So, just how did I find myself in this most uncomfortable position at 2:30am this morning?  Well let me tell you…

Tuesday Maya started coming down with a bit of a cold.  She was getting sniffly and was a bit irritable.  Then yesterday she woke up with a raging fever, her body was definitely in full battle mode.  We spent the day quietly at home, resting.  It seemed to do the trick and by the time she got up from her nap her fever seemed to be gone and she was in a much better mood.  I thought we were out of the woods.  That was until the fever kicked back in just before bed.

When I put Maya to bed last night I knew there was a possibility that the night would be a rough one since she was going to sleep with a fever and really stuffy.  Sure enough at 2:00am I woke to the sounds of her crying.  I went to her room and she told me she had to pee.  As I reached down to help her out of bed I could feel the heat radiating from her.  I knew before I touched her that her fever had kicked into high gear.  When I touched her skin the heat was unbelievable.  I took her to the bathroom so she could pee and I could take her temperature.  I gasped when I saw the number flash up on the screen, 104.2, holy cow.  That is by far the highest fever she has ever had, EVER.  I was scared, and worried and just wanted to make her feel better.  After rubbing her down with a cool wet cloth and dosing her with Tylenol again we headed back to her bedroom.

I tucked her in, kissed her and started to leave the room when I heard a tiny little whisper “Mommy sleep with me little bit”.  It broke my heart and I couldn’t say no.  I mean who could resist such a request in the middle of the night, not to mention my fried nerves and worried heart needed the reassurance of laying there next to her.  So, I crawled into her bed, one leg still on the floor and rubbed her arm as she fell asleep.  I listened to her sniffle and whimper and just wished her temperature would go down and she could get some rest.  Slowly the sniffles turned into the soft rhythmic breathing of sleep.

I stayed with her for about half an hour, curled up in that way too small bed in the most uncomfortable position possible because I knew she needed me there, and because I needed to be there.  I needed to feel the temperature of her body begin to cool, I need to hear her soft breathing to reassure myself that everything was okay.

Toddler beds may not be comfortable but sometimes the comfort of our heart is more important than the comfort of our body.

In most cases a fever is nothing to worry about.  Children’s bodies fight infection differently than an adult’s body does.  Often times they will come down with a slight fever while fighting the common cold.  As long as the fever doesn’t get too high and is easily managed with over the counter fever reducers you likely don’t have anything to worry about.  However, you should keep an eye out for the following, as they are signs that it is time to call your doctor:

• If your child is under the age of 3 months old and has a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher.
• If your child is between the ages of 3 months and 6 months and has a temperature of 101 degrees or higher
• If your child is over 6 months of age and is running a temperature of 103 degrees or higher.
• You aren’t able to control or bring down your child’s temperature using over the counter fever reducers.
• Your child has unusual symptoms along with a fever such as sleepiness, irritability, difficulty breathing, red or purple spots, or any other troubling symptoms.
• Your child’s fever last more than a few days.
• Anytime your child has a fever and you are unsure.

Our pediatrician’s office recommends calling whenever there is a fever involved as a nurse is always available to run through symptoms with us and give advice.  I love that about her.  Most pediatricians and family doctors will say the same thing.  When there is a fever involved it is always best to err on the side of caution and make the call.  Fevers, though often nothing, can be warning signs of something else going on, so if in doubt call the doctor.

If you are unsure of how to try your child’s fever talk to your child’s doctor for medication and dosage recommendations.

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.

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)

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

Please say a prayer and send healing thoughts to the Marsh family today as they begin the process of saying good-bye to their beloved daughter and sister.  Hug your children extra close today as you think of an amazingly strong little girl who taught us all the power of love and community in her short little life.

Please visit LaylaGrace.org to learn more about Layla and leave a quick message for the Marsh family, they need our love and support right now.

*photo borrowed from the Marsh’s Flickr stream.

For children with life threaten nut allergies the consequences can be devastating if they inadvertently eat something that contains nuts.  My daughter has an epi-pen that we can use if she happens to have an anaphylactic reaction, but still.  The best approach to helping avoid potentially dangerous exposure to nuts is to teach your child from a very young age what to ask and what foods to avoid so they can be their own advocate.

