Two down, one to more than likely go soon
Both Lucy and Eric have been battling this wicked cold-with-flu-like-symptoms the past 10 days.
Last Monday Eric took the day off work, which means he is essentially dead. While he’s been back since, he hasn’t been able to taste food the past few days, my No. 1 pet peeve about blocked sinuses. To make matters worse, we were out last night at Stage West with Mark and Jenn (our Christmas gift from Eric’s Dad) — which is a buffet — and the poor guy couldn’t taste any of his food. How evil is that?
Lucy yesterday had a fever along with a never-ending runny nose, and overnight was up for hours coughing away. The poor thing. We aren’t allowed to give cough syrup anymore, so instead we had to listen to our baby girl hack away almost to the point of vomiting. This morning she woke up flushed and hot as a furnace, so she’s home with me today. And currently sleeping thankthelord.
If there’s one thing worse than a sick infant, it’s a sick 2-year-old with nary a tolerance level. Lucy started wailing like she was dying seven times today for the most ridiculous reasons: Getting Carrots the stuffed rabbit stuck between her crib bars. Intentionally throwing a mini Dora figurine under the fridge. A grape was too squishy. Thankfully these meltdowns are much, much easier to tolerate when you know that feeling miserable is the root cause.
The fever has stayed away so far after a dose of Motrin this morning, so we’ll see how she does the rest of the day. We might be hitting up the walk-in clinic tomorrow.
Luckily I have managed to duck this horribleness so far, which is very unusual. I can only guess it’s a strain of something I’ve had before, ’cause the odds are so stacked against me with both family members down. Or maybe the Sick Gods are just waiting for Eric to get better so he can adequately take care of my super whiny ass.
Care to share your best tips for taking care of a sick baby/toddler? ‘Cause it’s only 1:30, and haha, there are many more hours left today…
UPDATE: Thanks for your comments all you wise mommas, and please keep them coming. My Mom also mentioned honey (mixing it with warm water or milk) as an alternative. I went to the pharmacy today, to ask about alternates to cough medicine, and they stressed no cough syrup for kids under 6 now. There aren’t even products available to purchase for kids under this age. Colleen, I hadn’t heard about those Sniffles by Hylands, but they sound interesting — will check them out. I’m happy to report Lucy is still sleeping, and has had only two mini coughing spells since she went down at 12:45 — so hopefully that means she’s on the mend!
Possibly related posts:
There are currently 11 responses
Well its a beautiful day. Would she tolerate a bundle up and a walk around the block/up the street ? Even though she is sick its good to get outside (blow the stink off ya’s). Usually when mine are sick I cater. Whatever they want I give, however they want it I give (within reason of course). Do you have something new stashed away like a new movie she hasnt seen or some popscicles from last year ? you can always wash the ice off them LOL
Aaaww its really no fun being sick. I hope she gets over it really really quick !
I know how you all feel, I had the same thing for 2 weeks (off work for 6 days). Not tasting food was the worst, yet I did lose about 4lbs. My son didn’t get it as bad, but I did need to give him the infant tylenol/advil for fever and I had a humidifier in his room for 3 nights which seemed to help the cough. My husband was off sick the week before I caught it. When my son and I am sick at the same time I think he gets spoiled since I don’t have the energy to cook anything, frozen meals and brownies helped me through it.
The humidifier works really well and she can probably take cough medicine now that she’s over two and at a good weight. My son is not quite 2 and we asked at Shoppers and just give him a smaller dose of the medicine. Good luck in not getting it, Hayden had the sickness for at least 7 days. Not fun.
I agree – Lucy is over 2 years old now, I think you should be able to medicate her.
I swear by the humidifier, and put Vick’s on an undershirt under her sleeper – so it isn’t on her skin, but it is helping her breathe and maybe with her cough, too!
Ben and Hailey’s sells a product called “Sniffles” that is supposed to be all-natural and safe to put on kids/babies. You could call and see if they have some, if you don’t want to go the Vick’s route.
Ha–Ed’s the same way. Has to be at death’s door before he’ll stay home. I remember a few years ago he insisted on going into the office even though he had pneumonia. I was all, “oh, your coworkers must be just thrilled to see you, plague-boy!”
I’m going to chime in as another fan of the humidifier. I put one in the kids’ rooms if they’re sick.
Hope Lucy and Eric feel better soon.
Definitely popsicles and humidifier. This bug is a nasty one. Darien had this as well – the fever only lasted a day or 2, but we had 3 sleepless nights, a full 7 days of hacking cough, and grumpy not-himself-ness for at least 10 days.
We wound up entertaining him quite a bit by dumping him in the bath at all hours of the day (lukewarm bath if he was feverish, warmer and steamier for the humidity once the fever went down). He’ll play for hours in there and we would camp out on the bathroom floor with books to read.
Luckily for you this week should be nice and warm so you’ll be able to get her outside a bit.
Good luck and keep taking your vitamins!
Is she allowed to have honey? I heard a tablespoon of honey works just as good as cough syrup.
I didn’t read you’re little linky-poo, but it is my understanding that part of the reason they don’t recommend giving kids cough syrup anymore (besides the accidental overdosing)is that it doesn’t do anything but mask the symptoms. What they suggest is just to stay hydrated with a ton of water.
That was a long way of saying – when Eirinn has a cough, we keep a drink handy in her room at night. When she gets coughing bad enough to wake her up, we go in and let her have a drink. It at least eases the cough so it doesn’t turn itself into a sore throat.
That, and what other people have suggested – humidifier, popsicles, pampering. Oh, and a lot of understanding and tolerance.
Unfortunately, Lucy didn’t want anything to drink last night, but we will definitely keep trying.
We had a hard time yesterday getting Lucy in general to drink enough, so that probably contributed to her bad night. This morning I gave her 2/3 apple juice to 1/3 water (a real treat, as we don’t give her juice) just to help entice drinking, and she gobbled two full sippy cups down. I have a feeling that’s contributing to her good nap right now. Will definitely do this again when she wakes up.
All of you rock! Thanks so much for these!
[...] Durham Region Baby (Ontario, Canada) wrote an interesting post today on Two down, one to more than likely go soonHere’s a quick excerptTwo down, one to more than likely go soon Posted in: Blog: Life with Lucy, body wonders, daycare, mind madness, news from the change table, the hubby, work Both Lucy and Eric have been battling this wicked cold-with-flu-like-symptoms the past 10 days. Last Monday Eric took the day off work, which means he is essentially dead. While he’s been back since, he hasn’t been able to taste food the past few days, my No. 1 pet peeve about blocked sinuses. To make matters worse, we were out last night [...]
If Lucy weighs more than 24 lbs, you can safely give her the Children’s Tylenol Cold and Cough medicine. I’ve been giving it to Caity since she was 11 months old and 24 lbs.
I got the pharmacist to admit that the doseage is based on weight, not age, so it is perfectly safe to give to someone of her weight/age combo. The pharmacist said if i was nervous about giving her a complete dose, I could scale it back a bit (i.e., instead of 5 ml, give her 3.5 ml)
Why let them suffer needlessly? They get the one thing they need – sleep and it doesn’t hurt them.
Plus they are much happier when their little noses aren’t running down their faces and they can breathe.
Caity’s currently got a chest infection so I know what you’re going through, Carly. She sounds like a veteran 20 year smoker. The medicine helps her sleep at night and stops the coughing.