My Baby Is Sick. Yikes!!!!

By:  Davida Grant

Nothing tugs at your heart more than when your little one is sick.   And if your child is an infant or young toddler, it’s that much worse because they can’t tell you what’s wrong.  Isn’t it CRAZY how your baby can seem perfectly fine and then literally an hour or two later they have a fever, congestion AND diarrhea?  When this happens, they look at you with the saddest face ever and make those soft, whimpering cries. In that moment, you wish you were a magician and “poof” could take all their pain and discomfort away.  But alas you can’t.  So what do you do?  The obvious.  You put on your supermom cape again (assuming it’s even off, maybe not) get your emotions in check, pull out your assessment tools (e.g. thermometer), look for symptoms  — fever, vomitting, diarrhea, wheezing, congestion, pulling on the ears — make a preliminary assessment, and implement the infant recovery plan.

If you read my last post, you know that Grant started daycare last Monday.  Sniff sniff.  As the week went on I slowly adjusted and by yesterday, I was generally good to go.  So I was relaxing at home enjoying my last few days off before returning to work next week and yep, I got the call.  COME AND GET YOUR BABY!!!  It’s the dreaded call because of course you never want your baby to be sick but it ALWAYS happens on the worst possible day.  After hanging up, the “Tired” cloud immediately descended.  I knew what was coming. No sleep no rest no sleep no rest.  Everything had to be dropped to take care of my little buddy.  So I donned the cape and hightailed it to the daycare.  Apparently, Grant, who seemed perfectly fine just 5 hours before, was coughing, sneezing and vomitting.  I took him in my arms.  He was still pretty bright eyed, so that was a good sign, but then I heard the cough.  I knew instantly that baby boy was seriously congested and would need a series of Albuterol treatments to open those air passages. The daycare confirmed that he didn’t have a fever or diarrhea.  My assessment?  Grant has a cold.  So with baby in tow, off we went.  Once I got home, I checked in with Grant’s pediatrician, Dr. Necole Washington (she’s FAB).  I advised her office of his symptoms and my recovery strategy:  Albuterol treatments every four hours to address the congestion and pedialyte feedings until his stomach settled.  This wasn’t my first rodeo, so I knew I’d get the green light.  Operation “GET GRANT WELL” was in effect.

Unfortunately, there’s no magic pill to cure a cold.  We have to wait on “Time” to do its trick.  But there are some additional things I do to make my infant more comfortable and hopefully speed up the recovery time.

• Get rid of ALL dust.  Dust affects breathing.  If your child is congested, dust can increase the congestion.  Get rid of it asap.
• Use a humifier.   Dry air can make things very uncomfortable for your little one.  You want moist air, which will help keep those sinuses from being inflamed.
• Have a cold teething ring handy.  Grant isn’t teething yet, but he likes the feel of the cold ring in his mouth.  It also helps to keep him cool.  My little buddy can really work up a sweat if he has repeated coughing fits.
• Use the nosefrida. It really is the best apparatus for sucking mucus from your baby’s nostrils.  Babies hate it, but it works.  If you don’t have a nosefrida, use saline and a nasal aspirator.

It was a loooooooooong night.  He’s still sneezing and coughing, but he is well on his way to recovery.  Who knows, I may even be able to sleep tonight.

What about you?  What are your tips to a speedy recovery for your little one?