Archive for the “Illness” Category
Natalie has Croup
I always thought croup was a horrible disease. Turns out most cases of croup are caused by cold viruses that concentrate in the upper airway, causing a loud barking cough and wheezing (which in bad cases can cause difficulty breathing). Natalie’s case of croup came on rather suddenly on Thursday night. One minute she was in a great mood and seemed totally healthy, the next minute we realized she had a fever, and then she was up half the night coughing and barking like a seal. Since then she’s been mostly okay during the day—we’ve been keeping the humidifier on full-blast and occasionally turning our bathroom into a steam room. Motrin is helping keep the inflammation in her throat down.
Yesterday we decided to take her to Terhune’s just to get out of the house and get some fresh air. Despite her illness, she had a great time visiting the animals. On the way home Natalie was happily eating an apple, choked a little and then could. not. stop. coughing. Poor thing ended up throwing up a bunch of phlegm. Yuck. Luckily, she recovered pretty quickly once we got home.
Since she’s been sick, Natalie will not sleep without me holding her. Every time I’ve made sure she’s in a really deep sleep and tried to sneak away, she’s woken up crying within minutes. So I’ve been spending the nights (and nap time) squeezing into Natalie’s tiny bed with her. We have an incline pillow under Natalie’s mattress that keeps her head elevated, plus the humidifier is in her room (otherwise I would’ve just put her in our bed).
Is daycare making Natalie sick?
Everyone told us that the first few months of daycare are filled with illness after illness because your child is being exposed to a lot more germs. Is it true? I’ll recount our daycare experience so far:
Week One (3/3/08 – 3/7/08)
The Friday of Natalie’s first week of daycare, she woke up in the middle of the night crying. I made the really, really bad mistake of sitting down next to her in her bed before turning on the lights, cause when I sat down, I realized that she had thrown up. Ewww! She threw up a few more times over the next couple of hours, requiring several pajama changes for both of us. She eventually went back to sleep and was completely fine the next day.
Week Two (3/10/08 – 3/14/08)
That week was when she had her terrible diaper rash, bad enough to require Natalie to miss daycare on Wednesday and take a trip to the doctor’s office.
Week Three (3/17/08 – 3/21/08)
Natalie only went to school on Monday of this week, because Monday night she had a mild fever. She still had a fever Tuesday morning, which meant that even if it cleared up that day, she couldn’t go to school on Wednesday, because children have to be fever-free for 24-hours to attend school. In the middle of the night Tuesday, her fever spiked to 105.6!!! She and I took a luke-warm shower, which brought it down to 103. Then the motrin finally kicked in and she was able to go back to sleep with a temperature of 102.5. We took her to the doctor for the second Wednesday in a row this morning. The doctor found that her lungs, throat, and ears were all clear. He did a blood test to check for a hidden infection, (like a urinary tract infection) which was also clear. No elevated white blood cell count or anything else to indicate a problem. So, she has a virus that we’ll let run it’s course.
Was all this sickness because she’s in daycare or just a coincidence? We’ll ever know for sure. One thing I do know is that all these absences from school are not helping Natalie adjust to being there. It’s getting a little better, but still not great.
Grandma had the brilliant idea of taking some picture of Natalie’s teachers and classmates and spending time everyday looking at them. She got the idea because Natalie loves her Aunt Katy and has always been comfortable with her, even though Natalie has only seen Katy (who lives in CA) a few times in her life. The reason? Because we have pictures of Katy that we look at and talk about. If you ask Natalie “who’s that?” she says “Taty!” In fact, she learned to say Katy well before she learning to say Grandma or Nama.
The school director and Natalie’s teachers were enthusiastic about the project and took some pictures this week. Thank goodness, because between Natalie’s illness and the school being closed for Good Friday, she’ll have a whole week before going back to school.
Here is Natalie with one of her teachers and classmates at the beginning of the day, eyes still red from crying after Mama left:
And looking calmer at the end of the day, but eyes red from her impending illness:
Worst diaper rash ever!
Don’t worry, there will be no picture accompanying this post! I’ll also spare you the most gory details…
Poor Natalie’s bottom was in bad shape this week. Of course, just as Natalie was starting to be her happy self again on the changing table, she developed a bad rash, which means every diaper change is painful and therefore a struggle. I first noticed it Tuesday morning, the day that Nama was watching Natalie. Nama looked at it and declared, “I’ve seen much worse!” so I didn’t worry too much. We continued using our usual diaper cream. Tuesday night, Natalie was crying out in her sleep and waking up frequently (although I didn’t make the connection—being woken up repeatedly in the middle of the night doesn’t allow for the most logical thinking).
By Wednesday morning, the rash looked a little angrier. Chris was in charge of taking Natalie to day care that morning, so I asked him to be sure to tell the teachers about the rash. Of course he forgot, because it’s impossible to think straight when trying to smile and tell Natalie to have fun at school while she’s hysterically crying. 10 minutes after he came home from dropping her off, Natalie’s teacher called my cell phone to ask me if I was aware of the rash.
I decided to call the pediatrician’s office, even though I was pretty sure they were going to recommend I use diaper cream and tell me to go away. But no, when I described the rash, the nurse scheduled an appointment within the hour. (What gives? In December I called to say that Natalie was coughing so hard she was vomiting, which didn’t warrant an appointment and now they want her to come in for diaper rash?!?!?) So I picked Natalie up from school (poor thing was pretty upset when I got there) and we went to the doctor. It was a good thing the school called and we went to the doctors, because by the time we got there, the rash looked worse than it had only a couple of hours earlier. The two doctors who looked at Natalie’s rear and a test for a strep infection (who knew you could get strep butt?) couldn’t determine the cause of the rash. Dumbfounded, the doctor recommended we try triple paste—a recommendation I could have gotten from my mom’s group without a $30 co-pay.
Thankfully, the rumors I’d heard about triple paste are true! 24 hours later, Natalie’s rash was much improved and now 48 hours later, it’s almost gone. Like everything else, the rash was probably related to teething.
What good is a baby blog if it’s contents won’t embarrass said baby when she becomes a teenager?