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Allergy suffers are always the first to know when spring has arrived. The itchy eyes, runny nose, coughing, all around crappy feeling of seasonal allergies is never fun. But most especially not fun for babies and toddlers who suffer from dreaded seasonal allergies. As parents we want to make our little ones feel better. We want to do something to make the runny nose, itchy eyes and all around yucky feeling go away, but when you have a child that suffers from seasonal allergies that isn’t always easy to do.
For the most part seasonal allergies (hay fever) do not set in for kids until they are 3 years old or older, however, some toddlers and even some babies will begin exhibiting signs of suffering from seasonal allergies much earlier than that. A lot of the time parents don’t know if their child has allergies or is just sick with the common cold since the symptoms are so similar. There are a few ways to tell if the stuffy, runny nose your child seems to continuously have is caused from the pollen in the air or just a common cold bug.
It is likely allergies IF:
- The mucus is thin and clear and doesn’t change to a thicker, more yellow colored mucus.
- The stuffy, runny nose last more than a week or so.
- There is no fever associated with the symptoms.
- Your child has itchy, watery eyes.
- The symptoms are worse in the early morning hours or after an extend stint of playing outside.
- Your child has dark circles under their eyes even when fully rested.
- Your child is wiping at his or her eyes and nose frequently.
If you suspect that your child may be suffering seasonal allergies you should make an appointment with their doctor to get them checked out, tested and on the path to relief. The doctor will either do the allergy testing themselves or refer you to an allergist for full testing. The testing will determine what allergens trigger your child’s symptoms and from there the doctor can recommend a course of action to give your child some relief.
Common treatment for seasonal allergies in children include:
- Avoiding outside play during peak pollen time, the early morning hours of about 5am – 10am.
- Washing your child’s clothes, blankets, etc frequently.
- Keeping your home well dusted.
- Using the air conditioner instead of opening windows whenever pollen counts are high.
- Getting rid of any offending plants or trees from your own yard if possible.
- Use of an antihistamine, either over the counter or prescription, as recommended by your child’s doctor.
If you have questions or concerns about your child’s symptoms be sure to contact your child’s doctor to discuss those concerns and determine if your child is indeed suffering from seasonal allergies.
Maya is currently in a love affair with a new book. It is by far her favorite book right now. She reads it at least a dozen times a day and it is always one of the books she picks for our before bed story time. The book is the Dr. Seuss classic, Green Eggs and Ham, better known around our house as the “Sam Ham” book.
I’ve talked before about Maya’s love of reading. Everyday when she gets out of bed the very first thing she does is run over to her book shelf and starts looking at her books and asking me to read her a story. One of the very first books she goes for these days is “Sam Ham”, which is fine by me because it is such a fun story to read 
She loves everything about the book, the pictures, the story, everything.
Not only does Maya love to have us read this book to her but she loves to read it to herself. She will turn each page and examine the pictures while saying “no like sam ham”, this goes on for forty odd pages. When she gets to the second last page she says “oh, I like sam ham” with a big smile on her face. On the very last page she says “thank you thank you sam ham” before closing the book and starting all over again. It is the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve tried my darnedest to get a video of it but she always stops reading as soon as she realizes I’m filming her. This is the best I’ve been able to get so far. She loves her “Sam Ham” book
If you can’t see the video please click here.
Madeline Alice Spohr
November 11, 2007 – April 7, 2009
One year, One Lifetime
One year ago today an awesome little girl was taken from this world too soon.
Her parents were left with empty arms, broken hearts and a lifetime without her.
One year ago today Maddie was called home to heaven.
April 7th will never be the same again.
This day will always be filled with thoughts of a beautiful little girl.
A little girl I never had the pleasure of meeting but who touched my heart.
Today I think about Heather and Mike and hold them in my heart and wish them peace.
Today I think about Maddie’s contagious smile.
Today I think about sweet baby Annie and the fact she’ll never get to meet her
big sister and give her a giant hug and bother her like every
little sister is supposed to do with their big sister.
Today I think about Maddie and wonder what would have been.
Today I think about Heather and Mike and wonder how they do it,
how they make it through each day.
Today I wonder how something like this happens, how a toddler, a baby is allowed
to leave this world so much before her time.
I look at this picture of Maddie and I see light, life, happiness and beauty. I see inspiration.
I see a little girl who did amazing things while she was here and will continue
to do amazing things as long as there are people out there that remember her,
talk about her, and share her story.
Today, in honor of Maddie, Maya and I will wear purple.
We will remember her and talk about her
and love her and hold her family in our hearts and thoughts.
We love you and miss you Maddie. You will never be forgotten.
(photos borrowed from Heather’s flickr stream)
Maya loves to eat, she will try almost any food you put in front of her. She loves food and isn’t afraid to try new things. It hasn’t always been that way though. For a while there I thought we might be destined to deal with an insanely picky eater forever. But somewhere along the way she became transformed into this eating machine
When Maya was about 5 months old I started introducing her to solid foods. I started out with rice cereal as recommended by our pediatrician. She was not impressed by any stretch of the imagination. The face she is making in this photo is one I saw every time I stuck a spoon in her mouth (assuming she would open her mouth and let me put the spoon in, in the first place).
There were very few baby foods she would eat. I could occasionally get her to eat peas, squash, this pre-mixed peach cereal stuff in a jar and prunes, but that was it. She hated applesauce, all baby cereals, and most veggies. For quite sometime she lived on breast milk alone because she wouldn’t even open her mouth to try anything.
Things got a little easier when we introduced finger foods. She loved those Gerber Puffs, the freeze dried yogurt thingys, cheerios and peaches. I think for a while there she would have been happy to live on peaches
We struggled with her eating, or lack there of, for a while. She wouldn’t try anything. The few things she would eat just didn’t cut it as meals and didn’t give her enough of the nutrients she needed. When it finally came time to wean her completely from breastfeeding I was worried that she wasn’t going to get enough to eat, that she would starve because she refused to eat anything.
She didn’t starve. As a matter of fact she started slowly doing much better in the eating department. There were several things we did that helped her, including; not making any meal time a battle, if she wanted to eat great, if not, fine. We continued to provide her lots of healthy options at each meal. I started letting her choose what she was going to eat for breakfast and lunch and we basically just let her control her own eating.
One day I realized that I no longer had a picky eater. Instead my daughter had been transformed into a good eater. She is the type of kid you can take out to dinner with you and not have to worry about what will be on the menu. This past weekend we even took her out for sushi with us. Now, granted, she didn’t much care for the actual sushi but she loved the miso soup and the japanese house salad Watching her eat this weekend I was proud of her for being so willing to try new things. I was proud of us for sticking with it and helping transform her into an amazing little eating machine. She even used chop sticks
Today when I opened my mailbox there was a package from Cafe Press. I have been anxiously awaiting this package since I placed my order with them last week. You see, this package contained two very special t-shirts. The t-shirts Maya and I will wear on April 24th when we proudly walk along side the other members of the March for Maddie St. Louis team. We will walk for Maddie. We will walk with all the other family and friends of Maddie who will be walking all over the country that same day.
When I showed Maya her t-shirt she said “Oh, cute shirt!”
The March of Dimes is an amazing organization and walk for Maddie and raising money in her name for such an amazing cause means a lot to me. Please consider making a donation to the March of Dimes by sponsoring me in this walk. You can just click on the badge above and it will take you to my March for Babies profile, you can make your donation there. Every little bit helps.