OMG I just remembered this incident from forever ago. PSA time!
Cleo's "throat hurt." But also, we were in the "it hurts" phase for everything. Like where you can't tell if it's attention-seeking or an actual malady.
But then I looked at her throat... a bunch of red spots. Yikes. Now I was convinced she had strep. Of course, it was her first week of the school year and a couple weeks before her birthday, so NOT a great time to be sick!
So we high-tail it to urgent care where the doctor very politely tells me this is nothing like strep (and Cleo does amazingly well with a blood pressure cuff and the full exam, btw). We're going down the "probably just a virus" song and dance when I think to mention that we had been practicing blowing up balloons.
The doctor cracks up. "Well there you have it!"
Turns out an almost 4yo trying her damndest to blow up a balloon can strain her throat so much that it creates Petechial Hemorrhages. Aka broken capillaries. Oops.
Motrin. Popsicle. New rules about balloons.
Now we know.