As some of you know, last week my daughter had strep throat. She's 20 months old, and it's the first time she had a fever (not counting a low-level one after one of her immunizations). She handled it really well - I think because we got on top of it quickly. She came home from preschool feeling warm and when she still felt hot at nap time, I took her temperature and called her pediatrician. Within 24 hours of that nap, she had seen the pediatrician, had a strep test, and started antibiotics. Aside from the fever itself, the only symptom she had was falling asleep on the couch (and really, who among us hasn't done that?)
As some of you may also know, strep throat when accompanied by a rash, is Scarlet Fever. Yes, THAT scarlet fever - scourge of Victorian children's books. In those books, if someone speaks the words "scarlet fever," those who are not yet sick are whisked away to a distant locale to quarantine safely (Little Women) and, while the child lies sick, their belongings are burned (The Velveteen Rabbit).
The Victorians understood how contagion spread, but hadn't yet developed methods of sterilization, aside from the Kill It With Fire Method. Outside scarlet fever and The Velveteen Rabbit, another scene that sticks in my mind is from a film adaptation of The Secret Garden. Mary Lennox has just been told her parents have died of cholera. She drops her doll in shock; a man snatches it up and throws it on a pile of burning items from houses where people have died. I watched as Mary's doll's yellow yarn hair first turned brown, then black, as the doll began to scorch - all while Mary shrieked - "My doll, my doll, no, give me my doll!" paired with a soldier talking over her to another soldier explaining that she doesn't understand.
(To be honest, I can't remember if this scene happens in the book. I watched this film version SO many times as a kid and only read the book once or twice.)
This scene, and the burning of the toys in The Velveteen Rabbit, was very much on my mind last week. Jason brought Elianna back home from the doctor with instructions to throw away her toothbrush and toothpaste after she started her antibiotics, and to wash everything her mouth had come in contact with. In the midst of tossing pacifiers in a mesh bag and putting them in the dishwasher, and putting Brad Foxie, Maddison, Baldur, and Night-Night Bunny into the washing machine, I thought about these traumatic scenes in children's books, and was very grateful for antibiotics and the "hot" setting on our household appliances.
This happy photo brought to you by modern washing machines.