So Addy has now officially contracted her first virus. It all started on Wednesday with Brynlee as the fish crackers she ate that morning did not want to stay down; rather they wanted to end up on our white carpet. After one day and a low grade fever, Brynlee recovered nicely with minimal vomiting episodes.
Addyson was another story. The day after Brynlee's emesis episodes, I knew Addy was next seeing as Brynlee felt it necessary to allow Addy to suck on her right big toe for extended periods of time for no reason other than she said it made her feel better. 
Weather it was the precipitating factor, I know not. But I do know that the next day Addy was tossing her cookies all day long, every hour on the hour. She looked miserable as she just lay on her blanket ready for the next wave of vomiting to arrive. Fearing dehydration, we pumped bubble gum flavored Pedialyte into her via bottle and hoped for the best. Gratefully, she came out of it with a low grade fever as well that passed in 24 hours.
All this vomiting reminded me of an experience when I was a kid. I believe I was 8 or 9 years old and my brother woke in the middle of the night, he being 6 years my senior, and proceeded to regurgitate, from the top bunk, all over our room. I remember marveling, even at my young age, how much of our room he could hit from the aerial advantage point. My good parents woke that night, I assume somewhere in the time of 2-3am, offered comfort to my brother, woke me up seeing as my brother's episode did not seem to rouse me from my deep slumber, and proceeded to tackle the arduous task of cleaning out vomit from shag carpeting. For days and days our room stank of bile and vomit, so much so that my brother and I slept in the living room as we let our room air out. I appreciate now more than then how much love a father and mother must have if they are to wake in the middle of the night and clean up after their sick kid.
Thus, after this week I have learned four things:
1. Why is there no flavored-COLORLESS-pedialyte out there?
2. Teaching a child how to throw up in a bucket in invaluable.
3. Krista is becoming an expert carpet cleaner as she has now added partially digested fish crackers, apple sauce, and breast milk to her repertoire of items to extract from light colored carpeting.
4. If I were to take my pick of body product to clean up, I would choose vomit over diarrhea any day.
3 comments:
YUCK! Let me guess, gastroenteritis? Yeah, Lyndon went through the vomiting and diarrhea too - so much so that he ended up in ER with an IV. Then Karen got it, then Charlotte got it. Thankfully, I haven't gotten it and the rest of the family is pulling out of it. Here's a few of the lessons we've learned in addition to those you listed:
(1) Wood floors are invaluable when it comes to cleaning up bodily fluids off of flooring; (2) if children have a choice between throwing up on wood floors and carpeting, they'll choose carpeting every time; (3) teaching your child to throw up in a bucket is easier said than done; (4) it's nice to have one fully-functioning, healthy adult on hand during bouts of family illness. Sorry you all had to go through that mess. We certainly can empathize with your plight!
Oh my gosh! What a bad few days! I thought I would share too, that walgreen's has a generic colorless, flavored pedialyte (for next time!) why pedialyte has not figured this out I do not know...
I believe they have Parent's Choice Pedialite at Walmart that is clear. Also cheaper :)
Post a Comment