Sick baby.

[rivka]

Yesterday after dinner, Alex had about one degree of fever. She seemed pretty miserable - clingy, fussy - so we dosed her with Tylenol. She was cool and comfortable by bedtime and went right to sleep, but I left the bottle of Tylenol on the attic steps just in case, a dose pre-measured in the dropper.

She slept until 5:30 and woke up crying. I went upstairs and tried rubbing her back and giving her the pacifier. Then I picked her up and sat down with her in the glider. Hot baby. Hot forehead, hot legs, just a sad feverish girl as she buried her head into my shoulder. She opened her mouth obediently for the medicine dropper and then clung to me.

I rocked her for about twenty minutes, and then poured her back into bed. She was mostly asleep and made not a sound with the transfer. Just now I heard a whimper upstairs, and then silence.

Poor little girl. I am worried that she felt so hot so early, given that fever is usually lowest in the morning and rises through the day. I'm glad this is Michael's day to stay home with her - no matter how good your nanny is, when you're sick you want your parents.

Comments

[redbird23.livejournal.com]

Any updates from Michael on how she's doing? This is one of those parenting times I'm not looking forward to. I hate it when Jon is sick and there isn't much I can do for him, I figure it will be much worse when it's our baby.

Thinking get well thoughts for her, and you.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

when you're sick you want your parents.

yes. but when i am sick i am usually not smart enough to pick up the phone and say "moooooooom! moooooom!".

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Still running a fever, but not a high one - it's hovering around 100. After sleeping until 7:45 (after the 5:30 wakening), she went down for her nap just three hours later. So she's obviously not feeling well at all. He's pouring fluids into her.

I think we'll be cancelling our plans to go to story hour tomorrow, which is especially sad because I'll only have one other chance to go before I start working on Fridays. But it would be irresponsible to take her around other children, even if she does perk up by morning.

fever

[(Anonymous)]

Remember that babies and young children run much higher fevers than adults, so the low numbers you are getting aren't scary. As long as she remains relatively asymptomatic(albeit, sleepy)I wouldn't feel at all irresponsible taking her around other children at story hour. You both enjoy it, and it will do you good!

Re: fever

[rivka.livejournal.com]

If she were truly asymptomatic, I might. But it's pretty obvious that she feels lousy. Yesterday evening and this morning, she kept crawling into my lap and putting her head down on my shoulder. And she's been fussy. And on the lethargic side. It's a low enough fever that I don't feel any need to call her doctor, but I believe that she is genuinely sick, and probably contagious.

If she seems to feel well enough to go out tomorrow, we'll go to the park. That way she can have an outing without putting anyone else at risk. This is most likely a harmless bug for a healthy child like Alex, but I have no idea whether any of the children who attend story hour, or their parents, are immunocompromised.

[journeywoman.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it's an ear infection? E was feverish and lethargic last fall, and that's what it turned out to be. He didn't pull at his ear or anything like that, so we didn't know what it was till we brought him to the doctor and she examined his ears. His temp was up around 102, though.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Yikes. Poor little guy. Yeah, I wouldn't have expected an ear infection in that case either.

Had he had a cold first? My mother told me that ear infections almost never occur without some sort of upper respiratory problem first, but I've never, you know, actually checked that out.

[journeywoman.livejournal.com]

He'd had a cold, but it was pretty much gone by the time he got the ear infection.

I'd assumed since I don't like the taste of antibiotics that he wouldn't either, so we spent the first couple of days dosing him by squirting it at the inside of his cheeks. He reacted accordingly by struggling and spitting it out. Then we started letting him suck the syringe, and wow, he LOVED it.

But then, this is also the kid who begs for unflavored fluoride drops, which are horribly bitter. He got his hands on the bottle once and I caught him walking around the house sucking on fluoride. No accounting for tastes, I suppose.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

But then, this is also the kid who begs for unflavored fluoride drops, which are horribly bitter.

Alex has happily eaten a lemon wedge. We were at a restaurant, and she grabbed at the lemon wedge they'd brought for my tea. I warned her that she probably wouldn't like it. And she sure showed me - she sucked out the entire inside.