Thursday, November 13, 2008

One of those days

I think we've had more than our fair share of being sick the last few months. Especially Rowan and now Chan is getting up there too. My sister is telling me my kids are always sick and I tried to defend it at one point. I won't anymore. You're right Avry :( We've got a house full of sickies. It all started last night with Chandler coming into our room. I went to put him back to bed and he just stood by his bed. Then I stepped in it. Need anymore of a visual? ;) I got Marshall up to get Chan changed and proceeded to start working on his room. Half hour later, I was ready to put him back in bed. He kept looking at Marsh and saying, "Oh no....so sad." I'd be sad too. Luckily we'd rented Kung Fu Panda and it was a great distraction at 4 am.
I finally got him back in bed only to have him throw up on everything 15 mins later. Into the tub he went. He sat in the tub for about a half hour and didn't want to get out. He finally stopped throwing up enough to fall asleep. Not 2 minutes after my head hit the pillow I heard Rowan crying. Why? Congested of course, (lucky boy has the little Nielson nasal passages so he gets congested extremely easily) and his asthma was flared up. He just finished up his 4th round of antibiotics and I bet he's working on another ear infection. I'm not going to be surprised if he ends up with tubes in his ears.
After almost 2 hours of being up, we all got some sleep. Chan woke up this morning, couldn't keep anything down, and had horrible diarrhea. Poor boy would start running around saying, "Oh no.....stop it! Oh no....!" everytime he got nauseated and threw up. Makes my heart ache. We stayed in our pajamas until it was evident that Chandler needed another bath (his 3rd in the last 12 hours.) Chan finally kept down some bread and powerade and both Chan and Rowan are finally napping and feeling a LITTLE better.
I thought I would start doing some deep disinfecting today, especially all the toys. It's been a few weeks since I'd gone through all of them and cleaned them well. I have been washing the small stuff in hot soapy water and wiping down the other stuff with disinfecting wipes. Lots of laundry today too, wiping down doors, handles, etc. Just wondering what kinds of disinfecting products you all are using and if there is some great product I need to be using? I have the lysol wipes and some Melaleuca botanical disinfectant. What else can I do? What do you do to help keep your home germ free? It seems hard to keep up with two little kids and I need some ideas. I don't want sick kids all winter.

16 comments:

Tasha said...

Hey Tiff I ran into your mom the other day and thought I'd check in. Your boys are so stinkin cute. I hope you don't have sick kids all winter either. Sickness is so not fun!

the milners said...

Talk about germ zone! My classroom is the epitome of all germ zones! I have found that when I keep the surfaces disinfected AND spray Oust in my classroom every day (to kill whatever they're breathing), the sicknesses subside. Not totally, but significantly.

S. Fantasia said...

You guys really have been sick a lot. Poor Chandler. Kudos on the disinfecting, we are the same way.

Hi, I'm Erin said...

Poor kids. It seems like families get in a sick rut sometimes & it's hard to get out of b/c you just have one sickness on top of the other. I don't think it's because you're not a good housewife. It's just one of those things. I like the new Green Clorox products. They, like the Melalueca products, are not supposed to be harmful to little ones but still disinfect well. Good luck getting everyone better.

Emilee said...

Hey Tiff,
This is cousin Emilee. I don’t know what to tell you on disinfecting other than maybe some bleach but I did want to share a medicine secret with you. When at the pharmacy my husband always recommends the medicine Emetrol for sick tummies. It is actually just a mixture of sugars but for some reason it does wonders for nausea. You can find the medicine over the counter at Walgreens and make sure you read the label; he wouldn’t recommend it for Rowan (he is too young). Also, I had chronic ear infections growing up and still get them as an adult. (I never had tubes); one thing I always noticed was that if I kept my ears covered and warm in the winter months I seemed to have less problems. Lastly, and you probably know this from your mom but a warm cloth on the ear helps to alleviate some of the pain when the Tylenol doesn’t cut it. Good Luck! I hope everyone gets feeling better soon.

{ Lana Cox } said...

So sad, poor little guys. Devan never really got sick until we started taking him to nursery. It's probably not anything in your home making them sick, I bet they catch bugs from outside sources.

LIFE IS GOOD! said...

I agree with it may not be in your home. It can be in the nursery going into stores, etc. You had to move away:} I could of come over and helped. Give them hugs and kisses for me.

Sara Birch said...

