Antibiotics for Ear Infections

The "new" recommendation for ear infections is the "watch and see" method.  We are not to rush our children into the doctors office for treatment.  Ear infections can and often do (I have read...) go away on their own.

Well I watched and I saw my daughters eardrum rupture.  Also something that seems to be recommended by some sites as no big deal.  I read MayoClinic, WebMD, Medline Plus, and AskDrSears.  No conclusive information on this topic.  Some suggest to wait to bring your child in until s/he has severe pain (Faye seemed to have that instantaneous), some said if you see blood coming from the ear after rupture, some said if your eardrum ruptures there will be clear fluid, blood, and even pus, but with no other recommendations.

I've got to tell you though... I've decided this "watch and see" bit is not for me.  At least not for Faye.  She had an infection in the opposite ear in Feb.  We brought her in right away in the morning because she was down right miserable all night.  We got her on Amoxicillin and her pain was gone by that night.  I accidentally didn't give her the full 7 days of it (eek), but it went away very quickly and didn't return.

Thus time she was in miserable pain for a day and a half until her eardrum ruptured.  She got relief from that and was able to sleep (a lot!) during the day, but then she was in pain again.  The next day most of her pain went away and her fever had been down to normal temp for almost two days, she was dripping everywhere though.  About 36-48 hours after her eardrum ruptured, we brought her in to get checked out.  We ended up with $50 ear drops!  Four drops, two times a day, seven days.  Yikes!

Next time we'll go back for the Amoxicillin.  Torturing her isn't worth it.  She goes from zero to 50 in 60 seconds and if she hadn't taken the antibiotics for the first infections, they eardrum would have burst too.

Ear Infection & Sickness

Faye was up all night.  Second night in a row.  She started complaining Tuesday evening and putting my hand over her ear, then she passed out in my lap. 

She was so heartbreaking the first night.  She kept crying for "more medicine, mommy" and then she started out crying to me "take care of me, mommy!  Just take care of me!"  That was heart wrenching.  I had been giving her Ibuprofen, Acetaminophen, and a benzocaine ear drops.  There was nothing else I could give her at the time.

The second night she was more mad about stuff.  She was kicking me about stuff, mad because she wanted to read books, and mad about lord only knows.  She refused Acetaminophen all night.  She told daddy "I don't want to feel better, I want to feel bad."  She then cried because she was scared.  Scared of me (lol) and scared of the dark.  Lots of times she claims to be scared of Maddox.  Then she wanted to go sleep with daddy.  He was on the couch.  I think half because I was sleeping on his pillow and maybe a little bit because he knew Faye was going to be crying all night again.  That sounds bad (lol) but she will never let him do anything for her, so he might as well get his sleep.  He didn't LEAVE bed!  I let Faye go lay with him two separate times.  Once early in the night and then again early in the morning, maybe 5-7 ish?  In-between she cried and cried to sleep with him.  Finally, sometime this morning she said to me "I want to feel better!"

We went upstairs to get Ibuprofen.  She didn't want to drink it, she just wanted "eye drops" haha!  I told her she couldn't have any ear drops until after she drank the medicine.  She drank it down in a second!  Of course when I got her laid down for the drops, her ear is all crusty and I think her ear drum burst.  Fortunately, she passed out before she could cry anymore about wanting ear drops.

Yesterday, she slept on and off all day.  She has been falling asleep very easily.  Unfortunately, she wakes up very easily too.  She did sleep a decent nap before lunch time and again after school.  She's sleeping now too, has been for almost an hour.

All of us have been sick the past week and a half.  I got sick on Sunday afternoon (6th?).  I had to have our neighbor bring Maddox to his bus stop on Monday.  Tuesday I had Clayton stay home from work.  I had a 105 degree temperature.  I felt the most miserable I ever have and could barely move.  I got my appetite back this Monday (14th), but my throat has still been too sore to eat much.  I lost my last week too and still cannot talk much.  The coughing has settled down a bit, if it weren't for Faye, I'd be able to sleep at night!

Faye woke up around 1-2am on Tuesday the 8th, puking.  She was up all night.  I ended up having to leave the bed and let Clayton deal with her.  I needed sleep so bad and, of course, when I woke up Tuesday morning, the was the worst day of my sickness.  Faye only puked that morning and she was fine, in that aspect, for the rest of the day.  She has had a 102-103 temp since that day.  Lately, she's been around 101-102 even though she was feeling perfectly fine otherwise... now she has the ear infection.

Clayton went to work Wednesday and had a sore throat.  He was really feeling like crap on Thursday and by the time he got home from work that day, he had a 104 temp.  He is coughing (and so is Faye) but not as bad as Maddox or myself.  He's getting his appetite back.

