Black Dot Mystery

Last week, Noah woke up with 2 small black dots on his leg. They would not wash, rub, or scrub off although they certainly looked like ink. What worried me later in the day was how under both ink spots were little bumps. I decided to take him to the doctor for fear that they might be a spider bite or some sudden moles.

The doctor and nurse were baffled really. They thought they kind of looked like ticks except that they were so flat. Wanting to be sure, the nurse and I held Noah down while the doctor used some tweezers to sort of dig into them and see if there were ticks embedded in his skin. They were not and the black parts sort of disintegrated the more he tried to remove them. So we just kind of shrugged our shoulders and the doctor sent us home saying to keep an eye on it just in case.

So we did. A couple days later there was raised redness surrounding the spots and Noah kept messing with it, so we put on more antibiotic and covered it with a big bandage. Fast-forward a few days, Josh removed the band aid during Noah's bath and wouldn't you know the red angry skin area about tripled around the the former black dots - now shiny, pinkish spots.

I panicked and took him back to that same doctor on Tuesday before we left for Chattanooga. I showed him how the skin was reacting and worried it was an infection. I also, just for good measure, showed him Noah's chest and wrist where similar looking raised, red rash things had popped up and not responded to his neosporin or locoid medicine. (With all of Noah's skin issues, you just never know what any spot, sore, bite, or rash is on a day to day basis). Anway, the doctor took one look at it all, slapped his hands together in victory and announced with a big, broad, satisfied grin, "BLACK DOT POISON IVY!" Apparently, it is quite rare and he had never seen it before in his life. It was a little comical to me to hear him out at the nurse's station telling any and all staff what he had witnessed and finally figured out.

And I don't blame the man for being so excited that my baby got into some poison ivy (we have yet to determine where, when, or how still). I was just as relieved to have some resolution to the previous week's black dot mystery and doubly relieved he didn't have some sort of skin infection either. We got a very strong hydrocortisone prescription and headed out of town. Only, the skin reaction has been spreading even more the past few days on his chest, other leg, down his arm, under his arm, and on to his poor little face.

We are crossing our fingers that the poison ivy reaction is near its peak by now. Poor baby. In the picture you will see the site of the original black spots on his left leg and subsequent break out are fading a little already.

As for the black dots, it turns out they are evidence of an usually high concentration of the oil poison ivy secretes. It turns black when it oxidates on the skin and it takes up to 24 hours to turn black, which explains why those dots were suddenly there on his legs first thing in the morning that day.