Curse you Poison Ivy

We have told our girls many times about the plant and they have a healthy fear of the weed.  There is a lot of it growing around our area so the girls stay on the road and don't venture into unknown territory without our go ahead. 

So I take my 6 year old across the road so she can climb the driveway of our neighbor and go play.  It's a steep, long driveway and each side is covered in poison ivy.  Stay in the middle of the driveway I remind her, "I will" she cheerfully yells as she runs up the hill.  Satisfied that she is safe I walk back home.

The next day she wakes up in the morning complaining of bug bites itching her. I'm thinking this is odd since it's late in the season and too cold for mosquitoes, but we did have a oddly warm day yesterday, okay maybe.  I ask to look at the bites and there are three small red bumps around her knee, okay put Afterbite on her marks and send her off to school.  The next day she is still complaining about the itch so I have another look and there are now more red bumps and the old ones have grown (okay not looking like mosquito bites anymore).  

My mind is in search mode .... 

poison ivy? (but it's around her knee not her ankle) 

bed bugs? (ewwww)

flea bites? (yes, her friend has a kitten)  

I hop on the computer and start my search to find out what this is. 

"Ah Ha, my girl has..er well at least I'm pretty sure, she has poison ivy."

But where the heck did she pick it up, since she swears she didn't go off the driveway at her friends.

My husband makes an oatmeal bath for her and I treat the wounds with a Burosol solution.  The next day there are more red bumps and the old wounds defiantly are resembling poison ivy (time for more Burosol).  The next day even more bumps have popped up.  She now has gone from 3 bumps near her knee to many spots around her knee, another cluster on the back of her ankle, a strip above each of her inner elbows, and finally many underneath her buttocks on her legs.  I change the treatment to a hydrocortizone cream. (Grrrr) At this point I am very frustrated that it continues to spread.  I strip the bed and blankets and anything that may have come in contact with her skin, towels you name it.  My neighbor gave me a treatment that kills the oil that could still be on her skin, so we treated her with that yesterday and so far has not seemed to spread, hopefully we are just dealing with treating the existing wounds....cross our fingers.

Well, it has now been a full week and luckily she is on the mend.  Although a few more spots have popped up on her arms she doesn't complain about any itching except for one spot on her leg.  Her old wounds are quite ugly, the poor girl, it seems, is very allergic to the cursed weed.