I think all parents cringe on some level when we hear that infamous phrase:
“I don’t feel well”
Don’t we? Maybe it’s because you can tell your little one is sick, and you just want to make them feel better. Or maybe it’s because you know they’re not sick, and you just want to get them off to school with the least amount of fuss! Possibly you’re just not sure, and you’re weighing the options in your mind…give them a dose of cough syrup and push them out the door or keep them home just in case? Any way you slice it, kids and colds go together, and that spells trouble for parents.
Take my daughters, for instance. I could tell my oldest was sick on the last day of school before the Christmas holiday. But I gave her some Motrin and sent her on her way…neither one of us wanted her to miss the fun-filled last day of school before Christmas, and hey, it was only a half-day anyway. Over the next few days, both my little girls were pretty sick. Fevers rose and fell, coughs came and went, headaches, earaches and sore throats were mentioned. And through it all, runny noses prevailed. Figuring it was “just a cold”, I peppered them with acetaminophen and ibuprofen (bye-bye fever and pain), decongestants (so long stuffy noses) and good old-fashioned Mommy remedies (hot drinks, hugs and kisses, chickensoup and sleep).
We made it to Christmas pretty-much intact, with only a lethargic evening and two very chapped noses. But when they were feeling even worse on Boxing Day, we decided it was time for a trip to the doctor. Thankfully we did, because his first words upon examining my older daughter were, “it’s a good thing you brought her in: she’s a very sick little girl”. Phew!
In the end, after several throat swabs and a lot of poking, peeking and listening, we had the diagnoses: our nine-year old had strep throat (confirmed the next day), infective sinusitis and an inner-ear infection. The six-year old got off a touch easier with no strep or sinus infection, but she did share her sister’s ear infection and also had a nasty eye infection to boot!
Now, over a week later and the antibiotics have done their job and both girls are mostly better, except for a lingering cough and ongoing nasal congestion. But that seems to be part of the regular landscape for children in winter, doesn’t it? Still, I’d rather they were able to stay a bit more healthy, and not spread the germs between themselves so much. We’ve started a daily routine of wiping down the high-touch surfaces in our home with antibacterial wipes, as well as reinforcing handwashing and other habits. I’m also carrying wipes and hand sanitizers in my purse and car, so that when we don’t have soap and water, we can still clean those germy little hands!
But still: kids are kids, right? They tend to forget basic hygiene habits like frequent handwashing and sneezing or coughing into their sleeves (or they do a shoddy job of it). Aha: but we’ve had over two weeks of being home with both kids, and with both kids being sick. That’s a lot of time to reinforce good hygiene habits! Here are some tips from Wet Ones® that I received before the holidays, and that I have spent the last two weeks reinforcing with my kids:
- Washing hands with soap and water is the single most effective way to kill germs and keep hands clean. If there is no soap and water available, give hands a good scrub with Wet Ones® Antibacterial Wipes: keep some in the kitchen, diaper bag, car and lunch boxes so that you’re never without them when germs strike. They kill germs and wipe away messes all with one easy wipe.
- Groups of kids are prone to spreading germs. Help prevent germs from spreading by wiping down toys after play dates, using hard surface disinfectant wipes meant for cleaning commonly touched areas in your home.
- Bring Wet Ones® Antibacterial Wipes to the kid’s soccer game, horseback riding lesson or drama class and pass them around – the other parents will thank you!
- Use Wet Ones® Antibacterial Wipes on yourself and the kids when you finish grocery shopping- few things are more germ-ridden than a shopping cart handle!
Based on laboratory microbiological testing, Wet Ones® Anti-bacterial Wipes are effective at killing germs, but they also clean away dirt and messes, and won’t dry out skin like alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Use WetOnes® Antibacterial Wipes before snack time or other meals, after play dates, and when leaving public areas such as malls or sporting events.
And in the spirit of spreading healthy hygiene habits instead of germs this winter, I’m thrilled to be able to offer FIVE amazing Wet Ones® giveaway packages to lucky urbanmoms.ca members! The packages consist of a range of products from the Wet Ones® line, including both containers and travel sizes.
To win one of the five amazing Wet Ones® gift packs, all you have to do is enter a comment below with your best sick kid story: did you ignore the itching and send your kid to school with chicken pox? (my Mom did!) Did you catch your child holding the thermometer to the light bulb? There are lots of funny, poignant and educational tales to be told about our kids and the germs they fight…let’s share them!
Five winners will be chosen at random from all eligible entries on Tuesday, January 12. Remember, to be eligible to win you must be an urbanmoms.ca member. So if you’re not a member, join now! It’s easy and free.
About a year ago…we were in the U.S. visiting my in-laws. My husband’s Aunt asked us if we would mind dropping off her son in St. Catharines on our way home. Less than an hour into our drive on a Pennsylvania highway without any shoulders my daughter (7 at the time) starts vomitting while sitting beside this poor boy and all I had to hand her to vomit into was a diaper from my baby son’s diaper bag!!!
It was the Christmas from hell. We were spending it at my sisters house. Yes, just like the Christmas Carol we were all snug in our beds but, taking turns using the toilet for upset tummies and throwing up. It was Christmas Eve and both my 2 children, husband, sister, bil and her 2 children all had the stomach flu. I was the only one who wasn’t lying down moaning and groaning, clutching my stomach in pain. Guess who the thankless job and cleaning vomit off carpets, changing bed linens, and scrubbing the toilet fell to?
Ah, the joys of Christmas Past!
My middle child gets car sick and so when we travel I have to take a pail with us. When it first started, I had nothing except for wet wipes thank goodness and that helped to clean it all up etc…
I’m sure everyone can relate to their child eating something that just didn’t sit well…something that clearly wasn’t going to stay down. Well, we were a long ways away from home, and were only a quarter into our drive back from relatives we had visited that day. Our daughter was complaining about not feeling well, and her face was pale looking. We knew it was only a matter of time before something was going to happen in the car on the long way back home. She threw up all over herself, the car seat, her hair, the back of the driver seat, and even underneath her behind. It was a stench you wouldn’t believe, and the sight of vomit was horrible (chunks), so we figured it must have been the beef sausage she had eaten at lunch time. We quickly pulled over and clean her up as best we could (luckily we had some wet wipes) and because all moms know to bring an extra change of clothes, we undressed her practically in the ditch and put on fresh clothing. She was better after that…but boy was that quite the show on our long drive home.
