Final Round Starts Today

The final round for the baby photo contest began this morning. So many of you voted for Parker in his previous round that he was able to make it to the finals. Parker needs your votes in this final round so please click on this link and vote for the little monkey. I know I don't normally start my articles with a request like this but we are so close and if we can get everyone who visits this site to vote each day we know Parker is a shoe-in for the cutest baby for April on BabiesOnline.

I had mentioned a couple of days ago that Parker had lost his massive appetite but it seems as if it was only temporary, as we had thought. Yesterday, Parker was back to his normal self and was able to throw back close to 700 mL again.

With the good comes the bad. We noticed a few days ago that Parker was getting a pretty bad diaper rash. We are pretty sure that it was a result of the Pentamadine, an antibiotic he gets (every two weeks - IV) as a precaution to fight PCP Pneumonia. We noticed the last time he had to take antibiotics he also go a bad diaper rash. But ,we know that mommy will help him take care of it. She does an amazing job each day taking care of her little baby's skin. As she says, "No SCID of mine is going to have bad skin". Recall, that many SCIDs have problems with their skin due to infection. He may not enjoy getting moisturizer on his body each day but I have to admit, I do admire his perfect complexion.

Yesterday, I wrote acouple of messages on Today's Parent as well as a few other discussion boards telling people about Parker's condition. My wife and I feel that Parker was given this disease for a reason. Not very many people know what Severe Combined Immunodeficiency is, and we want that to change. It is expected that many infants go undiagnosed each year and succumb to this disease before they are 2 years old. This does not have to be the case. So please get the word out about SCID. Let people know about this web page so that they may learn more about it. We know that Parker is going to be part of the solution via gene therapy and the more people that know about the disease and gene therapy the better. I want to thank everyone who visited yesterday for the first time. Please know that by informing others about this site you are helping others parents learn about the disease. If we can help just one more mother or father get their infant diagnosed early enough so they can get treatment before it is too late then that is one more family that will not have to feel the grief of losing their baby.

So please come back regularly to be a part of the fight against Severe Combined Immunodeficiencies and watch Parker as he beats this horrible disease.