cleaning messes and identifying rashes

Let's see......Justin dumped a bunch of crumbs left in Tom's potato chips on Monday......then a bag of Tom's cheese curls a fruit cup and an ashtray on Tuesday.....Wednesday it was a bucket of spackel he was into(all over his face, hands, shirt, legs and the downstairs bathroom floor)............
We had late night worries Wed. night when Leanna developed a rash. She's always itchy so when she first complained it didn't seem out of the ordinary. But then she kept asking me to scratch her back, very persistantly. So I looked under her shirt at where she was itching and the skin was irritated-there were bumps and the whole area was redish from being scratched. She had it on her stomache, back, and legs. Chicken pox immediately sprung to mind, but it didn't look the way I remember them looking-there was no red mark in the center. But I'm thinking-I don't remember if maybe they start out looking like this first, and I'm thinking oh great-if it's chicken pox that would be extremely dangerous for 3 month old Timothy! First I had her go show her father and he came up and called his Mom right away. Then I called my Mom to come over and look at it since she saw me and my sisters have it when we were kids. She said it didn't look like chicken pox either. We called Korinna to check if any of Maree's friends had it(in case Maree was a carrier) but no. Tom hands me the phone-the jerk!-so I get stuck on the phone with Korinna for 20 minutes. It's sweet that she's all concerned and gives me all kinds of advice, but man, that woman can talk! As I was on the phone with her I looked up pictures of chicken pox, then shingles, rashes, and hives. It appears to be hives-a sign that the whole body is experiencing a hypersensitivity reaction.
They can be caused by classic allergic reactions in which histamine triggers an inflammatory response. It can also be caused by a number of other regulatory systems in the body in response to different types of triggers. For example, Cold urticaria – the most common of the physical causes. These hives are triggered by exposure to cold water or air. Dermatographia -- hives that appear where the skin is firmly stroked. Pressure urticaria -- hives that appear under tightly fitting clothing or jewelry. Cholinergic urticaria -- hives that occur in response to heat, exercise, or emotional stress. Aquagenic urticaria -- hives that are triggered by contact with sweat or with water. In these people, exercise itself is not a trigger, and they can drink water without a problem. Solar urticaria -- a rare disorder in which sun exposure results in hives. Sunscreen can help! We also know that some parasites can be responsible for hives (including giardia and pinworms, which are common in day care settings). We also know that bacterial infections, most notably Strep, can be the culprit. Viruses of many types can trigger hives as well.
Over 70 percent of the time no specific cause is found when children have hives. They were hypersensitive to something, but no one discovers what, and the hives go away. Doctors think that most of these unidentified cases may be from viruses, which would make them the most common cause of hives. This is particularly likely when there is a cluster of cases (although molds, animals, foods, parasites, etc. could also be responsible for clusters). They're not contageous, though the trigger of the hives might be.
Luckily, not long after our internet searches revealed the cause....her itching had stopped and the rashes had disspeared completely in some spots and were lessening in others. I did however, discover that my husband has a penchant for looking at really gross rashes on the internet. There are some pretty nasty rashes people can develop. And he's fascinated by them! Ah, the joys and discoveries of marriage!