We were at a chistmas party for children . My daughter still wanted to go even though she was a little sick.
Halfway through the party she got sicker and had a fever so we decided to leave. I was carrying her to the car and she got sick all over my brand new dress
I have another story bout my daughter lol. For the longest time she would go to bed and like clock work half hour later would throw up. It took me a few weeks of this to figure out that when she got a little warm she would get sick. I had to take all her blankets out of her room and just leave a light blanket in there cause she would haul all her blankets onto her bed and burrow under them to sleep.
Even now I have to watch what blankets she has on her bed and in her room.
She also likes to say she is dizzy in the morning so she doesnt have to go to school. She does wear glasses, so I got her checked again and the dr. said her prescription is fine. I have never gotten a phone call “yet” to get her from school, so I know she is faking lol
It’s really useful for me and my kids.
My two year old never gets just colds, they always settle in his chest. As soon as the coughing starts, we know to start the nebulizer. He is such a trooper, just sits there quietly with that awful mask on his face til he is done. Luckily he loves getting cough medicine and liquid tylenol. Opens his mouth like a little bird waiting to get his dose lol. We try to keep every one from getting colds, but with his sister in grade four and too busy to remember to wash her hands all the time, its hard. Even remembering to use isogel when she comes home isnt easy all the time. A few trips into emergency with him and we are a little more careful.
Also, once when my daughter was about 3, I was working a night shift and my parents were babysitting. My brother and his girlfriend at the time were at my parents and his girlfriend was dancing with my daughter. I got a phone call at work at about 11 and my mom said “I think Sarah’s arm is broken, we need to go to emergency” Well I locked up and called my boss and rushed to my parents. My dad, bless him, had taped Christmas cards to her arm to try to keep it still. She was sucha brave little girl and didnt cry, just a whimper but that was bad enough. We went to emergency and did all the x-rays, turn out her elbow got dislocated when she went one way and the girlfriend went the other. The doctor came in and popped it back into place and gave her a sticker and everything was great lol
I’m sure, like any mother, I hate hearing my little ones say they don’t feel well or see one of them with a runny nose. That means a lot of sleepless nights for all of us.
The worse of all of it is when my 3 year old says “I have a sore belly”, which is usually followed by projectile vomiting shortly after! The last time we had been on a little road trip and the complaint at first was a sore neck so we gave her a neck pillow, and then it turned into “i have a sore neck and a sore belly”. Road trip, sore belly, and new truck didn’t equate into a fun time for any of us so we pulled over and let her out to get a breath of fresh air. Maybe that would do the trick and she said she was feeling better but just as I picked her up to get back in, there it was. Just like someone had turned on a tap and almost as quick it was over. She’s no worse for the wear and is fine since, but it tears at my heart when she pouts a little and tells the story of when she “barfed on my sneakers when i was by daddy’s new truck”.
Christmas 2008 I will never forget as long as I live. We were at my mother in laws house, my four year old son had a croupy cough so I bundled him up and took him outside as they say to do. Jacob having croup before I felt like an old pro. I gave him some tylenol when we came in. He had opened his presents and went downstairs to watch some tv with his uncle and aunt. My husband came running upstairs with him in his arms telling me to grab some cool cloths. One look at him and I knew he was going to have a febrile seizure. Jacob had his last seizure at 2 years of age. I thought he grew out of them but I was wrong! Unfortunately this was his worst & longest seizure. For about 10 minutes, all the family stood in shock with tear filled eyes. We had to call an ambulance as Jacob wasn’t coming out of it! I felt as though my world was crumbling! Yeap…..a 45 minute ambulance ride in rural Saskatchewan on Christmas day! Turned out he had a throat infection his body was fighting. I now drop everything when he has a fever. Bring on the thermometers, freezies and hand sanitizers!
Not exactly a sick kid story but a true one that required a visit to a hospital emergency department. First need to back track and tell you that my teenage son is a bit of a hypochondriac and drama queen when it comes to illness and injuries.
So when he called me at work and told me he had fallen on a pencil on the way home from school and had part of it stuck in his arm, I told him to relax, leave the sliver intact and we would remove it when we came home. We were going to be home from work in about an hour or so anyway. But he called back in a panic and said he was having trouble breathing and could we please come home asap. My boss insisted I go home even though I insisted I was going home to remove a sliver lol! Anyhow got an elderly neighbour lady to go and check on the situation and wait for our arrival which was only a 5 to 10 minute commute home.
When my husband and I arrived home a few minutes later, we were greeted by not only our son, but by the friend who walked home with him and the elderly lady who was trying to remove the pencil that was sticking out of his arm. And thankfully according to hospital staff she wasn’t successful.
This time my son wasn’t being overly dramatic; as there was indeed a portion of a pencil lodged deep withing his forearm. And he actually did end up being seen by a specialist who assessed him for nerve damage. After removal of the pencil, wound cleaning, assessment for nerve damage, a Tetanus shot, topical antibiotic cream and a prescription for oral antibiotics, we were on our merry way.
To this day, I still don’t know the whole story how the pencil got inbedded in my son’s arm although he has stuck to the story that he fell on it. And by the way he kept the pencil as a souvenir…
Im a nurse, so not only do I get puked, peed and pooped on at home I can get it at work too 🙁 arrhgggg
When my kids were in elementary school I volunteered each week to help one of the teachers and my kids loved it. I was sitting in the staff room working on a project for the teacher and it was recess time. The teacher I was helping came in to tell me my daughter did not want to go out for recess because she didn’t feel well and that maybe I should take her home. I gathered up the project and got back to the classroom just in time to see my daughter had been sick to her stomach and it was all over the teachers shoe. I felt so bad but I think my daughter felt even worse. When we got home she told me she hadn’t felt well all morning but didn’t want to tell me because then I wouldn’t have gone to school with her.
