I Am Not A Doctor

I basically received a hate mail letter tonight from a doctor who, I feel, clearly did not read my posts or personal description correctly. I am not a doctor! I have never said I was an expert! I am offering my opinion based on my own personal experiences as a parent, things I here from other parents and advices I have been given from my children's doctors. I do recall having said in verbal posts, "Ask the expert!". That's not me!

I started my blog as a reference for myself to document what I am learning and what I have learned. Some people have seemed to enjoy reading it and find some of my experiences helpful. All people are different. Different things work for them. And if even 1 person finds 1 bit of advice that I have offered based on my life helpful, then I consider my posting a blog instead of just keeping a journal a success.

So if you don't like me, that's fine.
If you think my advice based on the things that I have done stinks, so be it!

Waking At Night, around 20 Months

Both my kids did this and it took weeks to fix! This is when I started the clock that turns green with my son and I just ordered it for my daughter. My daughter just started waking up at 4am every night and telling me that she is, "Done!". She wants to get up for the day and I a, not having it. She goes to bed about 7:30 pm and thatbis not enough sleep for her, I can see she is still tired when I go in to her and she needs to sleep. She is so strong willed and stubborn that she will stay up for at least and hour yelling all done and the she falls beck to sleep untilm7:30-8am. I end umpired and annoyed!
If your baby does this, I think, based on my own experiences and the experiences of my friends, you need to just stay strong. Come up with a plan that works for you ( Ferber etc...) and stick with it. My life is stinking right now because my daughter is in the mist of this. I am spending my days pointing out everything that's green and yellow so that when the clock shows up she will get it. My son did. I pray that it works for her.

Kids change all the time and decide that they want to take control over certain situations. We as parents have to show them that we are boss and that they have to listen to our rules. Now it is sleeping when you are supposed to sleep, later it will be borrowing the car or abiding by a curfuw. It stinks! But don't give in and get up, you will have problems even longer. Don't give in and bring them in your bed, you will be creating an issue that will last even longer.

Best of luck, what doesn kill you will only make you stronger.

Speech After Ear Issues (Tubes/Fluid)

My daughter has had tubes since December of 2010. She had both ears 100% filled with fluid from the end of October 2010-December 28, 2010. When she had the fluid in her ears she was hearing very little, if at all. She gained no language skills when her ears had the fluid in them, and my pediatrician has said that she does not recomend going with fluid in the ear longer then 3 months because language development is so high at this time. My daughter got tubes on December 28, 2010 and within 2 weeks had 10 new words. The only issue that I had was many of her words that she used often, she was leaving the endings off of. And she still does this. For example, she says "mil" instead of "milk.". I finally had her evaluated for speach in May, (she was about 17 months) and the speech pathologist told me that was normal. She should continue to gain words at a rapid pace and that if I was still concerned to have her looked at in the fall at about 22 months and that would look at her progress. She has continued to learn new words but she still does not finish the same words that she did not finish before. She does not speak in sentences but in 2 word phrases. My son was speaking so well and she seems a world away.

Long story short, they are 2 different kids. I was concerned and had it check out. What's going on is not like I experienced before, but it is of a different normal and I am going to have to get used to it.

When you (the parent) are unsure about what you are seeing. Get it checked by the expert and listen to their advice. You are the best advocate for your baby and you are the only one that can help them succeed in life at this point. Just do it!

More About Tubes

I took my daughter to the ENT for a 6 month check up after her tubes. The doctor told me that her tubes were still in and looked fine. I was excited to here this. Then the doctor told me that I needed to come back in a few months for another check up, that the tubes should have fallen out by then. I was shocked to here this! He proceeded to tell me that tubes generally only last about 9 months at the longest. This was shocking news to me since I just automatically thought that we would get at lest another winter out of this set of tubes, since they were still in. Now I am quite stressed about that fact that we are heading into this winter, chances are, with no tubes. And to top it off we just got to the beach and she has another ear infection, her third since the tubes were put in.

Strep in a Baby

Babies can get step as young as 16 months old. Especially if they have an older sibling. Often parents mistake the symptoms for things like coxsackies virus.
My daughter got strep at 17 months. I thought it was teething because she had a low grade temp of 100 for three days. She was very irritable but again she is like that when teething as well. I was so surprised by this. My daughter was also up a lot at night from her throat hurting. I even thought maybe it was her ears.

Book Review- "Carla and Leo's World of Dance"

I have never done a book review before, but recently, I was emailed and asked if I could review Carla and Leo's World of Dance, by Agatha Relota. This book is educational and motivating all at the same time. At first I felt that the book was written for children about the age of 10 or older. But then my four and a half year old asked if I would read him the book. Agatha Relota has a way of telling facts about each location of the world that is both interesting to an adult and simple enough for my young son to understand. And then she explains how to do the different dances that go along with each area of the world, like the Tango is from Argentine. My four year old was so interested in this book that he made me try each dance with him and look up each country on a world map. Very appropriate for a ten year old, when read in stages also excellent for a child as young as four. I rate this book 4 stars!!!

Tubes

So now your child has tubes. What does that mean...
Basically, the ENT is making a small hole in your child ear drum and then inserting a very small plastic tube that will allow fluid and mucus to drain out of the ear and into the nose. Now your child will not have the pressure in their ear, even if they have an infection and they will not have the hearing loss from the fluid build up.

The ENT told me that I would see discharge if my daughter had an ear infection again after that. I went running to the doctor when her sheets were wet, probably from sweat p, because I was not sure what it would look like.

Well let me just tell you it s usually 150% obvious when your child has drainage from an ear infection after tubes. A lot of children don't even get infections after tubes. Some do! When they do, you can just look in the ear with your eyes and see dry crusted stuff in the ear. Sometimes after a nap it can even look like wet liquid snot. Once my daughters ear was such a cesspool of snot that 10 q tips didn't do it justice. So when I used drops nothing happened because they were just sitting on a bed if mucus. I had to take her to the ENT to have her ear suctioned then we could use the drops. Imagine if she didn't have those tubes! She didn't even cry at night when she had this infection.

Another time she had a bad cold and when the doctor looked in her ear, it looked like one if the tubes had fallen out. The tubes can fall out as early as three months but usually last a few years. The tube had not fallen out it was actually clogged with dry mucus. Again we had to go to the ENT and he used drops to liquify the mucus and suction her ear. Again she was not waking in pain.

They tell you that it is ok to swim with tubes. And it is! But just be aware that when the ear gets water in it through the tubes at certain angles, for some children, it can cause a moment of pain. Just watch your child and assess your own situation. Mt daughter takes swimming lessons every week and she is fine with it so far.