THE flu

This is the first time Baby O has been down with a flu in her 14 months of life - a mild grade fever, phlegmy cough and a leaky nose. I have never seen her so unwell before! Her eyes are droopy, red and watery. She even vomited for the first time from the amount of mucous accumulated in her throat. Peaceful sleep through the night is non-existent at the moment. Naps is down from 2-3 hours to only an hour plus. Separation anxiety is at its ultimate peak and she hangs on to me 24/7. However, she still managed to keep her little spirit up (and mine) by smiling and laughing at our silly antics. 

It’s tough. I expected her to lose some appetite but it’s no to yummy yogurt, no to ridiculously expensive formula milk, no to organic oats, no to tasty free-range chicken stock porridge with organic broccoli florets. So what has she been eating then? Mainly, make that Only toasts, raisins, cheerios and bananas! Unfortunately fruits like kiwi and apples gave her diarrhoea. Fortunately she regularly goes for a sip of water throughout the day.

We have been observing her initially but finally decided to go to the paediatrician to stock up on some medicines yesterday. Our paediatrician is great. He said that paracetamol is not necessary if the fever is not any higher than 38’C and he does not prescribe any anti-diarrhoeals in the clinic. I’m glad we’re on the same boat. As a healthcare professional myself, I don’t take and do not recommend medicines unnecessarily. Sometimes the body just needs to fight the illness to be stronger.

However, Baby O is such a druggie. She loves taking medicine. Maybe she just loves the novelty of taking medicine from a syringe. She’ll say ‘More!’ after a dose and she’ll point in the direction of the kitchen leading to the bottle of paracetamol! This time round, one of her medicines has to be dissolved in a spoonful of water before being administered. She didn’t want it from the spoon but gladly stuff it in her mouth from a syringe! Hmm....