My neice had a small booboo on her finger (she was around 6 at the time). I asked her if she wanted me to put a bandaid on it for her. She looked at me very seriously and said “No – papa is my doctor”
It’s 530am and we are only 30 minutes in to a 10 hour drive when, well, you know what happens in the back seat. So after changing my daughter’s clothes, cleaning the car seat, and a large coffee for mommy, we are off again. A few hours later it’s time to stop for breakfast. We bravely – or naively – let our daugter eat a cinnamon bun. Of course, less than an hour later…. But here’s our amazing discovery: cinnamon scented vomit is much more pleasant to clean up and live with for a long drive!
Mother’s instincts are usually good, but when in doubt always error on the side of caution…..listen to you child. Everyday good hygiene will keep a lot of the flu/colds away. Always properly wash your hand after changing diapers and teach good hygiene to your children.
The first time my daughter had croup she was almost 2. I had no idea how dangerous croup can be, and how fast a child’s trachea can swell and close.
I didn’t take her to the ER that night although in retrospect I should have. I didn’t want to sit for hours in the middle of the night waiting. She had very fast laboured breathing, a temperature and alot of stridor (loud obstructive wheezing). I just dosed her with Tylenol for the temperature and put her back to bed.
Looking back we’re lucky that her throat didn’t close up on her. And now whenever she has croup, usually once or twice a winter, we head to the ER and wait for meds to help reduce the swelling !
My son was complaing of not feeling well he was tired and sore throat this went on for a bit so afterr taking him to the walk in they said he had streph..they gave him anti ‘s and sent him on his way. That night he played a rep hockey game which he had been doing he was just awful but wanted to play.
The next morning he woke up with a small rash..as the day went on it was getting worse and worse..took him back to the same walk in they said oh he has had a food reaction..by the end of the evening he was covered in spots..big ,bright red and everywhere . Come to find out he had Mono andthats wqas a reaction to the Meds.
So I have 3 wonderful little con artists at home who will do anything to get out of a day at school. But my biggest mistake was when I was taking my class on a field trip just before Christmas. The night before 5 of the girls had been to the movies with 5 of the boys from my class. Once they got to school the giddy-ness and gossip from the night before was brimming in my classroom. I put a spot to it and went on to organize the parent volunteers etc. A couple of minutes later one of my chatty cathy’s asked to got the bathroom, of course I said yes, then one of the boys asked, then another one of the girls..both complaining of stomach cramps…you can see what was going on right? So did I, or so I thought. As we got on the bus the first girl vomited she stayed in the office. By the time we got to the museum, 4 others had vomited and 4 more were turning green.
My lesson in this disaster of a field trip…..always ask it they shared anything the night before, wether it be popcorn, soda or even spit….my kids tried to save money by buying a huge soda at the movies and SHARE..yes all 10! I would love this kit for my class, my little germy germs!
my 3 year old son (the week before christmas) wasn’t feeling to good…. but i couldn’t really tell,he was burping none stop … so i thought it was just something he watched on tv and thought was funny. I was trying to get him to stop.. anyway, sure enough after i put him to bed … 1st came the burp and then the vomiting, every 20 min… after a few hours of this i decided to go to the emergency (around 3 am) just to see if they can give something to calm his stomache. The lady at the admission wasn’t very nice, she thought i was crazy for bringing him in just cause of the threw up (and let me know it too). She changed her mind when he did it in front of her a few times. Turned out he couldn’t even hold down fluid or medication they wanted to give him (took a few tries)…
i felt horrible about yelling at him the day before about not listening to me and not being polite…. (a day later i got the same horrible stomache feeling)
My son has this habit of calling home from school sick, with a tummy ache. I call it a habit, because i think it happens when he is really tired. Hopefully he will outgrow this stage!
Earlier in december I had 4 puking kids…talk about strategic placement of puke pails around the house. And, I had this constant feeling like I was going to be sick, but it must have all been in my head cause I was OK (we all know that mama’s can’t get sick cause we gotta look after the little ones).
It was October of this year and hearing constantly in the news day in and day out about the H1N1 virus going around, I was pretty sure that my 13 year old was just “sick with the regular flu” when she told me she had a fever and wasn’t feeling too good. Surely she didn’t have the H1N1, because in our home, we always wash as soon as we get in the door, and I carry Wet-Ones and Antibacterial hand cleaner with me wherever I go, to the point one would call me OCD regarding handwashing and germs……I kept her home and away from the other 3 children, but she still would come down and try and eat and socialize with us when she felt wel enough to..well 2 days turned into 3, 3 into 4, 4 into 10….by day 5, I took her to the walk in clinic, where I was advised by the physician that she probably has the H1N1 virus as she exhibited every symptom but the increased heartbeat, but that now that it was day 5, they wouldn’t bother testing…”chances are Mrs. S, she has it”..A mother’s worse nightmare..and I felt horrible for assuming it couldn’t happen to us because I am a handwashing fanatic..
Needless to say, two of the other kids got it too, in a much milder form, as well as Mom and Dad, who were sick for a week and a half.
Always go with your gut and never assume the worse of the illnesses can’t happen to you.My daughter was feverish, sore throat, hot & cold, stomach aches, upset tummy and diarrhea. Poor little thing.
Hopefully that’s the end of the illness and next time, I will not take anything on assumption.
I’m very fortunate my kids are pretty healthy, the average winter cold is all I’ve experienced. However, when I was in GR.1 I was sent to school with the chicken pox, only to have my mom pick me up a few hours later. I didn’t know why I was being sent home so I was crying by the time my mom came because I thought I was getting in trouble for something.
While on vacation with our 20 month old daughter in Curacao she became sick with a horrible cough and cold which kept us all up every night. We were thankful when it was time to come home just to be able to sleep in our own beds but as we waited in the airport she seemed to improve a little. (so we thought) Everything was fine as we boarded the plane, took our seats etc and she even fell asleep eventually. During the flight she wanted a bottle so the flight attendant said she would get her some milk ….little did we know that the milk had soured so not long after she drank it she started vomiting on me; my husband and the poor unfortunate woman in the seat next to us. The flight attendants seated me at the back of the plane because the milk smelled so horrible. Once we landed and went through customs , my husband quickly ripped off his t-shirt and threw it away in the closest garbage. Needless to say…..we waited until she was much older to vacation again.
