Is there anything more difficult to handle than when all of your kids get sick at the same time? Maybe: not only are our kids all sick, but we’re both sick too. It’s “just a cold”, but I haven’t been sick in bed for two days since, well, I don’t even remember when.
G-, our 4yo, has conjunctivitis and both of his ears are inflamed with infection, and even the baby has picked up a deep cough. But when you stand at the pharmacy and look at modern medicines, it becomes clear – to me, at least – that medicine is more about suppressing symptoms than in helping heal.
So we’ve been having lots of long, hot herbal baths, loading up on vitamins, and sleeping as much as we can, and it’s helping, though progress is slower than I’d like: I’m on day four of being sick and while I can tell I’m getting better, I want to be completely well now, not tomorrow or the next day!
The real blessing of all this, though, is to see how creating a warm and loving family creates children that can roll pretty remarkably well with illness and even when they feel miserable, for them to be wanting to be engaged, wanting to do something that’ll be fun and take their minds off of everything. It’s the key ingredient to any family that can survive the tough times: love and humor. With, perhaps, an emphasis on the humor.
Barbara Jones
The sweet life stories.
Barbara Jones
New interesting theme
Barbara Jones
New interesting theme
It seems like every time my 5yo son gets sick he gets an ear infection, and to tell you the truth, I have been feeling quite like the bad mommy lately, since this “allergy” / cold thing has been going on for what seems to me like on and off for 3 months now. I live in an area where there are about 1,000 homes being constructed not to mention a new hospital, office building and movie theaters and restaurants. (all in less that 4 square miles.) Do you think that has something to do with it?
Gastro Mama – a mother’s perspective on parenting a child with GERD, IBS, lactose intolerance
By GastroMama
Be Your Child’s Greatest Advocate – the long road to diagnosis
Hello, I am a mother of a child who was misdiagnosed for years while she suffered GERD and IBS. I’ll tell you this, it is so important for parents to be their child’s greatest advocate.
When my daughter was a tiny baby she was a serious projectile vomiter. She had bad breath at 14 months, she vomited frequently after meals at 3 years. I reported all these symptoms to our peditrician who pooh-poohed them as normal. Not normal.
By the time my daughter turned 6 years – her problems were worse and her peditrician retired. I brought all these problems to the attention of her next physician. He took me seriously, but tested her for hyperglycemia, and a brain tumor. By this time I was getting smarter. We didn’t have the wonderful convienance of the internet back then, but I did a little research and realized that we were on the wrong track. We changed peditricians.
The next doctor was straight out of medical school. He took one look at my daughter,her symptoms and history and sent us to the nearest Gastroenterologist.
Finally.
The lesson here is keep knocking. Trust your parental instinct. If you are reading this you are leagues a head of where I was when my daughter was young. Ask lots of questions. Be your child’s advocate. Learn the symptoms of GERD, IBS even lactose intolerance.
I hope your road to proper care is shorter and less painful than ours.
Good luck.
GastroMama
http://www.sensitivetummies.com