Results tagged “sick” from Momtourage: Blogger Knows Best

 

Lily, our First Grader, had her first assembly of the school year Wednesday.  Sounds harmless right??....apparently not any more.....scary music.....dum dum dummmm.  An official note from the school prinicipal came home in her backpack yesterday warning us that due to the potential dangers of the H1N1 Virus that Wednesday's all school assembly will be the first and the last one of the year due to potential cross-contamination of possibly, allegedly (imagine Law and Order sound track) infected students.  And the Halloween Parade is cancelled too.....and that's outside!!!  No more in school recitals either.  No Holiday Pageant in school the day before Winter Recess and no Pilgrims Parade either.  Do they really believe that keeping the different grades separate will help curb exposure to these viruses??  What about all the different grades riding the bus together in the morning, or the lunch room, or when they cross in the hallways??  Flu segregation sounds like an impossible notion and something out of the middle ages to me.  Doesn't this all sound a little drastic to you?  It's not just me right?!  Can I get a witness??

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I had the surgical procedures (on May 22nd) to correct all the fertility problems associated with Endometriosis.  It's almost two weeks since I had the surgery and I'm still sore.  I was assured I'd heal quickly but I think Lily being home sick from school all last week didn't help.  It's hard to heal when you're cleaning up vomit....every 2 hours.  I went for my follow-up exam yesterday and was quite surprised to hear what my doctor advised.......

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I've been keeping Lily home from her New York City School this week not because of the swine flu but because of flu-like symptoms:  fever; projectile vomiting (lovely); chills; muscle aches; coughing....the list just goes on and on....and she's sleeping even less as well.  Great.  The pediatrician said give her Tylenol that'll break the fever I was like: "No, you know what will break the fever - daylight because she's sucking the life out of me.  She's a vampire!"  Apparently, I'm not the only one.  I called the school to let them know I'm keeping her home and they told me that 52% of the school was absent on Tuesday!  I don't think it's just a scare either because ALL the children on our block are home sick this week with these flu-like symptoms in addition to their double ear infections and Strep throats.  Isn't childhood just lovely??  Is your child home sick with these flu-like symptoms this week?  What are you doing to pass the time?  Please share.

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by oneofhismoms
momtourage.net

Case Study:  Max and Ruby Rabbit

A Mr. Bun E. Rabbit, his wife, Bonnie Rabbit and her mother, Granny Hare are being held on charges of child abandonment, exploitation of a minor, and child endangerment today, after a shocking discovery was made in the attic of Mrs. Hare.  A vault full of digital recordings of their children, Max and Ruby Rabbit, were found.  These recordings are being held as evidence in the case; they essentially prove that the two children in question had been left to survive without any parental presence for a number of years.

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My how times change. I grew up running barefoot through the woods, slogging through the neighboring cow field, (I dare you to touch the electric fence - ouch!) and skirting poison ivy wearing only a tank top and those awful, terrycloth short shorts so popular in the 1970s. As long as I made it home alive my parents could care less. Sure there were all those stories about the broken down trucker over in Erroll (or Upton, Rangeley Plantation, East B Township etc.) who was chased by coydogs on a cold winter's night. But that only made lone hiking just a little bit more exciting. Strap on those snowshoes. And then I became a mom.

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I think we can all agree that nothing builds a summer home for a therapist faster than favoring one child over another......

We have a family friend (let's call her Sara for now) whom we've known for years.  Our parents are friends therefore we see them at holidays and so forth.  She's definitely not a member of my Brooklyn Momtourage.  Let me make that very clear.  Last year, much to our dismay, she, her petulant husband and her two children moved three miles from us in Brooklyn. 

Sara most definitely favors her younger child and caters to that child to the detriment of all others and most importantly the older sibling.  It borders on co-dependency.  It so happens the catered-to child is a male.....who is much like her husband whom she caters to on an outrageous level as well....in fact it's Lifetime Movie Of The Week, forget-the-women's-liberation-movement, can-I-cut-your-meat-for-you??, I'm-not-really-hurt-it's-just-a-little-blood catering status.  The older, much ignored sibling is a sweet, considerate, little girl. 

This has been a topic of discussion for years because we spend every Hanukah/Christmas with them and god forbid the older child receives one gift more than the younger, the younger will throw a fit and the older child will have to give the gift back to Sara who then gives it to charity.  Sara merely has to say to her daughter, "Hand it over you're upsetting your brother," and the girl relinquishes the gift....always to the shock and amazement of everyone.  We all chime in with our annual, "What?!  Are you kidding me?"  But she ignores us.  And when her son throws these fits I don't know who I want to smack more him or her. 

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For most parents, the safety and well-being of their children is absolutely paramount. They will spend any amount of money necessary and do anything and everything humanly possible to protect their kids. Which is why the recent and tragic deaths of two young girls have struck such a nerve with so many moms and dads.

In Oregon, a 15-month-old named Ava died earlier this month after her parents chose to treat her pneumonia with prayer instead of antibiotics. Now, Ava's parents are being charged with manslaughter. Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, 11-year-old Madeline Neumann died from diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). DKA, which left too little insulin in her body, is highly treatable with proper medical care. Her parents, however, chose to pray for their daughter's recovery rather than seek medical attention for her. The police have announced that they're investigating Madeline's death in order to determine whether or not her parents should be held responsible.

