Sage had Henoch-Schönlein purpura when he was about 7. I'm convinced it was from the bug spray I sprayed the day before the red rash begins.

Most of the accounts I've read on the Internet only talk about the bruising rash. Here's what happened with Sage.

Day 1 - I sprayed for bugs in the morning. That evening, Sage complained of his knees and legs hurting.

Day 2 - Sage complained during PE that it hurt to run. I saw some red chigger looking bites on him. They looked like chiggers or mosquito bites. I painted them with pink nail polish. (That's an old remedy. Mom says it kills the chiggers. I don't know, but it does help the itching a lot.)

Day 3 - When Sage woke up, I saw a few more of the red bumps on him. I painted those with RED nail polish, since I couldn't find the pink.

That afternoon, when he came home from school, he didn't want to go out and play. They said he did not play or do PE at school that he said his legs hurt.

We went home, and I wanted to see the bites - I was concerned there were so many. Well, the PINK ones - as I watched - started bruising under the skin right before my eyes. I freaked out. His dad got home from work about this time, and we went straight to ER.

In the ER - Sage seemed ok - not sick, just not running around being his usual wide open self. No respiratory symptoms - nothing. We went to Redmond ER because it was faster than Floyd. When we got there, we went right in. The doctor came in, and I showed him the rash - sure enough - the bumps were still turning to bruises. YOu could literally see the color dotted red bumps BRUISE underneath his skin. His legs were starting to look beaten.

The doctor acted SCARED. He ordered bloodwork and left. I cried like a baby - I'd never heard of HSP and I was terrified he had some blood disease and I was going to lose him. It really will terrify you.

The pattern was characteristic. He had huge blue bruises on his butt, his hips, all over his legs, his feet - even the bottom of his feet. He was one bruise from the waist down. One of the things doctors have to rule out with HSP is child abuse. I'm sure the schools see it and think this is what it is! It really LOOKS like the child has been severely beaten. Luckily, I had got Sage in while his was developing, so this was not a consideration in our case.

His bloodwork came back, and the doctor got in touch with the peditrician, and the diagnosis was HSP. They didn't tell us anything much, just what it was, to give him advil, and to watch him and to follow up with the doctor as soon as possible.

HSP can cause kids to bleed out internally - their kidneys, their intestines - all can be damaged by this auto-immune disease. In Sage's case, I kept him home so he could just watch tv for a week. He really did not feel like walking, even into the school. I didn't want him hurting his bruised joints, and I wanted TO KNOW if he started having internal problems.

I monitored his BM when he went to the bathroom. Its kinda gross sounding, but when its your baby and you've changed their diapers -well, its just better safe than sorry. If there is internal bleeding, often it will be seen in the stool, and/or they will complain of increasing abdominal pain.

Supposedly, this is a pretty rare thing, but the pediatrician had seen it several times. My 2nd cousin had it as well - after she had strep, but ALSO after her mom sprayed their plant nursery. She ended up in the hospital, as she had kidney bleeding. Today she is fine as well.