Oh man, so sorry for you! I've heard it really is harder to get over sicknesses when you have two kids. Don't know what to tell you...it really could be coming from the nursery though. Hopefully you all will get feeling better so we can get together next week.

Mickell said...

Tiff, I think keeping things clean is important, but I think at this point you need to think really hard about what you are doing for the boys immune system. With Rowan on antibotics as much as he has been, he really needs some probiotics to reset the good flora in his GI track. Plus it would be really good to get them on some vit C and D to help them fight infection. I think you should seriously think about calling that Dr Humpherys that I told you about. I think it would do a lot for you families over all health. Plus while you are doing you on line searching, do some research on boosting the immune system. One last think. Crazy as it sounds, I had our doctor tell us the other day that onion juice will knock out an infection in a day. Scrap the onion with a spoon and us a medicine dropper to suck up the juice and put it in the ear, (assuming you don't think it is so bad it is punctured,). It can't hurt, and it may save you a visit to the doctor. Good luck.

Mickell said...

By the way, I am Mickell.
Sherrie

tiff snedaker said...

Thanks everyone...I'm wondering if it is coming from the daycare where I do the trade. Although I am there the whole time with the boys -I make sure Rowan doesn't stick anything in his mouth and we wash or use hand sanitizer on both their hands before we leave.

Shannon - I've got oust on my list :)

Emilee - I'm going to pick up some of that emetrol to have on hand. Tell Jeremy thanks for the tip!

Sherrie- can I get that dr.'s info from you again? Maybe I will look into it. As far as the probiotics, Rowan loves yogurt and has a yobaby yogurt almost every morning for breakfast, so I know he's getting that. The Vitamin C and D are a good idea too, although I try to get him to drink juice to help with the vitamin C, we are still nursing a lot so I don't know how much vitamin D he is getting? I have to make a follow up appointment with our ped. as he wanted to see how Rowan was doing on the steroid albuterol, so I'll ask him about extra supplements for Rowan.
Chandler is horrible about taking vitamins and hates them. I've gotten the gummy kind and the flintstones and he won't take either kind.

Anyways - thanks all for your kind words, it's nice to know everyone cares :)

Aurelia said...

Man, that is no fun! Poor boys, I hope they feel better soon.

Avry said...

Tiff it isn't your fault your kids are sick. :( I just feel bad because they are always sick! It is ok because I too was in your shoes except with strep until myself, Kaden & Maeli all had our tonsils out. If you are sanitizing & keeping things washed then I don't think it is anything you are doing wrong. Kids get sick- some more than others. Hopefully you guys can get some relief soon! I had to laugh at Chandler telling himself to "stop it" when he was throwing up. :( poor guy didn't understand.

Snedakers said...

I'm sorry you're kids are so sick. That's the worst. It seems like you're doing everything you can, sometimes you just can't help it. I know when I was doing trade that Claire was constantly sick and we were always sanitizing toys, walls, everything. So frustrating, hopefully the rest of the winter is better for you.

David and Melissa Belnap said...

Oh, I am so sorry that you have sickies at your house again!! I have been fairley lucky with Aiden not getting sick, but I must admit, I am quite a freak!! I wipe EVERYTHING down before Aiden touches it! Especially shopping carts, high chairs and tables at restaraunts!! David gets so embarrassed when we go places and I have to get out my anti-bacterial wipes, but we haven't had much of the sickies at our house! Good luck!! That is the most horrible thing to have to deal with I think!!!

Jeralee said...

So here's my thought. By being constantly sick, your little ones are actually building up their immune systems. I always blame my kid's illnesses on either the school or WalMart. he he.

Some kids have great immune systems, others not so well. If you remember, Moura got the influenza virus twice last winter... Charlise? hardly anything. She just doesn't get sick very often.

However, when Charlise was a baby, she was prone to more ear infections than Moura, because, as I was told by her Dr., her ear canals are very tiny and are more horizontal, so they didn't drain as easily. Was that my fault? Only in the sense of genetics... LOL It has nothing to do with the sanitization of the home.
I think you are wise to stay on top of the ear infections and work on getting them cleared up, so they don't have long term circumstances.

Anyway, I think with the family genetics on our side, it has a lot to do with their body not being able to drain things effectively, and maybe when they are older, they will be able to have some of the proceedures that Kaden had, and it can solve a lot of those issues.

In the meantime, I am so sorry! I am sure you are feeling cabin fever. See if you can get them out for a walk, even if it is just for 10 minutes. A little fresh air outside feels good sometimes when you have been cooped up feeling sick.