Poison Sumac

After nearly one week of dealing with a weird rash we FINALLY figured out what it was! Poison Sumac, which is similar to poison ivy. 

The kids play alllll the time outside. We have this random tree in the backyard and when we first moved in I noticed, what I thought was, a weed growing on it. I didn't think much of it.

Well, fast forward to the week before school started and Kimbri woke up with a weird rash on her face. It then spread to her neck. We gave her some allergy medicine and it didn't really seam to help at all. We took her to the "back to school night" with this crazy red and botchy rash all over her face... yikes. 

After that weekend it started to fade away and I thought we were in the clear when all of the sudden Garrett woke up in the middle of the night with these crazy red bumps in all sorts of places on his body-- his ankle, arm, face, etc... It was so bad and really driving him crazy with the itching that I took him in to the pediatrician. She said try medicine and anti-itch cream and we were on our way. I consistently used it with no improvement after 2 days and felt like I was at a loss! I called the pediatrician and she said she would prescribe stronger doses of oral allergy medicine and cream. I was beginning to get so frustrated! I reeeallly didn't think that would work if the regular Benadryl and Zyrtec wan't working. 

Finally I turned to the internet.... haha. I asked, and posted pictures, on a group I'm in on FB called Lives of Doctors Wives and someone immediatley asked if it could be poison ivy because it looked similar to a rash they had when they had that. We hadn't been to any parks or on any hikes where I thought they would've been exposed so I was doubtful....

But then I realized... THAT RANDOM VINE ON THE ONLY TREE IN OUR BACKYARD!!!!!

I took a picture of it and looked up photos online and sure enough.... its POISON!

After talking to a few other people about it here in NC, apparently poison sumac is common around here and the vines will just start growing wherever. Yikes! So now I have banned the kids from going over near the tree. It's sad because they loved building forts out there and playing between the tree and the fence. And now we have to figure out how to get rid of it... 

At least now we know what it is and Garrett was able to heal from it. It took nearly a week and a half for his to fade!! He had to start preschool with crazy marks all over his face and body and I had to assure the teachers it wasn't contagious. Craziness!!