Maddox woke up on Wednesday the 9th with a terrible belly ache.  He threw up a few times.  He cried his little heart out too.  He had a bad headache with ear pain.  I wanted to cry with him.  During my entire first several days of having this, I had a massive headache with really bad ear pressure.  It is what made me non-functional a lot of the days.  I thought it was the high fever (I was 104+ for over 12 hours and then on and off as the medicine wore off), but I realized it was from the cold that we had.  I gave Maddox some medicine and felt better.  He only threw up the couple times and was actually feeling much better before dad even left for work.  He stayed home from school Wednesday and had Thursday & Friday off.  I sent him to school on Monday because he had been feeling better for a couple days, but he was still in the 99's.

Hopefully Faye will be feeling better soon.  Spring is around the corner and hopefully we can kick all this sickness.

I Need to Get Up.

In her half delusional feverish sleep, Faye says:

"I'm sorry Mom, I have to get up.  I'm starting to pee in my underwear and on your bed so I have to get up and sit on the potty."

Fortunately, she did not pee a wink in her undies or on my bed.  She is the funniest kid ever!

And nothing seems to slow Maddox down...

102.3 has always been Faye's breaking point. She's generally happy and perky until she hits that temp.

A Conversation between Faye and Myself

Me: Are you going to take a nap or are you going to sit on my lap and play Starfall ABC's?
Faye: Sit on your lap and play starfall ABC's.
Me: Are you going to pee on my lap?
Faye: Noooooo, I'm going to pee in the potty! You pee in the potty.
Me: Yes, I do.
Faye: PokeBall's do not have butts.... So they don't pee in the potty.

I KNOW that she is "Normal".

With children, "Normal" has a million variations.  I know that my daughter, Faye is normal, but I ask myself a lot, "what on earth is wrong with this child?"  I love her dearly and would never change a single thing about her, but I'd pay you a hefty million to know what goes through this kids mind on a day-to-day basis.

We've been working on potty training since Wed, February 23rd.  It was not planned, Faye has been having rash issues because she refuses to let me change her diapers.  Wednesday evening, Faye came into the kitchen on her tiptoes, in a squatting walk, like she'd been riding horse all day and begged me to change her.  I put her in underwear for the evening, changed her bed linens to waterproof and she's been in undies ever since. 

We started out with your basic potty training stuff, about 2 accidents a day.  She stayed dry every single night.  She pooped in her undies once, she went in her little potty once without any guidance, she pooped in the big potty once with my encouragement. 

Then we started going down hill.  We've had 3 other poop accidents.  This is frustrating because she KNOWS when she has to go.  We've had a lot of resistance with sitting on any potty.  Fits and tantrums, begging to wear a diaper.  We have two options.  The first, she continues with potty training and successfully learns and practices this ability.  The second being she cries and begs for a diaper for days in a row and we decide to try again at another time.  If she isn't constantly throwing tantrums for a diaper, we stick with #1.

Things started to look up the other day, Monday, when her butt did not leave the potty.  She just sat there for half a day, peeing in her potty.  Then came Tuesday.  Accidents and resistance and she pee'd on me and told me that she wanted to do it again.  She also woke up at midnight with wet PJs.  The first time she had wet her bed with 6 previous nights being dry.  Wednesday was another light.  She was wearing clothes, pulling her pants down, peeing, pulling back up, etc.  She didn't wipe, but I was letting that go!  As long as she was taking care of everything else, I was ok with not wiping, for now.  She did really well all day.  Just one accident; she sat down to go potty but forgot to pull down her underwear.

Now there's today...  She wet the bed last night around 10-11pm, then I woke to a wet bed this morning.  She wet the bed twice in one night.  Her second night in a row.  The next time she had to go, she sat on her potty and proclaimed, with arms crossed across her chest "I'm going to pee in my pajamas!"  I told her that if she pee'd in her clothes that she would not be getting any princess fruit snacks or any other treats.  She said fine and pulled her pants down to go.  She did pee in her potty a couple times, but she threatened to pee ON hr brother and then later this afternoon, she, again, sat on her potty with arms crossed and said she was going to pee in her pajamas.  When I went to tell her that was not OK, she announced "I'm not listening to you!" and proceeded to pee in her clothing.  I sent her in the bathroom to take her clothes off, she went in but didn't take them off.  She told me she couldn't.  I asked her if she pooped in her underwear (it smelled like it) and she got angry with me and told me she did not.  Of course, she DID poop in there...

Now that she is all cleaned up and she is not getting any treats for the day, she claims she is going to go in her potty and NOT in her clothing.

