A Warning to Other Parents

As you can see from the post below, we were thrilled that after two years in storage our pool still inflated and worked great. Andrew was loving it and had spent a few hours in the pool over the weekend. Monday night (three days ago) we were getting him ready for bed and found his body covered in red spots that looked like either chicken pox or bug bites. We gave him a nice long bath and put Benadryl cream all over the spots just to be safe. At that point they didn't cause him any discomfort or itching. Tuesday morning there were more spots, and by Tuesday evening they were itching him like crazy.

Wednesday morning we took him to the doctor and found out that the spots are caused by something called "Hot Tub Folliculitis" - basically caused by bacteria that had been living on that pool for the two years it was in storage (in a airtight container in our garage). We had been so careful to clean it and dry it completely before we put it away, but somehow some bacteria survived. It seriously makes me sick knowing that even though we did what we could and considered normal pool maintenance, it wasn't enough. From now on, only hard sided pools that can be scrubbed down with bleach on a frequent basis, that's for dang sure.

So the doctor prescribed a strong antibiotic for Andrew to take over the next week (common side effects include tummy pain and diarrhea - poor kid!) and when we got home we went straight outside with one of Trav's knives and slashed that pool to pieces and threw it in the garbage. We just feel horrible that it made our boy sick. For those of you who may have a small backyard pool the same as we did - be careful and keep those pools cleaned as often as possible!!!