Independent Learning: Remedies for little one’s ailments

This week I’ve been chugging away at my meals for the month. Already it’s been a HUGE time saver! This past week has been crazy (to say the least) and we have punted a few nights but it’s so nice to look at my calendar and know already what I’m making…and the best part is, since I shopped for a month’s worth of groceries I know that all of them are ready to go! I hate those pesky trips to the grocery store just to make one meal. Annoying.

Photo CC-Emil

My week was devoted to a sick child. My girl came down with a cold—I rubbed On Guard essential oils on her feet, Vicks vaporub on her chest & propped her bed but she coughed all night. She was up, drinking water, whining, and wanting mom so we spent some time together in the wee morning hours. We spent some time looking up cold hacks for toddlers. Here’s what I found:

Turn the shower on Hot & have child in the steamy bathroom for 20 minutes to open nasal passages…check!

Put vaporub on their feet…check!

Give them ½ teaspoon of honey to relieve throat irritation…check!

Buy cold air humidifier & let it run all night…check!

(Crazy mom or most doctored up child on earth…right? I know that’s what you’re thinking…seriously, I’m doing everything humanly possible & still can’t seem to win with this.)

She was getting better, I thought with all of my amazing mom hacks, but she caught that nasty viral flu bug going around. Baaaha! (No, that wasn’t a sheep sound…that was the frustrated mom sound of defeat). It started last Thursday with a few vomiting accidents then Friday she ran a scary fever so I was on Pinterest, google, and every other medical site looking for remedies to help relieve her high temperature. Everything said to give her Pedialyte & since my hubby was working I had to improvise. Here’s what I did:

Homemade Pedailyte Recipe

Photo CC-Ben McLeod

I found an article on how to make your own pedialyte. I tried it and it worked…I’d like to think.

She didn’t get better until Tuesday so needless to say, not much of anything else got done in that amount of time…except meals because I already had those planned. Boom–Take that dinner time!

This week was a week of learning…I learned that:

1. Saltine crackers are amazing—they make a huge mess but my 14 month old love them…and so does her cat.
2. Just like when she was a newborn—when the baby sleeps, mom sleeps.
3. Put the medicine in the bottle—it’s easier than forcing it down her throat just so she can spit it out again.
4. Clorox wipes are a mom’s best friend.
5. Having a smartphone is a necessity—pinterest, google, webmd.com, and babycenter.com are vital to a first time mom’s sanity with a sick baby.
6. For more mom health hacks, click here.

So to all of you parents and future parents—if you want creative ideas with sick kids check out Pinterest—the ideas are easy to do, innovative, and they work!

This picture best describes my face when I realized that she finally slept all through the night…

Photo CC-Peter Thoeny