There's nothing like a nasty illness to kick a child's thumb-sucking habit. Ultrasound images months before my first daughter was born showed her sucking her thumb in utero. Once born, Alyssa found that delectable digit at 3 weeks of age and has used it ever since to self-soothe. Not ambidextrous, Alyssa sucks only her left thumb.

Over Labor Day weekend last September, Alyssa grew a bit pale and started sucking her thumb less and less. Maybe my 5-year-old, on the cusp of kindergarten, began viewing thumb-sucking as solely the provenance of younger kids, I mused. That, or her body was nursing a mighty malady.

Unfortunately, the latter proved true. I should have realized something other than "growing up" was going on when Alyssa started complaining her thumb no longer "tasted any good."

And, in the days that followed, it became outwardly obvious why her thumb – and all food and beverages, water included – started to taste bad to her.

On the first day of school, she broke out in a body rash, with the raised pink bumps concentrated in and around her genitals. Then she spiked a mild fever. Her pallor continued. Her cheeks, wrists, ankles, fingers and toes began to look plumper.

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