Check in... (Not poetry, just flu stuff)
Sorry to have been away for so long, but it's been a week of healing as my daughter woke up with a fever on November 1st and basically spent the whole week getting better. We don't know if it was the H1N1 virus, but her fever stayed 4 full days.
Our doctor gave us some great advice that I will be repeating in my family as when my daughter gets sick my husband goes Tylenol crazy, but she said, "Treat the patient, not the fever."
This is interesting to me because when my daughter first woke up with a fever of 101.7 my husband bought Tylenol and her fever went down. The next day it was 102.5 and we gave her Tylenol and her fever went down. Our doc told us to only give her Tylenol if she wasn't feeling good (headache, body aches, etc.) and not to freak out if the fever went up to 102 or 103.
Anyway, our daughter felt fine (actually, felt pretty good which was a little odd to have this sweet girl with a high fever) and so when her fever hit 103ish, I didn't give her Tylenol and it went down on its own and the next morning she woke up and it was gone.
Of course, she still has a little bit of an awful cough, but no temp and her energy is back. Anyway, there's a part of me that wonders if her fever/sickness would have gone earlier if we hadn't treated it with Tylenol so early and let the fever do its job? Either way, she is better and that makes me happy.
Oh, there are two bonuses when your child is sick and you are stuck home with her, indoors for a week- 1) You save a lot of money on food & shopping. 2) Daily naps.
After a week of taking a 2 hour nap with her in the afternoon, I'd really like to bring into consideration the daily siesta from 2-4 pm or 3-5 pm (your choice). I swear, I think it was these naps that helped me stay healthy and not get her virus. And gawd, they felt good.
* * *
Our doctor gave us some great advice that I will be repeating in my family as when my daughter gets sick my husband goes Tylenol crazy, but she said, "Treat the patient, not the fever."
This is interesting to me because when my daughter first woke up with a fever of 101.7 my husband bought Tylenol and her fever went down. The next day it was 102.5 and we gave her Tylenol and her fever went down. Our doc told us to only give her Tylenol if she wasn't feeling good (headache, body aches, etc.) and not to freak out if the fever went up to 102 or 103.
Anyway, our daughter felt fine (actually, felt pretty good which was a little odd to have this sweet girl with a high fever) and so when her fever hit 103ish, I didn't give her Tylenol and it went down on its own and the next morning she woke up and it was gone.
Of course, she still has a little bit of an awful cough, but no temp and her energy is back. Anyway, there's a part of me that wonders if her fever/sickness would have gone earlier if we hadn't treated it with Tylenol so early and let the fever do its job? Either way, she is better and that makes me happy.
Oh, there are two bonuses when your child is sick and you are stuck home with her, indoors for a week- 1) You save a lot of money on food & shopping. 2) Daily naps.
After a week of taking a 2 hour nap with her in the afternoon, I'd really like to bring into consideration the daily siesta from 2-4 pm or 3-5 pm (your choice). I swear, I think it was these naps that helped me stay healthy and not get her virus. And gawd, they felt good.
* * *
We've been dealing with random fevers ourselves throughout the fall. Glad everyone is feeling better.
ReplyDeleteYes to siestas!
good tip! i've been trying to medicate myself the same way, only taking something when i feel really down. glad your girl is on the mend!
ReplyDeleteSo glad she is feeling better! My husband is also a Tylenol fiend. I love it, too, but I tried the wait and see approach and had the same reaction you guys did.
ReplyDeleteI am all for siestas. I think going to bed early w/the kids for the couple weeks they've been sick helped me to stay fairly healthy. I had low fevers, but nothing like I've heard it can be!