High Maintenance Mom

Our son was born a healthy 9 pounds 7 months ago and in that time we learned a great deal about Gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD. Our son had what his pediatrician and I considered to be a mild case and in hindsight, our daughter, now 2 ½ may have had an even milder case. When my son was about 2 weeks old he began what I can only describe as grunting. I remembered my daughter doing it also but hers was slight and soon went away. My son’s grunting was loud and kept him awake at night.

My son is 11 weeks old and while we just celebrated a full nights sleep, we also morned the arrival of his first cold. I was extremely annal about my toddler going near him the first few weeks and have been a hand washing fanatic since my daughter was born two years ago. Sometimes bugs just get through the barrier of hand washing, cautious sneezing and coughing and good vitamins. My son is doing so well, all things considering.

A child in our center has croup and a friend of mine sent this informative message about her experiences. Croup is relatively common and it's likely you will either experience it at home or know someone whose kids have had it. "Between my two daughters I have dealt with almost a dozen episodes of croup, so I have a good bit of experience. I should say that I am not a doctor. I am simple telling you about my experiences and what has worked for my daughters.

The reason, I feel I should share my experiences is because in some cases the croup can be a very scary experience for the child and for the parents. Even after having dealt with several bouts of croup, that distinctive cough in the middle of night starts my heart racing...

The recent recall of Veggie Booty an all natural, vegetarian snack made of puffed rice and corn (this one with spinach and kale) made me furious. Yes, furious! I am pregnant and have a 20 month old and do everything I can to eat right for my unborn child and buy foods that are good and fun for my toddler and my husband. So, I go out and buy organic this, all natural that and sleep a little better at night.

Some parenting questions are easy to answer. For example the question, "should I let my two year-old play with my new Henckels knife set" rarely requires much thought. But the question of whether to take a child to the doctor, often after hours, is harder to answer. A friend, whom I called this weekend, said her doctor told her to bring in a child anytime they are listless. N, who is normally running full speed, was listless and on Sunday night his fever had increased to 103 degrees...

My family has been grumpy recently. Really grumpy. And every member of my family has a runny nose. I was the first to go to a doctor and find out I had a bad sinus infection. By day five of antibiotics, I was still miserable, had trouble breathing, and a non-productive cough (when you feel like there is fluid in your chest but no amount of coughing relieves the feeling). Because I was so miserable, I finally took N to the doctor with the symptoms of runny nose and my favorite mom diagnosis, "just not himself". We found that he too had a sinus infection, which was better than hearing he is just two...

We hope to have just ended our recent weeks of Hand, Foot, and Mouth. I was sick with something else first. Then N (the scavenger) was sick for a week. My husband was home last Monday followed by B, who was home for the rest of the week. It sucked. We all had sore throats and were cranky. When I took N to the doctor, he was so upset and crying so hard, he threw up all over the two of us...

There are times when I think I really have the parenting thing down. Like last weekend when we made 60 dinosaur sugar cookies (okay the kids only helped with about 25 of them but it was still fun). And then there are times when I wonder how many different ways an ear infection can cause my kids to act out before I realize what's going on...

Last night was spent doing dishes. We bid on a set of plastic dinosaurs for B's 4th birthday party (either for a pinata or to hide in the sandbox) but when they arrived all I could think about was illnesses from another part of the country. Since B currently has an ear infection and his brother may also, I thought it would be a good idea to clean the dinosaurs before letting anyone play with them. After not much thought, I decided the dishwasher would be the best way to clean them. First I carefully separated out 15 of the 100 dinosaurs that looked like they might melt. Then I started the dishwasher wondering how my experiment would turn out...

A friend recommended a book called "Pediatric Telephone Advice". It serves as a training manual for pediatric triage, reference book for ped office staff etc. First edition was in 1980. I have the 3rd edition (2004). It goes through the telephone protocol and decision making guidelines that the nurses use when you call a pediatrician office and speak to a nurse. Symptom definition, diagnosis criteria, multiple symptoms, initial assessment questions etc.