Parent Thread

My daughters had simultaneous meltdowns the other day when I took them to the store. It was the first time I have ever been really embarrassed by that sort of thing, they were going crazy, people were staring at me, but I couldn't leave. It was pretty much the worst.

As a foster parent of 3 years, I'm so used to dealing with that shit. Greatest shit ever is to sit down next to them and start doing what they're doing. They generally stop and are like, WTF? Why u do dis?

Kiddo is so congested. When he eats its so labored. But he still puts a smile on his face. Tough to watch.

Its been about 5-6 days now - and prior to that about two weeks ago he caught my cold, got better then went right into this. Poor dude. He doesn't have a fever and is still eating (I actually think we are in the middle of a growth spurt too) well...two nights ago he woke up at 3 am for the first time in several weeks, last night it took us about 1.5 hrs to get him to sleep maybe two...but he stayed down for 9 hours.

So from my perspective a trip to the doctor is not necessary. We are doing booger sucking, steamy rooms, vaporub (baby), humidifier is always on regardless....there isn't anything else to do. We put books under the mattress this morning for him to sleep on a slight incline but that's it. There's nothing a doctor can give me and nothing he can tell me to do beyond what we are already doing.

Feels bad man.

If I had an infant that had been sick for a week, I'd be taking them to the doctor no matter if I thought there was anything they could do or not. Seemingly harmless things can turn bad in a hurry. Go get him looked at.

We'll see how the next day or so goes. I am not all about sitting in the sick waiting room when he just has the above going on. Colds last a while. The duration doesn't really have me terribly concerned.

Product plug for the nosefrida snot sucker here though.

I will call the nurseline tomorrow if they are open.

We were in the exact same boat. Son had a cold, got over it, but really phlemy breathing for over a week after he was done with the cold. We said we'd give it another day or two and then take him in, day 10(?) it was gone.

Guess I'm a terrible parent for not taking him in sooner /shrug

18 month old has croup right now so I'm on a few days of no sleep, kinda sucks. I feel so bad for her, she sounds absolutely terrible. She wants so badly to be happy and play with her sisters but then realizes how crappy she feels and it is just so devastating to her. I keep bringing her in the shower to help break up the congestion and she is just so happy with the hot water on her, just closes her eyes and lays her head on my shoulder.

Cold/flu season sucks. Poor little ones.

OneofOne_sl said:

We were in the exact same boat. Son had a cold, got over it, but really phlemy breathing for over a week after he was done with the cold. We said we'd give it another day or two and then take him in, day 10(?) it was gone.

Guess I'm a terrible parent for not taking him in sooner /shrug

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yeah I think I am in that terrible parent boat with you.

Called the nurse line they were like uh yeah don't bring him in you are doing everything we would tell you to do and you would just expose him to kids in the sick room. He doesn't have a fever, his appetite is above normal, and he took a four hour nap yesterday and was back to his normal sleep thing - 815pm to 715am. They only want me to bring him if i see fever (no), he is eating less (hell no), or isn't sleeping (lol). obviously if new symptoms appear that's a different story.

It did take about 30 mins to put him down last night but that's the way it goes.

4 month sleep regression is going to be such a bitch slap. We have had it so easy with sleeping through the night.

It's an issue if the kid gets sick, gets better, than a week or two later gets sick again (I can't remember if fever was involved). If the pattern like that continues, then it could possibly be ear infection. At least that was our experience. She had to get tubes in her ears when she was 9 months but the ear infections (and sicknesses) went away after that.

So my mother enrolled my son in tumbling classes to let off some steam. Comes home and a day later has strep and foot and mouth infection.

Our daughter had some snot in her nose when she was about 6 weeks old... doctor said if it was green, bring her in. It was.

No fever? Eating fine? Sleeping fine? Just watch her. Nice to give us peace of mind I guess, but it was the most pointless doctor's visit ever. They could have just told us that over the phone like they did with Etoille.

Eyashusa_sl said:

Our daughter had some snot in her nose when she was about 6 weeks old... doctor said if it was green, bring her in. It was.

No fever? Eating fine? Sleeping fine? Just watch her. Nice to give us peace of mind I guess, but it was the most pointless doctor's visit ever. They could have just told us that over the phone like they did with Etoille.

