I need cold & flu season to go.

Winter months can be tough with everyone in the house getting sick. I have to say, outside of the stomach flu, Brian and I did pretty well. I think Brian maybe had 2-3 colds, which for someone who is on an airplane every single week I’d say that is pretty impressive. I basically get sick when my vitamins run out, I kid you not. If I stop taking them for a day or 2, which is unintentional, I get sick. I actually recently signed up for ritual, a subscription for women’s multivitamins and prenatal so it’s harder for me to run out of vitamins when they show up at my door each month.

I feel like any time McKenzie gets a runny nose, I blame teething. At her 21 month appointment, the doctor said she had 4 teeth coming in and said “Good Luck”. But I feel like those 4 teeth are not even fully in yet, that was 2 months ago! So, anytime she is mean or has a runny nose, she is teething 😀 Back in November, McKenzie got croup for the first time. Man was that scary. Thank God Brian was home that morning because I was panicking. We had put her down for bed on a Friday night and I noticed she sounded congested and her nose was runny. Brian had said she was extra snuggly that day so I thought great, she is getting sick. Around 5AM, I heard McKenzie gasping for air. I thought that is it I am going in there. I went in her room and the poor thing is shaking and has a high pitched breathing sound. I yelled for Brian and started to take her clothes and sleep sack off to help cool her down. Her cough was so intense, she sounded like a dog barking. The combination of all of these things I thought let’s please go to the hospital.

I was in tears as we were getting dressed to bring her. Brian looked at me and said “you have to pull yourself together, she will be fine”. Brian dropped McKenzie and I to check in while he parked, and the attendants who checked us in were like oh, it sounds like croup. I thought oh if they know this then she will be fine. That honestly relaxed me a bit when they were very casual about it. But anytime McKenzie cried, I couldn’t help but to cry. I can only imagine how parents feel when their little ones are going through real deal illnesses, so God Bless all of those parents out there who are strong for their little ones.

They did give her a steroid to help with the stridor that she had, this definitely helped and we were able to go home after 3 hours of them monitoring her. I am glad we took her to the hospital for that case because that stridor was scary and the steroid was able to calm her symptoms. Other then that, for croup you are suppose to open the windows and allow them to breathe cool air or turn a steamy shower on for them. Fluids are also really important but other then that there isn’t much that can be done. Luckily, Mckenzie’s eating habits don’t change too much when she is sick but I usually give her something I know she will love.

I am obviously not a doctor, but McKenzie did get croup last week again. On Monday night, I put her to bed and I could hear her deep cough starting to intensify. It was about 11:30 and she kept waking up crying with the deep barking cough. Brian was on the road so I told him I think she has croup so I’m going to grab her and bring her in our bed. I opened my window, turned up my humidifier and plopped up my pillows before I grabbed her. The sound of her symptoms this time around were no where near as scary as the first time. I just pulled her into my bed so that I could try and get her to sleep upright. This didn’t work very well. McKenzie was stimulated by the clock lights, street lights and just the thought of being in my bed after an hour. I tried to get her comfortable and back to sleep for another hour but it just wasn’t working. Then I kept dosing off and she was sitting up staring at me in the face and said “mama”!!!! I gave up around 2:00 AM and we went back into her room. I got her to lay face down and I just patted her back and held her hand. I laid on her floor until about 3 and just left her door open and went back to my room.

We did take her to the doctor the next day just to double check that everything was OK. We basically just tried to get her to lay low and watch TV or color for a few days after because the cough would just get worse if she ran around. The Doctor did say croup is common and it’s common for healthy kids to get 12 colds a year. We definitely hit that. I usually wait 2 weeks now after a runny nose or cough to take her to the doctor if it doesn’t seem serious. I also worry that she will catch something worse at the doctor than she already has. If it lasts 2-3 weeks I just worry about ear infections so I bring her in.

I guess kids are just more prone to getting sick if they are teething. It’s been so nice out recently so I have taken McKenzie to the park a few times and to a few play places. Yesterday after her nap, McKenzie woke up with tons of eye goop. I’ve had pink eye before, so I knew immediately that’s what it was. We took her to the doctor today and he confirmed she has pink eye and an ear infection of course. We will play low the next few days, but man after the last 3 weeks I am so ready for summer and for her to stop getting sick!

How do you guys handle when your kiddo is sick? Where do you draw the line to take them to the doctor? What about when you have multiple kids, do you try and keep them away from each other? Leave a comment on my Instagram post!