When my son had his first bout with stomach flu, he was two years old and I was a novice where child illness was concerned! He was lethargic all day, and started vomiting that night. He drank some water, got the runs, and then slept most of the night. The next day, he wanted bacon and potato chips. Thrilled that he’d gotten his appetite back, I gave him what he wanted and he scarfed it down. A few hours later, I’d learned my lesson as he proceeded to regurgitate everything he’d just eaten! The next time he told me he was hungry, I gave him dry crackers, not bacon!
My son will pick anything up from a floor and eat it…teachers at his daycare said they are trying to react fast but usually he is too fast and alreadyeaten whatever it was before they could snatch it. It builds immunity, I was told…lol
My 5 year old came down with the flu the week prior to our Disney Vacation. The poor thing was sick and had the diarhea all the way to last day of leaving . She threw up in the airport hotel all over the bedding . There was no way to cancel our trip though. The poor thing made it to Orlando and pulled through while we were on our vacation.
I had to keep lots of wet ones and motrin gravol and had to keep her in pull ups.
All in all our Disney Vacation worked out but it was almost cancelled and she had a great time once she came around..
Its hard when they get sick and you have money tied up in flights and travel..
The flu is somthing that has to run its course and I think we always come in contact with it when we have something planned.
We could use the wetone Prize Pack for sure!!
One night I was woken up by the sound of my daughter getting sick. She was throwing up and she was on the top bunk of the bunkbeds. I ran with a wastepaper bucket and then got some towels. What a mess. I cleaned her up and changed her nightgown and her bed and and she finally went back to sleep. My husband didn’t hear anything and slept through it all.
one time when we were n the road, we had to stop at Canadian tire to pick up a few things for camping that night. we picked up our few things and were standing in line at the till waiting to pay for the stuff when our son announced that he didn’t feel good. we knew we would only be a couple of more minutes until we were out of the store so we kinda said “we’ll be out of here in 2 minutes just hang in there” at that moment he let ‘er fly and proceeded to throw up right at the till at canadian tire. we put our stuff on the counter grabbed our son and headed out the door!! what can i say…..
My son is constantly sick and my two daughters are rarely ill. However one year the day before Christmas they really became ill and quite suddenly. We went to go visit Grandma and suddenly my one daughter started vomiting and within minutes the other one also started vomiting. This was problematic since Grandma has only one bathroom!!! One was being sick in the sink and the other on the toilet. We were having Christmas dinner the next day at our house and we needed to get home. It’s only about a 15 min. drive so we thought we would go for it …. as you can imagine it became the longest ride home. We had to stop several times on the side of the road 🙁 But here is the good news — they were over it by the next day and were still able to enjoy Christmas!!!
I have a 2 year old that likes to pretend he’s a puppy dog and lick things… 😛 Needless to say were sick around here off and on, I have a 7 year old that sometimes forgets to wash her hands but will willingly use hand sanitiser and wipes thank goodness.!!!
My kids rarely get sick but when they do LOOK OUT !!!!……it also takes them A LOT to let me know that they don’t feel well ……they are such troopers !!!!!….on the rare occasion that they do become ill they are normally down for a least a few days….poor babies……that gives me a chance to play the cuddly mommy and wait on them hand a foot for a while…..
I’ll never forget the day I sent my daughter off to school when she complained of a headache. I gave her some Tylenol and took her to the bus stop. She had tears in her eyes but I ignore them. I did have this nagging feeling that perhaps I had just made the wrong decision but I still insisted she went to school. Finally, the bus came and she went on it. I waived and left. I ran some errands most of the day. When I returned there were at least 5 messages from the school. I called the school and I was told that my daughter had been taken to the doctor’s for a check up. I immediately went there and the doctor told me that my daughter had an ear/throat infection + plus influenza and that she had vomited in the bus. I promised myself that should there be a next time, this won’t happen this way again. Just because there was no fever at the time that wasn’t a good reason to just send her off to school. I still feel guilty 🙁
We don’t have kids yet so I don’t have a story …sorry.
When my son or daughter are sick I know it. My son who is a year and a half will cry a lot more than usual, and look at me like I am the cause of his illness. He has sad eyes when he is sick.
I give him lots of fluids and try to promote extra sleep, and give a bath a day when he’s sick to decongest him.
My daughter who is 3 will become very quiet, which is unusual for her. She will lie down instead of running circles around as usual and will just lie around quietly. When she is sick, she will not want to eat or drink. I usually sneak some Children’s Tylenol in a drink for her and give her a bath a day to help ease a headache/congestion.
I hate when the kids are sick.
We were at a friend’s wedding when my son was close to a year old. My mother in law had been holding onto him for quite awhile during dinner. Obviously she had been feeding him lots of whatever was on her plate as well. About half an hour after dinner was over, he started to look funny. My husband was now holding him and trying to make him laugh. Instead of laughing, he decided to throw up everything his Nonna had been feeding him all night all over my husband. His suit was covered in puke. Luckily we lived about 20 mins away. My son was clean, just needed a face wipe. We however went home got a new suit and shoes, socks, the whole deal. Everything was soaked. My son is not a puker, but when he does he makes it worthwhile. The offending clothes were put into a garbage bag and taken to the drycleaners the next morning by my husband. I picked them up later in the week to find a clean suit and shirt, along with his boxers and socks hung neatly on a hanger. Now that’s service…i felt sorry for whoever opened that bag!
My daughter had a sinus infection and head cold a couple of years ago and it was the first time she had to take antibiotics and she was given Amoxicillin liquid…well i knew that wouldnt go over well…but got the prescription anyway.
That evening i gave her the dose of medicine and by the next morning she was spotted everywhere with what looked to me like measels, turns out that she had “Amoxicillin Rash”
So not a true allergy but it turned out she had to stay home longer than expected as she looked like she had chicken pox and it was so frustrating for her at 4 years old.
