Saturday, February 7, 2009

Sick Bebe




For the past week Tai has been feeling under the weather. He has been suffering from a cough, running nose, and loss of appetite- among other things! He's better now, his cough has kind gone away but he still has a running nose. Of course Tai wasn't that sick where he had to go see a doctor, I mean it was pretty much a basic cold where something over the counter would do. But this stirred up a couple of arguments between Vete and I over what type of medicine to give him, please help me if you have any suggestions. So we had the triaminic strips which worked good when Tai was younger but now that he is older he refuses to take it because he doesn't like it when the strip sticks to the roof of his mouth. He ends up scratching all of it off and then starts to scream because he scratched his gums too hard. So first Vete went to the grocery store to get medicine for Tai but came home with juice and no medicine- Vete told me they either had infant or childrens cough syrup. I was pretty mad at him because it was 12am and Tai was coughing and I just cannot go to bed comfortably knowing my son doesn't have anything to soothe his throat. But we gave Tai the juice and yes it helped him go to bed, but I was still mad at Vete because any medicine is better then nothing at all. The next day I went to the store to get some medicine and realized what my husband was right- their is no over the counter cough syrup for toddlers; his weight and age was too low or too high for infant or children s medicine. So I ended up getting the children cough syrup because he was 4 pounds away from the recommended age and when I got home I tried to hurry and get Tai to take his medicine before Vete could see what type of medicine I got. Well he was right there looking over my shoulder and picked up the bottle of cough syrup and would not let me give him the medicine because he did not reach the recommended weight. We of course started to argue again, and then came to a compromise of giving him the children s cough syrup but just a little. I started to pour the cough syrup on to a spoon, and a tiny little drop came out and Vete told me to stop and that was enough. Of course I continued to pour the medicine and it covered at least half the spoon and as I gave it to Tai, Vete and I watched Tai closely- like idiots expecting him to fall over and die of an overdose of too much cough syrup! Luckily Tai is ok, but we are still new at parenting so any suggestions of what type of cough syrup to get for a toddler is welcomed. It will be a miracle if this kid survives his parents.

3 comments:

Tina said...

We just went through this same ordeal 2 days ago. I would suggest calling your pediatrician. Ours said that based on his weight (35 lbs) we could give Tau the Children's Tylenol cough and cold, but just 1/2 the dosage, which was 1 tsp. It has helped him to feel better, and no signs of addiction so far :) Good luck!

The Guirola-Uyema's said...

Well, they also pulled all cold medicine from the counters for children under 4 years old. I don't ever give Carlos cold medicine because it doesn't really help. Tylenol is ok for pain-especially if they're feeling achy muscles. However, cold medicine doesn't really work anyway. They just help to reduce the symptoms as your body tries to fight off the cold.
So, in my household, we don't do cold medicine for Carlos-just like when I was a kid, we simply did a few things like:

Warm running water in the shower

Humidifier for the stuffiness

Baby vicks on their feet, chest, and back and neck. I usually massage his neck, back, and head with a little Vick's so that he feels a little more comfort. Also, I try to rub out the sinuses with whatever's left over in my fingers by massaging down his nose, around his eyes, and across the forehead.

The one thing that is quite soothing for a sore throat is lemon and honey. I warm up water in the microwave (for the little ones: 30secs) and then add a spoonfull of honey and some squeezed lemon juice-it feels way good down their throat.

One more thing: Honey is a great homemade remedie for sore throats. Carlos has a spoonfull of honey every 4-6 hours or so to help with that.

Wow, I know this is a ton-sorry. I am posting a blog about this as we speak, which is kinda funny that I happen to run into your post. :)

BETS & VETS said...

Thanks for your comments I'll keep it in mind the next time Tai gets sick!