Beware The Purple People Eater

My name is Pierscen and I am a
Purple People Eater!!!

Rrrrroar!!!

I want my food right when I wake up.
If not... I am angry!!!

And I might eat someone!!!

Don't keep me waiting long...

Or I might be forced to eat my fist!!!

At last! Life can go on! :)

But as a warning... when the purple comes back...
Beware!!!

Alright... so the truth of it is that this is the doing of Gentian Violet. It is used to treat thrush, but Baby P never had it. I went to the lactation clinic because I was hurting after I fed him, not during, and the consultant thought I might have a yeast infection even though he didn't have thrush and I didn't have any other symptoms. Unfortunately, the treatment is the same. The stuff is dark, dark, dark purple and stains pretty much instantly. You dip a q-tip in it, and then let the baby suck on it while it coats their mouth. Then you do the same to your nipples. They suggest doing it at night to minimize the risk of staining all your clothes.

Well, we did our first treatment on a Friday night. All night I did my best to wipe his mouth after each feeding, but I didn't know if I would do any good. In the morning, I had quite the shock when I looked in the bassinet and saw Baby P coated in purple from cheek to cheek. It was hilarious, and yet mortifying. I knew it would come off eventually - but holy cow! That first picture I snapped to send to Necia to prove just how purple he was when I called her asking what I could do to help it fade. He wasn't actually crying. He was getting ready to sneeze. I had planned on taking P with me to piano that morning, but after seeing that he was a total grape, I opted to leave him home with Ryan. Ryan had a couple people over in the living room when it was time to go. I slipped quietly into P's nursery and put him in the crib and turned on the mobile without Ryan seeing him and then left for piano. Not long after I had been at my lesson, I got a picture message of P from Ryan with the caption, "What did you do to my son?!"

Hahahaha. We learned that alcohol can help remove it, so we used a tiny bit of rubbing alcohol on his cheeks to at least tame it down. It fades pretty quickly with each feeding - that is until night time when you start the process all over again. By Monday, the purple was now just a faint blue/gray like in the last picture. I walked over to my parents to have my mom drive me down to the hospital to pick up the car from Ryan. My mom took P up to my dad, set him down in the carrier and said, "Here's your boy!"

Dad responded, "What do I feed him?"

"Nothing. We will be back in ten minutes. Just watch him."

When we got back, I walked into the room where my dad was. Pierscen was in his arms. Dad turned to look at me, his eyes and face drawn in a serious line. "Okay," he began, "as soon as you left, he filled his pants and then started crying. I looked in the carrier and all I see is this blue face. I thought 'Oh my gosh, the kid is choking to death.' What is this?!" he demanded, now with a bit of a twinkle and a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth as he pointed to P's face.

"Oh dad, I am so sorry! That would be Gentian Violet. I didn't even think about it." I explained what it was and why his face was purple. I felt so bad, but it was so funny! I can only imagine my poor dad pulling him out of his car seat in a panic and then finding that he was completely fine - but purple none the less. And to give him credit, when it fades to that color, it really does look like he is struggling to breathe. Here my dad is, thinking P is dying, and in reality, we are the ones giving him a heart attack. Sorry dad!!!

We have now done the treatment twice with no improvement on my end. Oh well. It was worth a shot.