The whole family spent a weekend at the grandparents place which is notorious for blackflies which aren’t common near our home. They had bug bites around all the edges of their clothing (neck, upper arm, upper leg). We knew what they were and since they weren’t itchy ignored them. Get back home and send the kids to daycare the next day.
We get a phone call about 30 minutes later to come and get them because they think they have chicken pox and aren’t allowed back without a doctor’s note. Doesn’t matter that we explain they are bug bites. Our doctor is away, the locum looks at them, writes a note saying “mother says they are bug bites” signs it and that’s it. Kids are welcome back at daycare.
I remember my little boy was only 1 year old and he got a bad case of the stomach flu. He kept vomiting almost every 30 minutes for a good few hours and then it was every 2 hours and then it finally subsided after a good 24-hours. It was just awful and I was so scared to feed him knowing he would just vomit. Well, once the little one recovered, my older son got it a few days later! Non-stop looking after the kids. Well, once the kids were better, next comes me! It was just awful – vomitting and diarrhea (sometimes at the same time) – I know I lost a little weight during that time!
I hope it doesn’t happen again!
the biggest con was when I found out that the so called sick teenager was in fact sitting in her ensuite with the heat lamp shining on her face to make her face boiling hot and sweaty! Poor kid, did anything to get out of a math test. LOL!
We would bring my kids to the family christmas eve open house at our favorite uncle’s house. It was always so much fun. The kids would all go off and entertain themselves downstairs. The adults would stay upstairs and talk. Every year my kids would come home and have a major barf out after pigging out on everything from the buffet table.
We would be dead tired from the party. Then we would have to clean up the kitchen floor and still wrap presents and get them out before morning.
Thank you for sponsoring this great giveaway. Wet Ones are perfect for home, car and purses.
When my oldest was an infant, we lived in Montreal. We had been visiting my parents in Ontario, and he got sick while we were away – he ended up slightly dehydrated from having the runs for several days. We were giving him lots of Pedialyte to try and rehydrate.
On the drive back to Montreal, the back of the car started to smell a little, shall we say, ripe. We stopped at the nearest pit stop, which happened to be a very busy McDonald’s. I rushed my son into the washroom with a change station, opened up his diaper, and it was just brimming with bright neon green, very loose poop. (A result of the Pedialyte that no one had informed me of.)
A little girl was exiting the washroom while I was trying not to inhale too much of the cloud of odor surrounding us. She looked at my boy’s diaper, and then said to her mom, “Oh my gosh, I wonder what HE’s been eating!” Then, after a pause, she asked me, “Is that what happens when you eat paint? There’s a kid in my class at school who eats paint, and he says his poop comes out in nice colours.”
It’s really hard to laugh while you’re trying to clean up that kind of mess!
Looks perfect given H1N1
I never knew I’d thought petroleum jelly was actual snott. Not my kid but a friends used this shoved up his nose to get a day off school. She almost fell for it till she got a smell of it.
I never ignore a sick child – i make sure i pay attention at all times
After reading all the other comments, I feel a little better about my parenting! LOL
My pre-schooler told me he wasn’t feeling well. I had to run up to Sears and make a payment on our account. We were standing at the cash register when he violently threw up all over the floor…and then announced loudly: “I told you I was sick”. I wanted to sink thru the floor. We left as quickly as possible.
Oh, I am the queen of ignoring kids’ complaints of being unwell and the kids quickly learned this. I thought it was a great plan as I didn’t have to listen to incessant whining. They all still laugh about their unfeeling mom, especially when the school told me to please get my youngest checked out at the doctor, and it turned out he had pneumonia. (really, I’m not so bad!)
My most vivid memory was when my daughter was ill and needed antibiotics. We had the prescription and I would dole out her meds on time every day. I was absolutely sick when I was cleaning her room the next week and found pills scattered in various bureau drawers. Thanks goodness she didn’t get any worse, but next time I will carefully watch that she takes the pills and does not pretend to do so.
I look after other people’s children for living I am a home childcare provider, MOM and E.C.E. teacher. so I have seen it all!
However the ultimate came for me when one of “my” kids came home from J.k. with the Norwalk virus one day. In just under three hours I had a living room that looked like something from a Steven King novel. I had four kids under the age of 6 all throwing up in buckets and me dashing to the (insert explerative) upstairs washroom begging for help from an unseen source ! The funny part is by the time my Mum’s ( of each child) had arrived for their children everyone was okay again! Did I mention we bought a new couch…?
We survived my daughter and her two friends ( who still come to our house) our now 9 years old!
My friends kid had a habit of suddenly getting sick when his parents were heading out the door without him. I was the designed babysitter one night and well aware of this ongoing ploy. Well they got out the door and everything was going well, the pizza was ordered, his sister was playing some board game with me and he was watching TV when he announced ‘he didn’t feel well’. Adding 2 + 2 I got him a glass of water and told him to lay down on the couch for a while. When I checked in he continued to announced in a firm strong voice that he did not feel well and I should call his Mom. I refused to call and continued to administer ‘feel good’ medicine like a soft blanket and a cup of tea. The tears started when I continued to refuse to call his Mom and shortly developed into projectile vomitting that hit his sister, the tv, the carpet and the coffee table…….ok I called his Mom who rushed home to a miraculous recovery. Oh yeah, and the pizza never did arrive and I have no idea if his sister ever got fed that night or not. 🙁
kids geting sick it normal
but to deal with sick kids
it is a strees
I was rushing to get to work one morning and my littlest threw up in my work shoes.I ended up missing work and throwing out my favourite work shoes!
My daughter had a few small lesions that looked like chicken pox, but felt fine. I counted them, there were only about 20 lesions, so I thought, nah couldn’t be – even though chicken pox was making its way through school. So off we went to a crowded Webkinz party. Of course next week my other two kids were head to toe with pox! I guess my daughter got off very lightly but to this day I feel bad about going to that party!
yes, it is a struggle as to whether to take them to emerg or not. we usually try to tough it out if we can. sometimes they can come home with other lovely symptoms they picked up while waiting to see the dr.
