No, this is NOT what she looks like. I altered the image a little. I would have noticed THIS.
Few days ago, I took Mila to the pediatrician. She had a small bumpy rash on her hand, so I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t eczema. I sat in the Dr’s office, I explained to the nurse why I was there and she took notes. The Dr. walked in, took one look at the note, turned to Mila, took a look at the palm of her hand and determinedly said, “Her eyes are clear, her liver isn’t inflamed, no worries, it’s not jaundice.” and nonchalantly turned to the computer and entered notes.
UM……WHAT?
She turned to me, “If anyone tells you you need to get her checked for jaundice, it’s not, no worries. No health risk.”
……Did I mention she has a small rash? Wait, did you just say my child is YELLOW?
Forgive my ignorance, I had only heard of jaundice in relation to a newborn. Mila’s 18m and I had no idea that she was yellow.
The Dr. held Mila’s hand in her palm, ran her finger over it and confidently said, “See, it’s a different color from mine and yours, it’s more yellow.” Well, sorry to say this, I’m Asian, my daughter is three-quarters Asian and I thought that was her normal color. I’m kind of yellow too, I mean, what the hell? Dr. seemed pretty convinced, turned to me and asks,
“Does she eat a lot of pumpkin and carrots? Oranges?”
“She does, she probably has at least one of those a day, more likely all three.”
“It’s called Carotenodermia, there are no health consequences, so no worries, even if you were to stop giving her those foods now, she’ll be yellow for 9-12 months.”
Seriously, if she’s yellow now, she’s been yellow for a while. I didn’t even notice it. She’s a bit darker than Nina, but I thought that was normal.
So I looked up Carotenodermia when I got home. Seems like it’s not an issue, in fact, it usually implies that they’re getting a good amount of Vitamin A. It’s true. Mila barely ever gets sick. Occasionally, she gets a runny nose from her sister, but for an 18m old, she’s quite tough and seems to fight off sickness pretty well. An overdose of Vitamin A is not good, but that’s very unlikely if she’s getting Vitamin A from food and not from supplements. We don’t use any supplements, so we should be OK.
I wonder if she’s looked kind of funny all along.
I called up a friend and asked her, “Hey, is Mila yellow?” She said she’d never noticed it, in fact, she thought Mila was pretty fair. Her daughter was more olive in color, although she had more caucasian blood in her.
Now that I’ve been made aware, I can see that the back of Mila’s foot is kiiiiind of yellow, but seriously?? I’ve spent so much time with her and I didn’t even notice. I looked at Nina, but she doesn’t look all that yellow either. Damn, are we all more yellow (literally) than we should be?
I had just gone to a pediatrician few weeks ago, but I guess they failed to catch it since her usual Dr is Caucasian and she didn’t look terribly off color for an Asian (mixed) kid. I went to a Chinese Singaporean Dr this time and she totally called it!
So now, I’m cutting down on dark green and orange veggies in our diet. That doesn’t leave me with many veggies, but I need to stop this before she looks like she has a fake tan.
….oh, the rash turned out to be just a tactile allergy and should go away on it’s own in a week or so…in fact, it’s fading already.
Man, this appointment totally destroyed my sense of motherhood. I’ve been feeding her healthy food and giving her super healthy snacks all this time….
OK, so less orange-yellow veggies, no citrus, less dark green veggies. I’m really not left with many options here. Daikon, beets, cauliflower, chayote, eggplant, zucchini….
My kids don’t like any of those… So please please please turn back to normal color ASAP!
Now the big question is, What is Mila’s normal color and will I recognize it?
実良の手の甲にぽつぽつがあって、あら、まさかアトピーかな、と思ってお医者に連れて行った。まずアシストさんに症状を説明して、部屋で先生を待つ。先生は入って来て、ノートを見て、実良の手の平をちょっと引っ張ってからこっちを向いて一言。”大丈夫、目も綺麗だし、肝臓も腫れてない、黄疸じゃありませんよ。””はあっ??”
”だから、誰かにチェックした方がいいって言われても、必要ありません、来なくていいですよ”
”何?何の話ですか?”
”え、黄色いでしょ?大丈夫です。害はないですから”
”あ、手の甲じゃなくてひらね…って黄色いですか!??”
私黄疸って、新生児がなるもんだと思ってたから思いつきもしなかったし、っていうか、自分の子供が黄色いと言われたのにびっくりした。
お医者さんは、実良の手をとって、ひらを指で押すと、ほら、ちょっと黄色いでしょう、あなたと私の手の色と違う。う~ん。私はそりゃアジア系で黄色人だし、当然黄色いと思ったし、しかも実良だって、3分の4はアジア人だからそりゃ白っていうより黄色だけど、そんなに異常に黄色いの?
がーーーーーーーーーん。 親、気づいてなかったよ。ORZ
”カボチャとかにんじん、よく食べるんじゃないですか?後、オレンジとか?”
”好きだし、結構食べてますけど…”
”Carotenodermiaですね、たまにいますよ。害はないです。別に食事を変える必要もないし、変えても戻るのに9-12か月かかりますよ”
えええ~。っていうか、ずっとこの色だったよ。いつからかも分からないよ。しかも9か月ってこの子の一生の半分じゃないよ!新菜の方が色白だと思ってたけど、もしかして、色、同じなはずなのか?
ショック。一番近くにいるのに一日一緒にいるのに、そんな事に気付けなかったとは。家に帰ってすぐに友達に電話して、
”ねえ、うちの子黄色い??”
と質問攻めにしたけど、
”いや、どっちかっていうと、色白でしょ?うちの子より白いよね。”
…ああ良かった、まだ周りが異常だと思うほど変な色にはなってないのね。
調べたところ、やはり色意外は特に害はないらしい、それどころか、ビタミンAが多めだから風邪ととかも引きにくいとか。ビタミンAは多すぎると害になるけど、それはサプリとかから大量にとった場合を想定していて、食事で食べてる分には恐らくそのレベルにはならないと。確かに、うちの子は新陳代謝も良くて、めったに病気もしない。ハナタレな時はあるけど、それでも元気だし、結構早く治る。マークの方がよく倒れるくらいだ。前に妹がみかんの食べ過ぎで指の先が黄色くなってたあれだ。
普段チェックアップに行ってるお医者さんは白人、2週間前に行った時も何も言わなかったし、おそらく前からこうだったのにも気づいていなかった。アジア人にしては特に変には見えなかったんだな。中国系シンガポール人のお医者さんは、一発で言い当てたけど。
言われてみれば、足の裏を押すと、黄色が強め。新菜もみたけど、特にそんなに色が違う気もしない。もしかしてうちの家族皆黄色いのか???!!!
というわけで、黄色野菜と濃い緑の野菜を今少し減らしているところ。健康の為を思って、おやつもカボチャだったりにんじんだったりしたのが裏目に出た。ああ、でも黄色野菜と濃い緑の野菜を抜いたら相当野菜の種類が減ってしまう。早く本来の色に戻ってくれ~~~(悲鳴)
でも、本来の色って分かるのか?この子ずっとこの色じゃない?母親失格で落ち込むも、誰も気づかない黄色化、健康的に食べようとしたからこその失敗。皆様もお気をつけて~。
あ、ちなみに手の甲に出来てたのは単なるアレルギーで、ほっとけば治るって、というか、もう治った。何だったんだ。