your mouth..lol.