Periorbital cellulitis: Mum shares warning after baby daughter's ... - 9Honey
When Krisha Jensen Burt saw some 'goobers' in her baby daughter Lany's eye one morning, she didn't think much of it.
While she wasn't thrilled to be dealing with another illness, the US mum-of-two could never have predicted it would turn into an emergency situation.
Sharing her story on Instagram, Krisha, who is also mum to toddler Emerson, said it had been a "crazy" 24-hour whirlwind.
"What an unexpected 24 hours… long story short, follow your gut and remember it is always better to be safe, than sorry!" she wrote.
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After noticing her daughter's eye was rapidly worsening, she booked in to see their doctor.
"It started to freak me out a bit how fast it was getting worse and worse. It started that morning and within a few hours it had changed a tonne," she recalled.
Unconcerned, the doctor said it was probably just conjunctivitis, but told her to watch out for three key signs which could signal an emergency situation:
- The skin becomes more red in colour
- The eye continued to swell or
- The skin became hot to touch
When all three of these happened within an hour of returning home, Krisha rushed Lany to the emergency department of their local hospital.
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"He told me the chances of these things happening were very slim and he didn't think it would even be a concern. But all the signs he told me to watch out for started happening less than an hour after meeting with him."
Doctors there were also concerned by how fast it was progressing, and gave Lany antibiotics before transferring her to another hospital.
After seven attempts to get an IV line in, Lany was given blood tests and a CT scan, which eventually came back 'clear'.
The hospital then informed the worried mum her baby had 'periorbital cellulitis' and started her on antibiotics.
Periorbital cellulitis is an infection of the eyelid, or surrounding skin, and can also progress to orbital cellulitis. Adults can get it, but it is most common in children under two.
Both conditions are serious and require immediate medical attention - complications can include meningitis, loss of vision, or brain abscess.
Thankfully, Lany responded well to the treatment and her eye quickly began to return to normal, and the family was able to return home.
Krisha shared the story as a reminder to other parents to always trust their gut when it came to their kids' health.
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"Long story short, always listen to your mum gut and if something doesn't feel right, do not hesitate to get your child help," she advised. "This became an emergency situation within hours and I'm so glad we ended up following our guts and taking her in. Could have ended much worse if we didn't.
Her story quickly went viral, with thousands of parents thanking Krisha for the warning and sharing their own near misses.
"With my third child being only eight days old and only being home from the hospital for three days, he wasn't acting like his normal eight-day-old self which sounds crazy but I just felt something was off," said one mum.
"He had a worse case situation and had bacterial meningitis. Hours would have been catastrophic and even deadly for him."
"Urgent Care sent me straight to the ER. I've never seen so many medical professionals blanch. There was a 12-hour wait and they took me back after five minutes. The wildest part is that I felt 100 per cent fine except for some tolerable pain," added another.
"My son had periorbital cellulitis when he was a baby and I had never heard of it… thank goodness I listened to my gut and went to the hospital. So glad your baby is OK!" added a third.
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