We’ve already started teaching Maya that she can’t eat nuts.  She is still to young to really get it, but slowly I see it sinking in.  Sometimes I say she can’t have something at the store and she’ll respond by saying “ya, nuts, no nuts.”  I guess after hearing it so many times she’s starting to get it.

A few of the things I’ve started doing already to help Maya learn about her nut allergy and what she needs to do are:

• Telling her whenever I can why she can’t eat something.  If she can’t have a piece of chocolate or a cookie because it may contain nuts I tell her that.
• Telling her that she can’t eat nuts and why.  I try to explain that nuts are dangerous for her and her body will have a bad reaction if she eats them.
• Showing her what nuts look like and telling her she can’t eat them so that she will recognize them if someone offers one to her.

A few things we plan on doing as Maya gets a little older to help her learn what to ask and what to avoid:

• Teach her to ask if something has nuts.
• Continuing to teach her about the foods she must avoid and those she needs to be careful about.
• Teach her to use her epi-pen when she is old enough.
• Teach her to tell people who are offering her food that she is allergic to nuts so hopefully they will help her avoid dangerous foods.

I think that teaching your child to be their own advocate is very important.   You tell those caring for your children about the nut allergy, how to use the epi-pen, etc, but teaching your child about their allergy and making them an advocate for themselves creates another line of defense.

Do you have a child with a food allergy?  What things have you done with your child to help teach them about their food allergies?  Have you found some things work better than others?

However, toddlers can have their own challenges in the poop department.  One of those being toddler diarrhea.  Toddler diarrhea is pretty much an otherwise unexplainable bout of diarrhea.  There is no real cause or underlying medical condition for toddler diarrhea, but many things can trigger it.  In most cases parents and doctors won’t know exactly what caused the diarrhea and things will eventually return to normal on their own.

There are a few things that are thought to set off toddler diarrhea including a change in diet or eating happens, an unrelated illness like a cold (especially if it caused changes in appetite and eating habits), or too much fruit or fruit juice.  Most toddlers will seem unfazed by the diarrhea and will continue to eat normally and gain weight normally.  For the most part there is no real treatment for toddler diarrhea other than a few diet changes.  Most doctors recommend keep their diet fairly bland, eliminating dairy (except for yogurt, which can help with digestive issues) and using a probiotic to help get things back on track.

My daughter is just getting over a case of toddler diarrhea.  She had a cold last week and by the end of the week had pretty bad diarrhea.  We took her to the doctor because she wanted to make sure she didn’t have an ear infection or anything.  Other than a little bit of nasal irritation from her cold the doctor found nothing.  She was diagnosed with unexplained diarrhea (or toddler diarrhea) and off we went with a recommendation to stick with a bland diet for a while and a week’s worth of probiotic samples.  4 days later and (knock on wood) she seems to be over her diarrhea.

If your toddler has diarrhea and no other symptoms to indicate they are ill you may find that they just have a bout of toddler diarrhea.  Call your child’s doctor to determine if he or she wants to see your child and to find out what they recommend for treating toddler diarrhea.  If the diarrhea continues or your child appears to be dehydrated call your doctor right away.  Dehydration is common with diarrhea and can be dangerous if it goes untreated.

All it takes it one trip to the thermometer section of your local store to see how endless the options are.  There are so many different ways to take your child’s temperature, so many different types of devices, just so many choices.  When faced with all these options it can be difficult to make a decision on what thermometer is the right thermometer for you.  As I’ve learned with my own daughter you often have to try a few different types before you find one that best meets your family’s needs.

As you stand in the thermometer aisle and stare at all the available options how do you make a choice, how do you pick just one (or even 2) thermometer to bring home with you?  It all boils down to what you are looking for, what type of thermometer you want, how you want to take your child’s temperature and how accurate you want the reading to be.  To help boil down the basics I’ve listed the various available options below including what part of the body they read the temperature from, how accurate they are and a few pros and cons.

Rectal Thermometers: Rectal thermometers will give you the most accurate reading of your child’s temperature.  However, rectal thermometers are not for everyone. Older children will not appreciate having their temperature taken this way and many parents are comfortable using them.  They work best on smaller children, particularly babies.  If you are looking for the most accurate reading and don’t mind taking your child’s temperature rectally than this is the option for you.

