My daughter just spent the last 10-14 days very sick. She's already underweight and it's not easy to get her to eat when she is well. That said, she's extremely hyper. I grew up during my teenage years with baby brothers and neither were anywhere near as busy as she is.
It started with her 1 yr shots. She got a fever, as expected, and the next day her cheeks were getting red for no reason. For the next two days, she threw up once a day and her cheeks would get red randomly. The third day, she threw up about 4 times. During this time, she was refusing to eat and I started feeling her ribs protruding some. The only thing she would take was my wife's breast.
At night, she was up every 30 minutes crying. My wife is a saint and she gets up through the night to take care of her. Both of us were sleep deprived and cranky.
The next couple of days, she stopped throwing up, but had extreme diarrhea. She started eating a little better, but not like normal yet.
She got over the initial sickness. I'm fairly certain it was fifth disease, which is generally harmless and common. We had one good day on Christmas Eve and then a fever showed up on Christmas Day.
That night, it shot to over 103 and we started cycling Motrin and Tylenol every 6 hours. Each dose would knock the fever down some within an hour, but it would stay at over 100. She started throwing up refusing food again. I started cooking her favorites. French toast. Eggs. Texas Toast. She refused it all. It got to the point where we had resorted to cake and popsicles.
I don't know what it is about fevers, but I have a very irrational fear when she gets them. I started criticizing my wife's decisions. I started wanting to blame her for what was happening. I questioned whether her milk was bad. I thought her humidifier might be poisoning her. Maybe she was allergic to something we were giving her. It's not easy when you're feeling helpless. If I could somehow take the pain and sickness for her, I would. It's just not possible. I kept visualizing her getting better the next day, but now we're going on two weeks and it's been progressively worse.
During this period, we took her to the doctor 4 times and made countless calls to the on call nurse.
The second to last day of fever and when the cough started getting bad, we took her in the last time. They tested her for flu and it came back negative. They inserted a catheter to get urine and tested it for a UTI, which was negative. They came back and said it was good news and sent us on our way. Again. It's extremely frustrating to not know what's happening and get sent home for the 4th time.
Fortunately, they were right and this was the last night of fever. The next day, it went away completely. The next two days, the cough faded and she started eating better. Still eats like a bird, but not refusing food anymore. She's back to her crazy self and it's been a huge relief.
Every time she gets over being sick, I feel silly for getting worried at all. Of course she was going to get over it. But while it's happening, it's the worst feeling. There's such a thin line between getting better and taking a turn for the worse.
I know a lot of you first time dads out there know how I feel and probably experience the same irrational fears I do when your kid gets sick.
Having gone through two scary sicknesses in her life, I'm starting to feel like an expert on how to deal with these emotions.
I just want to tell you guys out there that you need to support your partners during this time. Do your best not to get stressed and take it out on them. Sometimes I got snippy and I felt she was walking on egg shells around me. That's not healthy and it doesn't help anyone. Try not to criticize what they're doing. If you're like me, your kid would be dead by now if you were the sole caretaker. Try to remember that and appreciate what your partner does for your child and yourself. Try to visualize your kid progressing. Try to visualize them back to normal. Try to visualize their immune system getting stronger as a result of the sickness. The more positive thoughts, the better for everyone.
Also, specifically, if your kid has trouble eating/drinking while sick, popsicles are a great way to hydrate them. Don't trust the forehead thermometers completely. Use them for reference and convenience, but if the reading is very high, you need to verify with a rectal thermometer. Our forehead thermo read over 104 once while the rectal was 102.2. Don't hesitate to call a phone-a-doc service that most insurances provide and don't feel bad for calling too much.
I hope this helps some. Thanks for reading.
TL;DR: When kid is sick, think positive thoughts and don't be a dick to your partner.
Submitted December 31, 2016 at 02:28PM by pipinngreppin http://ift.tt/2hA9xdU
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