When I was a Kid...

My parents have frequently commented on how much as changed about being a parent since they were raising young kids. Eddie has been sick since the 2nd week of school (with peaks and valleys, but in essence sick...and badly enough lately to miss 2 days of school right after we got back from vacation. His asthma adds a whole new dimension to being sick. Most people cycle through a cold in a couple days or a week and Eddis is sick for 3 weeks. Then you have whatever he has been battling since Disney...we are all down for the count to varying degrees.

When I was a kid, there were glass thermometers filled with mercury that you seemed to have to hold beneath your tongue forever. Now there are ear thermometers that do the job in a matter of seconds. At the doctors offices they now have these 2-inch long strips of plastic that more resemble a pull tab than a thermemeter and are placed under the tongue for the time it takes to get your vitals checked--if you are an adult.

Then there are the philosphical approaches to dealing with the symptoms. Nowadays they want you to be 4 years old before they treat with anything substantive. Kind of takes some re-programming after 4 years of saline, humidifer, vapor rub, hot showers and tylenol to open up a whole new world of kid drugs. And the drugs themselves have certainly changed. Tonight I gave Eddie some meds that resembled a pixie stix http://www.nostalgiccandy.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=390. His prednisone (which he took pre-Disney) was a tablet that melts in your mouth and we can give Claritin that way if we like too.

The other kind of change of meds are those thin strips that almost seem to disolve before you get them in your mouth. Listerine and others make these as breath fresheners and now lots of the kids medicenes do too. This is by far my favorite formulary--quick, not usually messy, compact, and the kids seem to like how it disolves on their tongues.

But when it comes down to it, there is nothing like hot tea with lemon and honey (and if things are really bad, you can turn it into Kentucky cough syrup, a receipe my parents learned I think from living in the Appalachian mountains). We have yet to give that to Eddie (the spiked variety), but I have lots of memories of coughing so badly that my dad would make this, I'd choke down about 2 sips and then he'd finish the rest of the shot of jack daniels, honey and lemon. It was awful tasting!

It feels like we are about as sick right now as we were when Eddie and I have chicken pox except lower fevers http://watchusgo.blogspot.com/2005/10/pox-presence.html
This was the first and least graphic of several posts on the topic. Even then they didn't want us to use cold compresses too much or bath in too cool of water to reduce the fever...

Here's hoping we all start to round the corner in the next couple days. I hesitate to report on Josie for fear of changing her path, but aside from a fever spike here and there and a stray cough, she seems to be muddling through. Please let her have Den's genes on this one. At least Eddie happily downs all his meds and in general is a good patient.