So this should never leave the forum. In the summer my son (11) came home from camp and said he was feeling hot and tired. Instead of going on the computer he fell asleep on the couch. He was out cold and felt really hot. He had no other symptoms. After supper My husband and I took our 3yo son to the park. We woke up our 11yo and told him we were going out and did he feel okay – he said yes.
When we got back a couple of hours later he was still on the couch. We thought he was tricking us and had jumped on the couch when he heard us coming. Nope. He was still sleeping and still felt hot. He also had no idea we had even left the house. (We live in an apartment and have a friend down the hall that checks on him if needed.)
After being home for a while his temperature rose to 105. Even though we live close to Sick Kids hospital we decided a fever with no other symptoms was not worthy of a 7 hour visit. His temperature would come down when we put a cool compress on his inner wrist. His fever lasted for 30 hours. There were never any other symptoms and when the fever went he was fine.
Turns out many kids at many camps had similiar fevers with no symptoms and the doctor said a high fever itself is no reason for panick.
I feel guilty to this day.
My husband is oblivious.
My 11yo holds it over my head when he is amd atme.
So goes life with kids.
I should say, it is weird that my daughter thinks keeping away from school is punishment. I use the sentence ‘I will not let you go to school tomorrow if you dont finish that’. She will be 8 this month and loves school, she is aware getting sick will keep her away from school, so she washes her hands and face the moment she enters the house from outside, and also changes clothes when she comes from outside as she believes that will prevent germs from spreading to her two younger sisters. I’m not bragging, it is true.
Take me for this matter, I would do anything to cut school. I believed keeping a halved onion under your armpit will give you fever, tried it and was kept at home as I was stinking. Any drama will work only once as my mom will figure out that I was faking, so I had to come up with new stories. Those were the days, I miss them a lot.
consider yourself lucky if your kid barfs on a regular basis! when my oldest was 4, she had only barfed once and that was when she was a baby so she didn’t know what it felt like. at least if your kid knows, you can be a little prepared with something to catch it.
we’re all strapped in to the car on the way to the east coast for christmas when, an hour out of town, she starts going on about how she can’t breathe and does her usual “i can’t get my way song-and-dance”. then, HEEEEAAAVVVVE… all over the back of the car.
only 16 more hours to drive, y’all! and it literally made our car the ‘vomit comet”.
and, lisa, i am so glad you posted…i took same daughter to the dr. for what i thought might be an ear infection and said, “by the way, can you check her ‘fake cough’? it’s driving me nuts and i’m not sure if she’s trying to get attention or what”. so, the doctor checks, ears fine…yup, lungs…pneumonia! for two weeks! BAD PARENT!!! then i got it a month later, and you know what? fake cough! it’s been almost three years and i still feel bad!
let’s just not talk about the time i ran her over with the stroller……
One day about a year ago, my (at the time 3yr old) daughter came to me and said she thinks she has a bug in her tummy. I asked her why she thinks that. She then went on to tell me that she can FEEL the bug. At this point the way she was describing it had me a little worried. I asked her to explain how it feels. She kept saying that she can feel the bug gurgling and swooshing. I asked her how she got the bug in there. She then told me that Gramma thinks she must have got the bug at preschool from one of the other sick kids. HOLY PHEW! When I realised she was talking about not feeling well I was relieved that I didn’t have to try to figure out what kind of “bug” it was that she ate.
One day my son when he was around three years old, was standing in front of me while I was trying to tie his shoes. Suddenly with no warning he throw up, right on top of my head. Luckly my husband was home and took care of him so that I could look after myself.
One evening at the dinner table my son was eating and he had said he didn’t feel well but my husband thought that was just an excuse not to eat dinner. My husband said to him to eat his dinner. I was sitting at the table and my son looked at me, I could tell he was full. I said to him “Are you full?”. He looked at me, nodded his head and then threw up all over the table. From now on, if he says he isn’t feeling well at the dinner table, he is done.
Plane tickets in hand, we were booked on the red-eye to Toronto for our first family trip to Disney World. My almost 8 year old son came home from school looking awful, not excited as I had imagined. I asked what was wrong, he said miserably “I have the chicken pox!” and he was right. My mind raced, thousands of dollars spent, no cancellation insurance, and “Oh, yeah, how are you feeling and can I get you anything?” as an afterthought. (What a great mom I am!) I got on the phone to the health link line, community health services, etc. who told me as long as he was feeling up to it, we may as well go since the contagious period was over anyway. So the 5 of us left at midnight for our long-anticipated trip. He felt awful (those little bags they provide on the planes came in handy), but we got priority service through the Toronto airport, getting an escort and jumping the customs line 🙂 We made it to Orlando, but he was too sick to go out so we brought pizza into our room, at which time my husband declared the trip a “disaster – we may as well just go home.” The next day he was feeling better, but low energy so we rented a wheelchair at the Animal Kingdom. That ‘front of the line’ service was fantastic! He felt better every day and it ended up being a great trip. On the flight home, an adult sitting nearby commented on how quiet my 2 year old was for the trip – I didn’t tell him that hiding beneath the Mickey Mouse ears were the first signs of Chicken Pox.
2 years ago in December our daughter was not feeling well. She didn’t seem too sick, so we kept her home a bit and then sent her back to school. On the Saturday she had an indoor soccer game. I watched her just stand in the middle of the gym and not run around at all, she just turned her head to watch the ball and the other kids. At the end of the game I wisked her off to the open clinic at our doctor’s office because I didn’t know what was wrong. They determined right away that she had pneumonia, and it ended up that she had double pneumonia- She missed the next 2 weeks of school, all the Christmas stuff, but luckily she got better with only 2 additional visits to the ER because of breathing problems and dehydratoin.
Yes I was the mom that missed it and made my daughter play soccer when she was actually really ill. I still feel really bad about it even though it is now 2 years later.
I was working at my first job as a dental hygienist. One of my patients was a little 5 year old boy. He was always nervous when coming to his cleanings. He was due for his x-rays and with a little convincing he said he would try. We put the x-ray in and just as I was getting ready to push the button, the kid throws up. Now you might think it was the x-ray but I went to get his mom and all she said was…”oh, I guess he really did have a sore stomach this morning!” I felt so bad for this little boy that was soooo nervous but soooo stoic. When he threw up, he had one little tear running down his cheek and he held out his hand to throw up, not even wincing and went right back to trying to stay very still for me to take the x-ray. I helped him clean up and gave him a pass from the x-ray!
