Sick Vacation

Vacations, some times planned a year or more in advance can be highly anticipated and fraught with stress not only in the planning but in the doing.

Last year my husband and I booked a hotel for our selves and our son, and preregistered for a convention we had gone to a number of times during our baby free years.  That year the wind was at an all time high and what we like to call convention crud was plaguing many of the attendees. Our son included. (He got sick the first night of our trip.)  He had a runny nose and was about half a year old.  Needless to say he hadn't mastered the art of blowing his nose.  And our doctor told us that infants were not old enough to be permitted decongestants
 because fatalities had ocured in the past.  So nasal sprays and suction devices were set to the task of improving our sons ability to use his nose.  He hated it, it worked but he couldn't get past the discomfort of it to allow us to do this easily.  He would thrash and scream while we did our best to clear his nasal passages, and then looked at us utterly bewildered when he could once again breathe through his nose.  For that entire vacation my husband and I took turns staying in the hotel room looking after our sick child.

This year we planned the same trip.  And again we are dealing with a sick child.  His nose is blessedly fine.  Sadly this bout of un-wellness began with a disinterest in solid foods followed by throwing up liquids and a mild fever.  The doctor gave us medicine and marching orders but maintained that unless the fever got higher he would not need to be seen. So again we are doing our best to keep the boy comfortable.  I know he doesn't like to take his medicine but thankfully I have a one-and-a-half-year-old who listens to me when I tell him "This is medicine and it is important that you eat this to get well."  Grudgingly he opens his mouth and swallows that which the doctor has prescribed.

And while it's no picnic having a sick toddler it is nothing compared to the nightmare of having a sick infant.  A toddler is better able to understand what you say and better able to express what he wants than an infant who can really only cry. (Which would make him have a runny nose which would in turn make him more upset.)

I remember the first three conventions I went to I got disgustingly sick, so I suppose it's no surprise that my son gets to have the fun of building up his immune system while on vacation.  With any luck he will be like me and my now much more impressive immune system.  Germs are everywhere and there are only so many ways we can teach our bodies to kill germs.  But on the plus side the body does learn.

And to be clear.  As a mom I hate to see my child sick.  But I can't keep him in a sterile environment all his life.  If I did he would never build up the immunities that so many adults take for granted.  It's a hard process but I'll see him through it.