When Arizona mom, Ashley Nagy, noticed her daughter, Charlie, getting sick just a few days after she was born, she couldn’t help but worry. With all of the diseases that can invade a newborn’s fragile immune system, Ashley was desperate to find out what was wrong with her baby girl.
The first sign that something was off came in the form of a red rash on Charlie’s neck—but it wasn’t long before the blotches spread throughout the rest of her body. Ashley initially suspected it was a milk rash, but as the red dots started to pop up on her armpits and legs, she knew there must be a deeper-rooted issue.
She took 2-week-old Charlie to the doctor where she was given fungal cream and antibiotics to treat the skin issue, but as Ashley started spotting more white dots on her baby’s stomach, the prescriptions quickly proved ineffective.
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She didn’t know it yet, but her newborn was already having her first psoriasis flare-up.
Though doctors were stunned to see the condition in such a young patient, Charlie was diagnosed with Psoriasis Vulgaris at only four months old.
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The skin disease is characterized as an “immune-mediated disease that causes raised, red, scaly patches to appear on the skin,” according to the National Psoriasis Foundation. The immune system signals the body to produce unnecessary skin cells that eventually compile to form irritable patches.
Charlie’s rash continued to fester and spread, and by the time she was 6-months-old, she had to be hospitalized for three days and put on immune suppressants.
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Because her immune system was so weak, Charlie couldn’t even go to parks or daycare.
The everyday germs we all can handle with ease would put her at high risk for health complications.
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Ashley has since decided to forego the suppressants for natural remedies.
“We stick to no gluten and no diary diets for Charlie, then she really only will flare up when she gets sick,” says Ashley. “If she has some sort of cold, it will set off her immune system.”
Though the psoriasis has become manageable, what has not is public perception of the disease.
On top of seeing her daughter in such excruciating pain, the nasty stares Charlie gets from strangers weigh on Ashley even further.