When my son was in kindergarten he told me he had a headache just before school one morning. He has always had headaches nad the have in the past caused vomitting and fainting. At the time we lived in Alberta and the extreme weather changes seamed to trigger these headaches. Well it was a normal day and I new he had lots of sleep and no chocolate , this triggered headaches too. So I thought he was having a day he just didn’t want to go to school. So with none of his triggers having been present I sent him to school. One hour later I get a call from his student teacher. He was sitting at the tablewith her and 4 of the class mates and throwup all over the table and her. I felt horrible. Luckily the school was just across the road and she was so nice about having vomit on her . I went straight over and picked him up. He was fine for the rest of the day. Years later we have learned that excitement, nervousness, diet , sleep and many other things trigger these headaches. We have learned to deal with them and most often rest and sometimes vomitting helps and makes him feel better. But I still feel like I should have kept him home and instead I feel just horrible.
Another time my other son was feverish and itchy. Being summer I thought he may have had a heat rash. After a few days of itching I took him to the walk in clinic to find out he had “hand foot and mouth”.
With 4 kids I have many stories to tell and no time to tell them lol. This prize would be great to win. I think with the hollidays and seeing many people from all over the country we have the flu in our home today. Two kids home sick from school . So this would be a great win. Thanks
My scariest moment in hearing “Mommy, I don’t feel well” was when my daughter was younger. One night, my daughter had a pretty high fever, I gave Tempra to lower the fever and put her to bed early. After I had gone to bed, and sometime in the middle of the night, she had woken up crying because she wasn’t feeling well. I was half asleep but managed to take her temperature; upon confirming she still had a fever, I gave her a second dose of Tempra and settled her in for more sleep. Early in the morning, I heard her call me, I wake up to find that she has gotten out of bed and her top is completely covered in Tempra! She had gotten up and figured she’d take Tempra to feel better! Somehow, in my sleepy daze, I must have not closed the Tempra well and she managed to open it and empty the rest of the bottle!!!
I had no way of knowing how much she actually had drank!
Of course I rushed to the doctor’s, only to find out that she was fine and that I’d probably get a “runny” surprise in her diaper later.
Yup!
Just before christmas this year my niece and nephew came over [they pestered my sister until she agreed to sent them over for the day heh;)]
But I soon realized that they were sick with a slight fever and cold.. yet as off the walls as ever.. So I played nurse…. giving them medicine [and keeping a little journal of when I gave them it as to not double dose]..
I tried to keep everything steril in a sense… if they wiped their runny nose with their hands we washed them…
We coloured… and painted… and played with their dinkie cars.. We even baked cookies [I got them to actually wear the little chefs hats and silly aprons].
The next day I realized I’d caught their cold [dispite my best effort to avoid it]. My sister brought the kids back over for me to baby sit.. I was so sick and tired.. I just wanted to sleep and my usually off the walls niece and nephew actually behaived!
They played quietly [no fighting I was shocked]. My nephew even ran and grabbed a juice box when I got dry coughs [so sweet]. They asked for simple meals so I wasn’t standing up too much.
They are so sweet when they want to be.. My family jokes I should get sick more often since it’s the only time my niece [2 3/4 years old] and nephew [4 years old] are ever calm and quiet.
They always bother their mum and dad when they are sick so it’s a miracle…
I just joke that they love their Auntie Liz that much 😉
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Another story was when my sister didn’t know my nephew had the flu, she thought he was just being normal [ever since he was born he’s gives off heat.. he’s a human heater.. good for the winter bad for summer ;)]. I was there to help her sort out boxes.
Not 30 minutes after we put him on the bus to school was there a knock at the door. She was busy so I answered.. It was the bus driver, holding my nephew bridal style. Said he was sick.. nephew looked paler with pink cheeks. Turns out the bumpy ride to school didn’t agree with him and he was sick.
The driver dropped the other kids off at school and brought my nephew[so nice]. But after we asked the drive to come in and put my nephew on the sofa; we noticed why the driver may have come by… There was puked down the right side of his pants. Turns out my nephew was about to walk off the bus when he “had to cough” and puked on the drivers leg [apparently making the other kids behind him scream and cause a little pandamoneum].
The kids still stuck on the bus refused to run thru/hop over the vomit; so the driver let them go thru the backdoor causing that alarm to go off and getting attention.
We cleaned up the drivers pants and shoe as best we could; I slipped my sister a $10 tim hortons gift card I’d gotten for free from doing a survey and she got the hint and gave it to the driver as a thank you.
It’s been 3 months and my nephew STILL talks about the day he scared everyone out the back off the bus and laughs manically about it [what a boy=)]
When i was in grade 5 i was home sick with chicken pocs. The phone rang in the afternoon and i answered although i wasn’t feeling too good and was severly itchy. Well, it was someone informing me that i had won a contest for a Rememberance Day poem i had written. This was back in the 80’s and the $15 i won was alot to a 12 year old back then. I also won a dinner and a plaque and had to read the poem at a local legion. It really lifted my spirits being sick and all!
My son made a real mess the one time, not his fault though. He had a high fever, and we gave him some liquid Tylenol before bed, just like usual. He got up a few hours later, came to our bedroom door, and said he was sorry, but he threw up and didn’t make it to the bathroom in time. We went to his room and all over the carpet was red barf. Sick! We tried to put water on it, clean it up right away, even had the carpet cleaner in the next day, but to no avail. There has always been a big, red stain right in the middle of his room!
My story luckily didn’t turn into sickness, but in hindsight I was very lucky it didn’t. I was watching my friends daughter when she was about 8 months old. I was sitting on the couch eating some chocolate. She crawled over to me looking at the chocolate, and I thought oh shes such a picky eater she won’t want like it. Well was I ever naive, she loved chocolate at eight months. Luckily though it turned out she didn’t have any allergies to either chocolate or nuts. Mom still hasn’t forgetten though that I started her daughters love of chocolate at such an early age.
