To medicate...or not medicate..

Kenzie is ill again. Since moving to the Midwest, all she’s done is be ill. I used to think it was all that breast milk that helped her avoid the colds. I never got sick either, nor did Doug. Doug and I weren’t breast milk babies – so we credited our fantabulous immune systems. I figured Kenzie had earned a free ride from the colds by consuming my immunities. Wrong..

Last night we were desperate for some relief from the current cold – so we were looking for some online proof that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed (when she woke up at 10:00 from coughing furiously). We read that the typical child gets 8-15 colds a year. 8-15???!!! We read that it’s “normal” for children to seem like they are always sick. Kenzie had two runny noses before moving here. They didn’t even count as full-fledged colds!! And, now we have seen constant running nose, sore throat, red itchy blood shot eyes, kleenex burn under the nose... and I’ve stepped away from my refusal of medication and medicated the child. I’ve even medicated myself!!

I still don’t know what it is that kept Kenzie from being ill the first two years of her life – maybe it was the California sun. Maybe it was sheer luck. Who knows. But, Doug and I have been sick, sick, & sick again.. too. The life changing stressors must have gotten to us all.......

Never has my heart been so sad as to watch our poor child be ill. It is the most hopeless feeling to not be able to make her feel better. She’s not one to sleep longer when she’s sick. If anything, she sleeps MUCH less. Which makes her cranky. Which makes us all sad, tired and cranky. Which makes the medication make sense. There must be comfort to be found somewhere?? Cold medicine seemed to be the only option.

So, this morning, I learned another lesson. Cold meds make her CrAzY. Her little personality warped into an unhappy and categorically violent toddler. She threw the phone AT the mirror AND at the TV. ON PURPOSE. She obviously has a lot to say about being ill, and throwing objects at other objects that could be expensive to replace is the only way of saying it. Here’s hoping that she meets her quota of colds for the season soon, and falls way shy of the 8-15 prediction (& that there isn’t any make-up illnesses forthcoming for being so healthy for the past two years!!)

Get better baby girl!!
**Which reminds me that Kenzie has also begun informing us that she is “NOT a BABY. I a KENZIE.” We tend to call her “baby girl” a lot, especially when we are trying to comfort her. She's not fond of that.