Dealing with a baby's first sick time
Published: 7/30/2012 7:05 AM
Last Modified: 7/27/2012 3:41 PM
Thank goodness I didn't drive myself into an accident en route to the pharmacy and child care center. Fortunately, a lot of road construction (typical Tulsa!) slowed all of us afternoon motorists down to the speed limit. (Drawn by a somewhat sleep-deprived mother, a.k.a. Althea Peterson)
My daughter fortunately didn't seem to mind the thermometer-in-butt treatment, but I still felt guilty about doing it. She was not happy about the Pedialyte, however, probably because she knew she was getting that instead of breastmilk. She chewed on her arm constantly till I finally relented and resumed nursing.(Drawn by a somewhat sleep-deprived mother, a.k.a. Althea Peterson)
What is the easiest way to make a child take their medicine?
How can parents stay calm when a child is sick?
What situations would you call a doctor or seek medicial care for, as opposed to treatment at home?
Few things that make you feel smug last forever.
One of these days, they will start ticketing and towing the downtown lot I have been parking at for free.
One of these days, construction around Interstate 44 will stop and my faster neighborhood street routes will be slower.
But it's all right... until you get the fateful call from the child care center:
"Your daughter has been vomiting multiple times in the past hour."
At least eight times in an hour? But I was breastfeeding her! Breastfed babies aren't supposed to get sick as often. How did this happen?
Poor baby girl. She must feel awful... I feel awful now, too.
Symptoms of a sick-baby-mama
Crazy driving
Make way for mommy! The pediatrician's office said I need to feed her Pedialyte and if she has a fever, Tylenol! That is all I'm thinking about. I am saying it repeatedly outloud as I drive so that I don't forget. I'm coming, baby!
Overemotion
I still remember the first time my daughter shed real tears. She had cried before, but she didn't actually shed tears until she was about a month old. And now, I'll never forget this either. The guilty feeling of not being there faster to take care of her, the fear that you didn't do enough to protect her from a world of diseases, the car that simply cannot drive straight through red traffic lights to get to her faster, it all combines to give you stomach knots and possibly a few of your own tears.
Really odd ideas
Maybe if I put a fan right next to her, she will cool off and not get a fever! Maybe my hands are too warm to hold her directly so I should have a blanket inbetween us. Will she be more likely to spit out her Pedialyte if she's playing on her belly instead of her back? Is her fussiness higher-pitched than before?
Fretting over the thermometer
If this was the weather blog, I would probably roll my eyes at a tenth-of-a-degree change in temperature, but this is the parent blog, so why is my daughter's temperature now 98.6 instead of 98.1 like it was an hour ago? Her temperature is now closer to that fateful 100.5 degrees that the pediatrician told me about! Drink more Pedialyte, baby!
Aftermath
After that hour of vomiting at the child care center, she didn't have a fever, she didn't vomit again, she was the same happy, healthy baby that she has been since she was born.
She spent the next day at home with her grandmother (our child care center does not allow sick kids back for at least 24 hours).
A few days later, I learn that the child care center had a few other kids with stomach bugs recently, so it is possible she just caught the bug and recovered quickly.
Or...was she just faking the whole time just to get out of school? Oh baby girl, you're way too young to start doing that.
Tips for dealing with a sick child:
Try to remain calm. It's near impossible to remain calm, but try your best.
Call your pediatrician's office for instructions. I've only been a mother for about 4 months now. Medical specialists have been dealing with these issues for much longer. Trust the professionals. It'll help you try to stay calm.
Monitor your child closely. Don't fret over every tenth-of-a-degree temperature change, but watch your child's appetite, fussiness and energy levels.
--Althea Peterson
PS: Please join me again next Monday when baby and I both get to experience life in a single-parent household when my husband leaves town on business.
Trimesterly tribute: I was about 6 months into my pregnancy and I hadn't really told anyone at work that I was expecting. One day, a co-worker comes up to my desk and says in a quiet voice, "Is there something you should be telling us?" I was completely oblivious and thought she was referring to something work-related. "No," I respond monotonously. "Are you sure?" she presses. I am still clueless. "No," I say again. To this day, I still wonder how many figured it out on their own, or were surprised when I suddenly wasn't at my desk mid-March.
Baby bit: After a bit of post-booster shot fussiness, my daughter needed some Tylenol (or rather, another brand's acetaminophen). Despite its "bubble gum flavor," she immediately made an ugly face. The red fluid slowly dribbled out of her mouth as she refused to swallow. With the blood-red medicine around her lips, her lighter skin and darker eyelid marks she's had since birth, she was the baby version of The Dark Knight's Joker. Why so serious.
Mommy moment: Red traffic lights might not be most motorist's friends, but this mommy loves them (unless speeding to the pharmacy for baby medicine, of course). Baby's post-booster shot complaining continued in the car ride to daycare after leaving the doctor's office. So, I used each red light stop to seek out her pacifier and the button that makes her toy light up and play music.
Althea Peterson is the proud mother of a 4-month-old girl. Althea returned to work at the Tulsa World in May after two months of maternity leave. Baby advice, baby questions or baby words of encouragement can be sent to althea.peterson@tulsaworld.com. Also, follow Althea and other parents on Twitter at twitter.com/twbecauseisaid.
Written by
Althea Peterson
Staff Writer
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