My daughter was 2 1/2 and we were driving the Road to Hana in Maui. She had endured being in the car all day and we stopped for ice cream. THankfully we had Starbucks venti cups in the car, as not long after, we heard, “I don’t feel well.” She very calmly proceeded to puke in the cup three times. Each time wanting to hand it back once she felt better.
When people asked how our trip was – to this day she always says, “remember Pukey Hana Mommy?” She’s now 5!
My daughter had begged me for months to buy “Lucky Charms” cereal but I never did and told her it wasn’t a healthy enough choice.
Some time later, one of her classmates brought an art project into school made out of this same cereal, and my daughter immediately recognized it as the one Mommy wouldn’t buy for her. So, when no one was looking she “ate” her classmates’ project, so desperate for the cereal.
Sure enough the very next day she came down with strepthroat and tells people the story of “…when I ate that cereal I got very sick!”
Now, she only wants “Cheerios” much to my delight!
My husband and I always got our flu shots to protect our daughter and my elderly grandparents have an apartment attached to our home. Last year, somehow, even with my grandfather very ill with Lymphoma, we forgot, or put the shots off too long. Something we weren’t long regretting. It was early February when our four year old got the flu. She was sick for three weeks, on puffers, and then in the last half of her illness had the stomach flu and ended up in the hospital for dehydtration and exhaustion.
This year, while we gave her the H1N1 shot, we didn’t give her the seasonal flu shot. We are working on strengthening her immune system with healthy foods, our new juicer and reitterating the importance of washing hands. I sanitize hard surfaces and door knobs often, especially over the holidays with company coming and going. My secret remedy, that my daughter believes has magic haha, is hot lemon water with honey for her and with some steeped ginger and cayenne pepper for me.
I’m determined to keep us as healthy as possible, but I know colds are inevitable. We just keep washing our hands, use hand sanitizer while shopping, and hope and pray for good health 🙂
don,t be parinoid with kids sickness..common sense will usually prevail
One of my funnies moments was when I was looking after a friends daughter. Everyone gets to know the ‘signs’ or ‘hints’ when our child is going to be sick, but I found out that I shouldn’t expect every child to be the same that day! My friend’s daughter was active and happy the day I looked after her. We were all having fun playing. Then suddenly she looked at me and said very seriously “I’m going to burp”. I smiled and told her that was fine, just to say “excuse me” when she did. A few seconds later she told me she was going to burp again, however this time there was not enough lag time between her announcement and my being able to say “Just say excuse me after”, before I learned just what she meant by “I’m going to burp”! I’ll give her credit though, after she finished being sick she looked up and told me “Excuse me”. What could I do? :). Later when I was talking to her Mom, her Mom said that she tended to say “I have to burp” instead of “I feel sick”, but since she seemed to be feeling well, saw no need (why would she?) to tell me. Live and learn!
My 12 year old daughter was 7 when this happened!!! She came home from school limping and said that she had sprained her ancle and it hurt a lot. I looked at it and it was a little bit swallen, but nothing major. So I told her we should put some ice on it and it would be fine. But the whole evening she kept limping badly and whining that it was painful. I finally called the telehealth and they told me it might be a good idea to take her to the ER and make some x-rays as it might be more serious than it looked. So around 7:30 pm, we make a trip to the ER. After triage, we were sitting in the waiting room, talking, laughing and she was holding my hand the whole time. The midnight came and she started yawning (not to mention that I had to get up at 6:30 the next morning to go to work). Then she said she was tired and wanted to go home to bed. I explained we had to wait and why when my cutie with her puppy eyes made me promise I would not get upset if she told me something. I had a pretty good idea but promised anyways. Then she said:” You know, it doesn’t even hurt any more. I just missed you lately and wanted to spend some time with just you!!!”
Despite the mad looks from the triage nurse and me being a bit upset having to get up early, I was kind of touched and glad at the same time. We had caught up quite a bit in those few hours. Now I tripple check with the younger one :>))
I remember when my son was 2 and he was sleeping with mommy – I was awoken by my son in the middle of a grand mal seizure. Yikes as a new mom and noone to call at 2am I thought maybe it was a febrel seizure and fingers crossed went back to sleep. Well 2 days later when it happened again I realized something more serious was going on. Off we went to the hospital and my son was diagnosed with a seizure disorder and put on medication. Well many doctors later and at 12 years old we are now seizure free for over 4 years. As a naive new mom I can now see I should have went to the hospital right away but lucky for us everything turned out to be great. Much thanks to the provider and the Hamilton Childrens Hospital!!
My 6year old son never comes out and says he feels sick. He just starts to get quieter and less active and I keep asking, “Do you feel okay?” But he never answers me. I was asking him this recently, but he didn’t say anything so I brought him out with me while we did errands. He didn’t complain as we went from one place to another and I was only half-aware that he may be getting sick. We finally got home and I went around to open his door. As soon as I opened it, he turned to face me and threw up everywhere! I jumped back just in time and luckily most of it landed on the driveway. I finally realized how sick he was and got him in bed right away. Now I don’t wait for him to *tell* me he’s sick. If he starts showing the signs, I assume he is.
My son had RSV at 6 months, so when baby #3 came down with similar symptoms at 4 months, I knew what to look for and when to get to the ER. She didn’t seem bad enough to be admitted, but I was worried she was getting dehydrated as she hadn’t nursed much, so we went off to the ER. Knowing what the wait times were like I visited a friend first, and then stopped at Starbucks for a Chai and Scone and then at a gas station for a magazine. I drove around for a bit to find a good parking spot (in the regular lot, not wanting to take an emergency spot) and leisurely made my way into the ER. At triage they took her oxygen levels, and I was astounded to find out it was just 82%! Whoops! They called a respiratory emergency and within 2 minutes we were in a trauma room with 2 nurses, a doctor, a respiratory therapist and a paramedic. She ended up being admitted for 6 days. I know I’m a pretty laid-back parent, and tend not to worry too much about kids being sick, but I think I under estimated things that day!