Amy's on the mend / nursing and health

[pne]

Stella said that she's found a way to take Amy's temperature that seems to cause her much less discomfort, which is good to know. This morning, it was 37.8 °C (100.0 °F), so there seems to be no more cause for concern. She also didn't take a nap at noon, even though she was in her pushchair, which is a good sign.

Stella told me this evening that she thought that Amy was ill comparatively often this winter, with the sniffles or throwing up or this or that, and that she had found that unusual since Amy was very rarely ill before.

After she gave the matter a bit more thought, she remembered that last winter, she had still nursed Amy, partly because she had read that it's better not to wean a child just before the winter. (She ended up nursing Amy for 2y7m—a month later than planned since Amy had fallen ill.) So this winter was the first that Amy had to master with her immune system left to its own devices.

Correlation doesn't equal causation, but I can well imagine that it was a factor.

Comments

[conuly]

*thinkthinkthink*

Forgive me for not knowing, but has Amy recently started preschool or otherwise started hanging out with a lot more kids than she used to?

[pne.livejournal.com]

Preschool, not yet - we had planned to enroll her when she turned three, but that was around the time we were considering moving and we lost her place on the waiting list. The current plan is for her to start in May-ish. (Originally, in February when the bilingual kindergarten near my work is scheduled to open, but Erik won't get a kindergarten place until April or so and Stella doesn't want Erik around any more when Amy is just getting used to kindergarten.)

She has been around Erik a lot more, true - our neighbour's child (though he calls me "Daddy", presumably because it's what he hears Amy call me and the name isn't wired to a role the way "Papa", for example, would be), who comes over here four mornings a week for daycare while his mother works part-time. (His sister is in "proper" kindergarten so she's taken care of.) (Erik is younger than Amy but taller and heavier, so he looks older!)

That's about it, though, I think - she's around other children on the playground, but only about as much as always, I think: not every day and not all day.

[conuly]

But she's around another kid whose big sister goes to school for fairly little kids? He's probably bringing over all the germs his sister brings home.

Well, it can't be helped. Either she gets sick a lot this winter, or she gets sick a lot this May, or both. Children are either germ magnets or germ factories, I haven't made up my mind yet.

Poor her, though, and poor you!

When there's something going around, we chop up (not press, chop!) some garlic very small and give it to the kids like medicine - a bit of garlic, water, then some honey. A clove a day really helps keep the doctor away, it does. (I can't stand raw garlic, so I mix it into tuna salad to hide it, and add fresh ginger as well, more immune-boosting goodness.)

[pne.livejournal.com]

But she's around another kid whose big sister goes to school for fairly little kids?

Yep. And "big" is relative -- she's four-and-a-half.

He's probably bringing over all the germs his sister brings home.

That's possible. Though currently it's the other way around: Erik is pretty ill (they suspect norovirus) and Sonja asked whether Stella would take care of Taya for a couple of hours, and she wasn't too keen on having her around Amy, since even if she's healthy herself she might be carrying the bug.

[conuly]

Ouch, norovirus. That's going around everywhere right now. I'm pretty sure it's all over the US, and I *know* it's all over Britain. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

[conuly]

he calls me "Daddy", presumably because it's what he hears Amy call me and the name isn't wired to a role the way "Papa", for example, would be

LOL. We have friends who use Turkish names for Mommy and Daddy - Daddy is Baba and Mommy is... uh... Ah-nay, but I can't transliterate that neatly.

Well, the mom isn't actually Turkish. I mean, she has citizenship, but she just happens to love the country and the language, she's from the Midwest. So when her girls started calling my sister "Mommy" (because our two families spend a lot of time together, like one extended family), she threw a real fit.

She doesn't mind that her girls call my mother Nanen, and she doesn't mind that Angelique calls her and her husband Baba and Ah-nay (I really need to find the standard way of spelling that in English, I'll ask her), but she couldn't stand having Jenn called Mommy, it was just too much for her.

Which makes sense, it does, but I thought it was a little funny at the time.

[pne.livejournal.com]

We have friends who use Turkish names for Mommy and Daddy - Daddy is Baba and Mommy is... uh... Ah-nay, but I can't transliterate that neatly.

To the best of my knowledge, it's spelled "Anne" in Turkish.

You hear it a lot over here, since we have many people of Turkish descent, and most often, their children will call their mother "Anne" even if they speak German with her.

She doesn't mind that her girls call my mother Nanen

How do you pronounce that?

[conuly]

Just like it's spelled. A nah and a nen. Which, I know, means it's spelled wrong - in French, I ought to spell it differently. But I can't spell French. I used to be able to read it, if it was simple enough, but I can't speak it and I sure can't spell it.

[dampscribbler.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear that Amy is improving!

I nursed Maggie for two years. Her illnesses always seemed to clear much more quickly then than I would have expected. Unfortunately, I was sick all the time. My antibodies may have helped her stay/get healthy, but I'm grateful to be done with it and only fighting infection for one these days. :)