It’s true. NOTHING is worse than a sick baby. So far we are 13 months into my motherhood adventure. My daughter has had two bad bouts of sicknesses.
The first was a stomach flu (a.k.a. Poop Apocalypse of 2012) and it was pretty bad. SO sad to watch your babe throw up and then look at you as if you did it to them. Her symptoms started in the middle of the night when she was around 8 months old. It was the scariest moment so far. I didn’t know what to do — I literally sat in the nursery and cried with her saying “I don’t know what to do” over and over at 3 in the morning. I messaged my folks to ask my mom to call me as soon as she woke up. My husband offered to hold her while I cleaned up her crib. This was a nice gesture but then she threw up on him in our bed. It was a mess that went every where. I was a wreck and my poor baby just cried. Alas, life went on. After several days of a sick baby, she got back to herself. Unfortunately, my husband and I succumbed to the poop apocalypse the very next day. I won’t even continue with the rest of this story. All I have to say is if I never have to go through that again, I will die a happy lady.
The second and most recent experience in the battle of toddler illnesses (which we are presently on the tail end of), is the croup. To be honest, THIS SUCKED far worse than the stomach flu. My girl was so miserable and uncomfortable for what seemed like FOREVER. It started out like a little runny nose and then by the time night fell on the first night, her nose was like a faucet and she was running a fever of 102.8. (Sidenote: Lucky us, our furnace went out on the first night and it got cold in our house– not too bad the first night, but the second night was freezing. However, we had prepared in the event we would have any kind of issues from Sandy and got a kerosene heater. That rocked. It took two days to get the part and the dude to fix it. We are now cozy with our fixed furnace. However, having this happen at the same time as my baby feeling so poorly was NOT fun.) Shortly after her fever started, the congestion started in and she started to cough. After that, she became hoarse, she was wheezing and was so irritable. After 48 hours of no sleep and a baby who was so sick she could barely cry, she was on her way to recovery. The fever went away, the nose was a runny faucet for many days after but started to get less and less. We were told that the cough and congestion would linger a little longer after the other symptoms went away. The doc was right. It’s almost a full week after her symptoms first started and her cough remains. I actually started comparing her cough to that of a 50 yr old smoker. lol It was and STILL is awful. For the most part, my babe is getting back to normal. Nighttime is a little difficult, but other than that she continues to get better and better. We took her into the doctor, and she gave a prescription for steroids. That helped with the inflammation in my babe’s throat but that’s all the medicine she received (it’s really all the doc could do for her since it’s a viral infection). Take note that anytime someone takes steroids (depending on the kind you get) it will suppress your immune system the entire time you are taking it and makes you vulnerable to other illnesses. Be careful coming in contact with any other peeps who might be sick.
The common theme of remedy for either one of these illnesses, whether it be a stomach bug or the croup, is to hydrate. Every time I talked to the doctor/nurse, one of the first things they say is get some pedialyte. I keep it on hand — the drink and popsicles – in event of future sicknesses. It sucks dragging your baby out when they are sick ANYWHERE just because you aren’t prepared. I’ve kicked myself several times. Luckily, I had a wonderful pal go down to the drugstore to get me some during the Poop Apocalypse of 2012 because I was NOT prepared. Some kiddos hate the taste of pedialyte. My doctor gave me several samples of flavors for my kiddo to try and we found one she liked. If your kid doesn’t like pedialyte, just make sure he/she drinks lots of fluids or even some of those fruit/fruit pouches. Lots of hydration in fruit. I was told if the kid is vomiting to give pedialyte or water… stop milk/formula. (and boy were they right… eesh… what a mess!)
As soon as the fall season approached, my friends kiddos (myself included) were all getting hit with different kinds of sicknesses.. ’tis the season, right? From colds to Pink Eye to HFM and the Croup, germs were spreading like wildfires and kids were perfect vessels to carry them. Some docs say that generally 24 hours after the fever breaks the kid is not contagious anymore. However, other docs say if the kiddo still has a cough, he/she is still contagious. Both make sense. Obviously if you are dripping snot everywhere and coughing up a lung still (like my kid was) regardless of fever, germs are going to spread. Mamas use your best judgement. After all, you know best! After these two illnesses, I’d be lying if I wasn’t a little paranoid about germs (something I’ve never been paranoid about before becoming a mom). As a rule of thumb for determining when my kid is well, I’ll probably build a buffer of a couple of days after symptoms are gone between my sick kiddo or other sick peeps before normal activity resumes. I don’t want to pass the croup on to ANYONE. UGH, it’s awful. This will probably become even increasingly obsessive after my next kiddo arrives in December. Hooray for germ paranoia! Here is a great website my Dad sent to me regarding some of the most common toddler illnesses and one about the croup and how to prevent (as much as you can… with toddlers it seems like a hopeless cause!):
**Disclaimer** What do I know about health/medicine? Not much of anything. I only know what I have been told and experienced myself. Always consult a medical professional (that’s not me folks!) when you have an actual medical problem. These are just recent experiences that we had the pleasure of going through. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. It’s a blog… And hey! It’s my BLOG, I write what I want YO!
Mad Time Mama! 