Andrea's Adventures in Binkyland

Care & Feeding of Sick Baby

Sasha is now on Day 7 of a 10-day course of antibiotics for her pneumonia. I was bemused and a little surprised when she slurped down the first dose; but then again, the stuff does look and smell like a tasty orange-yogurt smoothie. And there is a precedent -- after a period of struggle, she now sucks down Infant's Tylenol with an eagerness one expects from a heroin junky getting her next fix. After that first dose, though, it turned into a pitched battle.

She thrashes, she wails (but with her jaw clenched shut) she whips her head from side to side and wiggles and blocks her face with her hands. I have found two ways to get the drug into her. This is the first method: I can lie her on her back, on the floor, with her head to me. I sit on the floor, holding her body and legs down with my legs, and squeezing her head between my thighs to keep it still. I then have two hands free to pry her mouth open and squirt medicine as far back into her mouth as I can. And then blow in her face so she swallows. This is a method that has achieved much success, and I have also used it for tooth-brushing.

However, I'm also having luck holding her cradle-style, with one of her arms behind my back, and the cradling arm both holding her other hand and locking her head into immobility between my shoulder and wrist. I wait until she opens her mouth a little too wide when she cries, and then squirt the medicine as far down her throat as I can, with the face blowing &c. This has surprisingly resulted in less spitting-out and misfiring than the first method, and is currently my favorite.

Sasha has suffered under her course of medication, in a variety of ways. First, it so upset her stomach that we changed the dosage on Day 4. Unfortunately for me, this meant changing her frequency (and accompanying struggle) from twice to three times a day. She is also now suffering from a monumentally bad diaper rash. It shows a lot of the signs of a classic yeast diaper rash, and I am treating it very carefully to avoid thrush, which is frankly one more problem I don't need. Sasha now has Prescription Diaper Rash Cream.

She's also not eating much in the way of fruits or vegetables at the moment; it's the all-Cheerios-all-the-time diet. I imagine her appetite will get back to normal when she's off the antibiotic and her stomach settles down a bit more. In the meantime, I'm trying to work out the specifics of what she should and shouldn't be exposed to, depending on the results of her allergy testing, which we will hopefully get back in a couple of weeks.

Despite her many health issues, Sasha is really doing quite well. She stands without support for up to 40 seconds at a time (though doesn't seem interested in walking). She says these words, though not necessarily clearly enough for anyone but us to understand: mama, dada, hi, no, that, up, down, cat. She is a pro at shaking her head no and at pointing at things she wants. She has FOUR teeth! She is learning important and valuable social skills, such as hitting and biting. We are very proud.

I suppose we should start letting her have actual dishes and silverware so that she will someday know how to use a spoon. But no hurry.

Today, I attended to various personal grooming tasks of hers we had been neglecting. For example, I clipped her razor-sharp little talons for the first time in, oh, weeks. Also, we took a Drastic Step. Since Sasha no longer approves of her little top-knot ponytail and pulls it out posthaste, her hair gets in her way and accumulates an unpleasant crust of food and baby snot. Therefore, today, we cut her hair. She took an immediate cuteness hit, because, well, the bangs are just a bit too short, but she got sweaty later and they curled up again and restored some of her cuteness. Hopefully in a week or two we will be back to optimal cuteness levels.

My kitchen is: really quite messy. I've not attended to it in quite some time, being home with Sick Baby and all. It will likely be a few days yet until I can get to it, and hopefully ease into a regular routine again.

Posted by andrea at June 29, 2003 09:57 PM