Month 18: Poor Baby

Miles is sick. Gunk is running from his eyes, nose, and mouth, he’s got a low-grade fever and a hacking cough. Worse, he’s not acting like himself at all. Eyes at half mast, he wimpers and lays his head down on the couch. Uninterested in food, he grumpily pushes away whatever he’s offered. (Except for a few bites of banana this morning, which he chewed up and then deposited onto the carpet.)

It’s awful to see your baby sick. We’ve been lucky. Aside from one ear infection, Miles hasn’t been really sick in his whole 17 ½ months of life. Then this weekend, practically overnight, he got hit with this hideous cold.

And what can we do for him? Nothing. Forget saline drops or that suction-bulb thingie. He won’t even let me within a foot of his nose with a Kleenex. You’d think I was coming at him with sandpaper and rubbing alcohol.

He won’t tolerate hot baths. He climbs in eagerly, like he always does, only to lose interest in his tub crayons and rubber duckie within minutes and cry to get out. Soooo not like him.

We tried the trick of tilting the crib mattress by stuffing pillows under it, so that his head would be elevated and wouldn’t get clogged with phlegm. But Miles moves around like crazy in his sleep. When I went to check on him, his head was jammed into the lower corner of the crib -- a virtual funnel of phlegm. So much for that.

The only things we can do are run a humidifier in his room and force fluids on him. Milk is out since it seems to triple his phlegm production within minutes. So we’re left with water and watered-down juice. (Yes, I broke my pediatrician’s cardinal rule and gave him juice before age 3. What kind of world do we live in where juice is considered tantamount to crack for babies? I get it. Sugar = cavities, empty calories, childhood obesity -- but come on, it’s Juicy Juice, not a jumbo Mountain Dew Slurpee!!)

Thank goodness Miles got sick on the weekend when Dad’s here for backup. I realized how fragile our little childcare set-up is. When your kid’s sick, guess what? You can’t take him to the sitter, lest he infect the other kids. In fact, you can’t take him anywhere, really. You’re stuck at home with a baby who’s miserable and won’t sleep unless he’s on your lap.

So what happens when your baby’s sick and you’ve got 1) work deadlines, 2) jury duty, and 3) relatives visiting from out of town? (I WISH I were making this scenario up.) And you can’t call in Grandma for backup because she’s 6 states away? And Dad can’t stay home from work because it’s his busiest time of the year? You’re SOL, my friend.

Ah, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to … achieve a balanced life? Whatever. Things will work out like they always do. I just want my healthy, happy little boy back. If I can have that, I promise not to complain about his endless energy and appetite for annoying Elmo songs. At least for a few days.

READ O’ THE WEEK: OK, so it’s not a BOOK book, but Desperation Dinners is one of my all-time most favorite cookbooks in the world that I turn to again and again for fast, healthy meals. Last night C. made a vegetarian version of the Shepherd’s Pie. SO yummy! Hopefully it will nurse us back to health.