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I REALLY like our pediatrician for the most part. Its a practice of like 8 doctors, a few RNP's, and a couple of lactation consultants. I did some research while pregnant of top pediatricians in the area and it turns out that they were the ones that came up - and are the primary pediatricians for the infants at the hospital where I delivered (they make the rounds/see all the babies). It was started by two guys, one of which worked at Children's in Chicago and when we did the tour the other guy was amazingly approachable and just gave us that great comforting feeling.

There's a couple of pediatricians in there that we arent super in love with (because of the jaundice for the first few weeks we were in there so often we literally saw everyone) but we have our top three and schedule with those when at all possible.

They aren't accepting older kids anymore - only way to get into the practice is with an infant. They're insanely booked all.the.time. for well/routine visits. They do drop in hours every morning m-f and commit to seeing EVERYONE that comes in that day if you show up at that time. Also - Saturday office hours as well.

And they aren't alarmist either. Like it wasn't immediately OMG LIGHTS for the bilirubin/jaundice issue. Or like today when they said no keep him home. They aren't interested in bringing folks in unnecessarily - they are so busy that they don't really have to be worrying about the money. They keep growing and growing and growing but in the times we've been in there it doesn't feel huge.

Now I have to make the call as to what to do with the kiddo. He's been asleep for 2 hours now and its 15 mins til bedtime routine should start. We put him down in the swing with the vacuum because he hadn't taken a big nap yet so we wanted something longer than 45 mins....and now he just wants to sleep it seems. Thinking of taking him upstairs for a dream feeding and seeing if he wakes up. I won't intentionally wake him but if he does happen to wake up great. He hasn't seen his daycare girlfriend since Thurs and he needs to be rested and look great tomorrow! (So wake up little dude for your bath!)

Bit of a serious question here.

So I walk my daughter to school each morning and pick her up in my car each afternoon. Every day, there is this older man (guessing 60s) that walks along the same route we do. I have never seen this man with a a child so I don't believe he is a parent/grandparent. Most mornings he stops across from the school and stands there for about 5 minutes watching the school then turns around and walks back the direction he came from. Every afternoon he walks to the school and in the afternoon he often walks around the school. He never speaks to any children as far as I have seen, but just stands there watching the kids.

Now I might understand the morning thing. Some old guy taking a walk around the same time every morning. But he does it at dismissal time too. And not only that, but he is there on Wednesday afternoons for early dismissal too.

It is really starting to creep me out. I don't know if should say something, or who I should say something to... I even went as far as to look at the registered sex offenders list in our area because I've been freaking out a bit.

Any advice?

Some old people just like to watch children. I don't know, if it is weird to you then strike up a conversation with him, mention you see him here a lot, etc. Social engineer some info out of him. There are some old guys who go to the park I take my girls to and they just watch the kids and hang out, to me it doesn't seem weird.

I live across from an elementary school and we also had a guy who would just come out and "keep an eye" on things when school was in session. He did manage to report some guy who was exposing himself to kids so he did help out the neighborhood. It was kind of weird, but I figure the chances of him just being overbearing are way higher than the chances of him being a pedophile or something.

I would ask the school if they've noticed or had anyone else ask about this person.

If not I would call the police if you are really nervous.

chaos_sl said:

Some old people just like to watch children. I don't know, if it is weird to you then strike up a conversation with him, mention you see him here a lot, etc.

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This. Before going to the police or any other extreme measure, just talk to the guy.

At my son's school there is a retired police officer who lives just down the street. He walks over and watches the entire morning routine every day (buses coming in, parents dropping off). This is apparently something he arranged with the school. He has a direct line to the police hotline for any trouble at schools, so he's just one more set of eyes. Trained eyes. He volunteers his time, and he provides a pretty good service. In addition to being a direct line to the police, he's always there, everyone knows it, and so that's a deterrent in itself.

So, before coming to the conclusion that it's shady behaviour, check it out. Please understand, I'm not criticising your reaction whatsoever. The entirely natural reaction to situations involving your children is to be protective. Well done, you're being a parent. That gut reaction can lead to unfortunate situations, so we all need to exercise caution.

I'm really hoping old dude in front of your daughter's school is doing something awesome.

My 10.5 month old son is now on his 3rd cold - and he's never been in any kind of childcare. Is this normal?