Oral Thermometers: Oral thermometers are probably some of the most common, this is how my mom always took our temperature as children.  The accuracy of the oral thermometers is good, if used correctly (meaning your child keeps it below their tongue the whole time).  The oral thermometers offer convenience, you don’t have to take their clothing off to get a reading, and they are often quick (especially the newer varieties).  However, young children, especially babies and toddlers, may have trouble using them as they need to be able to keep the thermometer under their tongue.  If you are looking for fairly good accuracy, convenience and your child is old enough to keep the thermometer under their tongue than this may be the right choice for you.

Armpit Thermometers: Armpit thermometers are convenient and do provide fairly accurate readings, however, it is easy to get a false reading if the room is too cold or your child doesn’t keep their arm down until the reading is complete.  If you have a small child and you aren’t comfortable with the rectal thermometer than armpit thermometers are a good alternative, just remember that the accuracy isn’t going to be as good.  Many doctors recommend adding 1 degree to the reading to get a better idea of what your child’s temperature is.

Ear Thermometers: Ear thermometers offer a very quick, convenient way to measure your child’s temperature, however, their accuracy isn’t the greatest.  With small children it can be difficult to get the ear piece situated properly to get an accurate reading.  That being said it is a great way to tell if your child is running a fever and you can always use another type of thermometer later if you need a more accurate reading.   This is the type of thermometer I use with my daughter because it allows me to get a reading of her temperature quickly without upsetting her too much.

Forehead Thermometers: Forehead thermometers, like the ear thermometer mentioned above, offer a very quick, comfortable, convenient way to take your child’s temperature.  Their readings, again like the ear thermometers, are not incredibly accurate.  The biggest downside to the forehead thermometers is the price.  They cost significantly more than the other options out there.

As you can see your options are endless.  Not only are their at least 5 different types of thermometers but there will be endless options within each type.  Your best bet is to decide where on the body you are most comfortable taking your child’s temperature (and which option they are old enough to use) and go from there.  You will likely end up with several different types.  I have 3 different thermometers at my house, an ear thermometer, one that does both oral and underarm readings and another that does just oral readings.

If you have questions about which type thermometer you should purchase try talking to your child’s pediatrician to see what they recommend, you could also talk with your pharmacist or your friends and family with children to get their opinions as well.

Happy thermometer shopping

Halloween is just around the corner.  I feel like summer just ended and already we are in the midst of fall and trick-or-treating time is upon us.  I like Halloween.  All the decorations, seeing all the adorable kids in their costumes, giving out candy on Halloween night.  As parents we want our kids to have a great time, enjoy themselves, but stay safe all at the same time.

Halloween is a time for kids to dress up and have a great time trick-or-treating with their friends.  A time for them to use their imaginations, have fun and enjoy being a kid.  What kid doesn’t love Halloween?  As parents we play an important role in making sure our kids have a safe and happy Halloween.  It is our job to help them use their creativity to pick out a great costume while making sure that costume is safe and appropriate.  It is our job to teach them about the important safety tips that will keep them safe and healthy as they venture out for some trick-or-treating.

As your kids get ready to celebrate Halloween in a few days here are a few important safety tips to keep in mind.

• Make sure your child’s costume is safe.  Masks can be dangerous as your child can’t see well out of them.  If they will be wearing a mask make sure the eye holes are big enough for good visibility.  Also, be sure there aren’t any long pieces hanging down around their feet that could pose a trip hazard.
• Teach your child about appropriate Halloween behavior including; what houses are okay to visit, stranger rules, staying in a group, etc.
• Always have a responsible adult available to accompany your children out trick-or-treating.  They may feel like they are old enough to go out on their own, but having an adult present helps keep them safe.
• Explain to your child that he or she should not eat any of the candy they collect until they have brought it home and allowed you to examine it.
• Consider the weather in your area.  If it is cold where you are make sure your children are dressed appropriately.
• Set guidelines for how long they are allowed to stay out, how many homes they can visit, etc.

The most important thing is to make sure your child understands the rules and what will make this a safe and happy Halloween.  Let them enjoy themselves while keeping a careful eye on them to ensure they are safe.