Extra Smooches

This story fall into the category of Things You Judge Other Parents For Before You Actually Have Kids.

A family we are friends with is constantly sick with a stomach bug.  The cumulative amount of puking that has taken place in that household in the 5 years since their oldest child was born gives me the heeby-jeebies.  I have always thought, "What is the deal with those people?  Have they not heard of handwashing?"  I always assumed that either their infection control practices are very poor, or that the whole lot of them have a rare defect in their DNA that predisposes them to gastoenteritis.

And now, here i am in the midst of the BabyGirl's very first sick tummy. 

When The Professor or the BabyGirl get sick, i morph into Conan the Destroyer.  The old Emergency Room adrenaline gets flowing and i start muttering things like, "This patient isn't going to die on my watch." 

This sick tummy is of the lower GI category, aka diarrhea.  Or, as The Professor described it to me on the phone while i was at work, "acid diarrhea."  I'll spare you further details, but it is heartbreaking.  Her poor little bottom was in a lot of distress.  I needed to stop by the grocery on my way home from work anyway, so while i was there i picked up some sick tummy supplies.  I thought to myself, "Why couldn't this be a cold instead?"  It's easier to psych yourself up mentally to deal with a cold.  You get out the humidifier and the bulb suction and the vaporub and get down to business.

The Professor did a fabulous job of nuturing her thru Day 1, during which she wouldn't eat anything.  By the end of the day she was weak and listless and so tragically snuggly.  Snuggly is always good, but when they want to snuggle because they're sick there's just something eery about it.  She tried to play with a toy, realized she didn't have it in her, heaved a big sigh, and laid her head down on his lap.

I am on duty for Day 2.  Our treatment plan involves Pedialyte, jello, snuggling, and extra smooches (above and beyond her normal daily quota).  She still doesn't want to eat, but we did manage to progress from liquids to toast!  In the early afternoon she looked like she was making a comeback, but it was a false alarm because she had lots of trouble in the evening.  It all started to unravel after her afternoon nap.  I felt like i didn't have time to take care of her because i was too busy taking care of her!  We even tried to break the rules and do things she normally isn't allowed to do, but that didn't work either.

I used to think that if a baby\young child gets a GI bug, then the mother is personally to blame.  It obviously was a result of a lapse in Contact Precautions.  Once a child is school-age then all bets are off, but while they are home under your care it is your job to protect them.  But now, despite my best efforts, my BabyGirl has a sick tummy.  I can't think of a single place where she would have gotten it, and i've spent WAY too much time analyzing this.  Nonetheless, no stomach bug is a match for Mommy the Destroyer!