I need to come up with a different incentive program for her.  A calendar progress report?  An accumulative treat jar?  I don't know.  She's perfectly capable of going in the potty and going without being told to or asked, however she is randomly resistant with ALL techniques.

We're using the Potty!!!

I'm actually afraid to even say anything about it...

We've been having some issues with poop.  Faye poops and then refuses to have her diaper changed.  By the time I am able to force her into getting her diaper changed, she is bright red and sore.

Wednesday evening she came to me on her tiptoes in a walking squat and ASKED me to change het diaper.  I didn't even know she had pooped.  It had been a half hour since I last changed her and even less time since the last time she was on my lap.  When I changed her, she was in a lot of pain.  I had Maddox go downstairs and get Faye a pair of underwear, so that she could air out a bit.  I decided to keep her in them overnight. 

I put a water proof sheet on her bed, brought a diaper, wipes, and pajamas next to my bed and put her to bed in just her undies with just an extra blanket.  I sat her on the toilet.  I was going to brush her teeth and read books while she was on the potty, but she threw a huge fit about having her teeth brushed.  I had to bring her into her bed (underwear still at her ankles) and brush her teeth.  Then we went back to the potty.  We got halfway through her first book (Baby Da Vinci, My Body) and she started to pee.  Her entire face lit up!  We finished books in bed and did our normal routine.  At midnight she crawled in bed with us.  I checked to see how wet she was and to my surprise, she was still dry!  I brought her to the potty (unhappy child) and she pee'd after a couple minutes.  Her entire face lit up again.  I lined our bed with my tie fleece blanket (folded in half) to catch her pee in case she pee'd on our bed.  She woke up dry in the morning and pee'd on the potty again.  She gave Daddy a high five and we went upstairs.  After that we had 2 accidents (one involving poop in training underwear) and a couple successes.

She wore underwear to bed again last night.  She pee'd before going to bed and when she got up in the morning, but she wouldn't let me bring her when she came to our bed in the middle on the night.  We have had no accidents so far.  One pee, before Dad left for work and then this morning when I was in the kitchen, Faye yelled that she had pooped in her potty.  She did!!!  All by herself, no prompting, no encouraging, nothing.  She just went, pulled her undies down, and pooped in her potty!

Now wish us luck for the rest of the day!  And pray I didn't just jinx myself!

Happy Valentine's Day!

What a special day! I have such a wonderful family!

My husband was gone by the time that Faye and I woke up. Maddox was upstairs. Faye and I went upstairs and both the kids collected the little boxes of Valentine's Day chocolates that Dad and I had left for them to find on the kitchen table. Maddox had to show me the special gifts that they got from Grandma and Bepaw Miller. Dad came in the door, he had already gotten up, showered, got ready for work, and went to the grocery store to get juice boxes from Maddox's class Valentine's Day party.

Dad told me that Maddox had brought us both a Valentine's Day surprise. Dad had Maddox bring the surprise back upstairs until Faye and I woke up. He said it was in the refrigerator. I opened the door and there was a chocolate covered strawberry (Faye & I made them yesterday evening) in a cute little strawberry shaped bowl. I completely teared up. He is the sweetest kid on the planet!

A short while later, I went to go look up something online for my sister and I noticed in my gmail an email from my mother-in-law with the subject title "Your Son", it said:

I know you already know this but your son has the sweetest soul!

This morning he was so surprised by your valentine candy on the table for him that he had to come in and tell me about it. Then he said "I really want to surprise mom and dad". I asked him why and he said "For Valentines day". Then I asked him how he wanted to do that and he said "I don't know that's why I'm asking you for help". I suggested making a card on the computer or maybe bringing you each a chocolate covered strawberry. He jumped right on the idea of the strawberries. He was so excited to bring them down to you two. He just couldn't believe you would give him chocolates on Valentine's Day!

As I was leaving he runs up the stairs out of breath and said "Whooh, I thought you left already and I wanted to say goodbye to you", and he gave me a great big hug.

He is such a special little guy!

Yep! Definitely the best kid around!

Later on, I pulled out a Valentine Print Out from Starfall.com. Maddox had decided he wanted to make a Valentine for his cousin Kaden. He wanted to make one for Kaden, Dante, and Ariana. I told him that he could only make one Valentine and I told him that he could make one for one of his cousins, someone on his bus or at school (other than in his class, who are getting Bakugan valentines!), or someone at home. He says "Oh! I know who I'm

going to make one for! It starts with kah, kah, kah, but it's not Kaden!" He decided to make Kelsey a valentine, and here it is!

Unfortunately, Kelsey was not on the bus today. Maddox said she is sick, so he is saving the valentine. Hopefully she will be feeling better tomorrow!