During the flu season, which is currently in full swing over the majority of the United States, it looks like no family will be able to keep their small children healthy. Because youngsters recover so quickly, it’s difficult to know if they’re sick or not because they appear fine one minute and then collapse the next.

Other parents, on the other hand, are reporting flu-like symptoms as well as strange marks on their children’s faces. Now that they know what’s causing the problem, they want to warn other parents about it.

Coop, an Idaho teen, was playing when he began to cry, stating he had been hit on the nose. The parents suspected their child’s younger sibling at first, but the mark on his nose worsened.

The ill boy was given a steroid after seeing a doctor with his parents, Arden and Ashlee Hawley. However, the mark grew worse, causing Coop’s parents to send him to the emergency room, where doctors diagnosed him with a strep infection in his sinuses.

The Hawleys are concerned that similar situations involving their own children would frighten other parents, therefore they want to warn others. Contrary to popular belief, strep does not only affect the throat. There are 20 different types of strep bacteria, each with its own set of symptoms. Coop was released from the hospital after his treatment and is now recuperating at home. If left untreated, his illness may have progressed to his eyes and brain.

During the winter flu season, another mother shared her son’s flu infection experience on Facebook. When his son got a fever, his mother, who wishes to remain anonymous on Simply Real Moms, assumed he had the flu.

“He was looking horrible on Thursday morning, and I observed unusual red marks on his face,” she wrote. My youngster was covered in a splotchy rash by that evening. I was hoping in my heart that he was only suffering from a fever rash and that I could put him to bed.