. Does it make me a bad mom to be relieved at the prospect of going to work, just so I can be away from the Coldy Toddler of Doom?And the fact that apparently American parents cannot be trusted to use over-the-counter medication on children under six just irritates me. Because they don't even post the correct dosage for my 35-pound preschooler on the bottle anymore. Because they're afraid I'll overdose her, I guess. So I can give her children's Acetimenophen
or Ibuprofen
, and warm herbal tea 
with honey. But I can't give her anything to relieve her most annoying symptoms (she flips out every time her nose runs). Gahhh.On the up side, Abby can have more nut products than we thought. She's not a fan of nuts in any case, but when we were told she had a severe allergy to certain tree nuts and a mild allergy to others, we didn't really think much beyond "LIFE THREATENING ALLERGY, Alert Alert!!11!!!" Until I asked her allergist if we could use shea butter on her skin. Why yes, yes we can. In fact, aside from the danger of cross-contamination she can have ANY of the tree nuts from palm-type trees (yay! coconut! and therefore Samoas!) Palm nut oil, Cocoa butter, those are all fine. Whew!
So, hubby's getting over a cold, Lizzy has one, Abby just got over one, Leanna had one last month, and I have (feel free to cross fingers, knock wood, etc. here
) so far escaped.
Hello Jenn. First I wanted to say that I found your blog through Baby Center. I absolutely love reading it because I am also a gamer mom. My hubby is a programmer, and so far, we only have one daughter.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I wanted to let you know that the reason they no longer label children's cold medicine for kids under 6 is not because they think parents will overdose their kids, it's because recent studies have found that those products don't work on kids under 6. So even if you could get an accurate dose for little Lizzy, it still probably wouldn't give her any relief.
I'm so glad you love reading my blog!.
ReplyDeleteYou're right; I did make the assumption that the reasoning was one of overly-paternal government or AMA. I can admit I was wrong.
Of course, the converse is true as well; what is it about time lines that make the medical community so excited? 365 days, a bottle is fine. 366 days, you're scarring your child for life (unless it's leap year, I guess). Hold off on that cold, baby, until your sixth birthday. Then we can treat you for it!
I know YOU, Jeni, said "probably" but the AMA or the FDA or whatever agency makes these rules treat them as set in stone. That bugs me too.
But then I'm cranky this morning. Up a fair bit of the night with a coldy preschooler with no relief but ibuprofen, you understand. SHe slept, but moms - you know - have to check on them every hour or so when they're sick. It's required by something more visceral than the AAP or the FDA. :-)
Oh yeah, the arbitrary time lines are a pain. My daughter gave up the bottle when she was about 9-10 months. But it was on HER time line. I would offer her a sippy cup once every 1-2 weeks or so, and eventually she got the hang of it.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, though, there does have to be a cutoff for the labeling.
I also completely understand the lack of sleep when you have a kid with a cold. My daughter is only 17 months, so I don't have nearly the experience that you do, but she has had a few colds, and I know that I sleep less than she does when she is sick.
On a hopefully more helpful note, do you have any Vick's Vaporub? or something similar? I do know that that is just fine for little ones, and it really helped the last time my daughter had a cold. I had totally forgotten I had it, too. I remembered it when my mom suggested it, because I had called her out of complete frustration, with a sick baby, and nothing to give her. I'm pretty sure baby and I were both crying.
From one mom to another: I feel ya!
Hope your little one gets better soon.
Thanks, Jeni. She's fine; it's just a cold. And a good blog topic for the day :)
ReplyDelete