But many parents in the iVillage community have already drawn their own conclusions, arguing fervently that Madeline’s parents failed in their most important duty as parents—protecting their child. They failed, and Madeline paid the price. Member lilpeanut2007 writes: "It is one thing for parents to choose prayer over medicine for themselves, but I do not believe they have the right to subject their child to the same belief system. She depended on them to take care of her and they did not do that. It is negligent, and I do believe they should be charged accordingly." Member mommydesire62777 agrees that Madeline's parents should be held accountable and feels especially strong about the sentence they deserve: "I hope they get charged with murder!"

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It's the middle of the night, you are catching up on some much needed mommy beauty rest and then you hear it.  The whimper.  The faint, "Mama, I don't feel good."  You hurry to your child's bedroom and there it is - your poor baby lying in a puddle of sick.  This used to happen a lot with friends when I was in college but it usually didn't signal illness just a great night of partying.  Unfortunately, that's not the case anymore.  This ain't no party ladies.

You glance over at the clock and it reads 2:20am.  Lily doesn't get sick that often anymore (thank god!) but when she does it always seems to strike in the middle of the night.  Why doesn't it seem to happen when I'm fully awake and prepared to deal with it?  The best is, you finally get them all cleaned up, soothe them and put them back to bed.  They have a lovely, restorative sleep while you spend the next hour or so doing laundry, throwing out rugs, whatever - god forbid your husband should help you.  They wake up the next morning all refreshed and feeling 100% better.  You wake up looking like something the cat dragged in and feeling like you're going to throw up any minute.  Then I take her to the pediatrician and spend 10 minutes trying to convince him that she really is sick because if I don't she will get sick again the minute the sun goes down or his office closes!  

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Forget counting calories, grapefruit only diets, pills, exercise, guilting yourself, here's my mommy version of the Hollywood Diet: get a stomach virus and throw in a sinus infection.  This is what I had over the weekend and it was fantastic.  I threw up every hour on the hour for almost two days and I never felt better.  I plan to get sick every weekend from here till Spring to reach my goal weight.  This is definitely the way to go. 

How to do this?  Just kiss a toddler any toddler....if you can catch 'em - they're fast.  Fortunately, I caught my friends toddler on Friday.  Mommy and Me classes are great for picking up illnesses by the way.   A Kindergartner is good for this too.  They're always full of phlegm and for at least six months out of the year have icky, runny noses. 

If your children are older just go to a local playground and befriend the mother of a toddler or Kindergartner.  Now you can't kiss them yet because you just met them.  So when the little tike looks like he or she needs to have their nose wiped offer to do it and say something like, "Don't worry mom, I'll take the bullet."  The fat blasting bullet!  Make sure you throw away your pocket size hand sanitizer before you go.  You need to get serious if you want to fit into that bikini again.....and not the one with the built-in skirt.

What mommy weight loss plans do you follow?  Any good tips on picking up stomach viruses?  Any parks notorious for this in your neighborhood?  Share your secrets.

PS - I think the Hollywood Diet is reading one bad script after another.  Nausea is great for reducing hunger.

TODAY's Meredith Vieira recently posted something interesting on her blog about the fear of clowns:

"A study recently came out of England that found children are afraid of clowns. Researchers from the University of Sheffield were examining how to improve the environment in children's hospital wards. All 250 patients between the ages of 4 and 16 that were polled said they disliked the use of clowns."

However, as someone who became a "clown doctor" for a day through the outreach program, Clown Care, Meredith said she's seen first-hand how clowns can lift a child's spirit.

"I understand that some kids, and even adults, may be scared of clowns. But this program has visited more than 250,000 sick children and I'd hate to see a study of 250 kids diminish that track record."

Read more from Meredith's blog and tell us what you think. Do clowns help or do they cause fear?

School! It seems like everyone hates it! I used to fake having Epileptic seizures just to get out of it...complete with urinating in my uniform. I always go all out, I never do anything half *ss. My cousin used to take a mixture of eggs, sausage pieces, (it was Europe sausage was always readily available), add food coloring and pretend to throw it up. She was my hero!

She showed me one day how she did it and I was amazed. She would keep a bottle of it by her bed and then scream out, "Oh my god!" She'd then run to the toilet and throw it in splashing it everywhere to add to the effect and voila....no school. My aunt fell for it every time. She would sell it like Dick Cheney does Halliburton Contracts to our current administration. To this day my aunt thinks my cousin suffers from some mysterious digestive disorder.

My next door neighbor, Brian, used to fake a head injury. He'd fall down the stairs and then quickly hide in a dark bathroom for a few minutes. He'd then run to his mother and tell her I just hit my head. She'd look at his pupils, see that they were dilated and get all nervous and run him to the emergency room. She fell for this three times (she was a soft touch) until upon the third time just by chance they saw the same doctor in the ER and being a father of five he was wise to Brian's scheme.

All this proves one thing - kids in the seventies were a lot more creative. Less stuff, less television and more playing outside does make a difference.

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