Try as we might, there is no avoiding sickness in the house. Having a three year old attending daycare essentially means that we are sending Conor off each morning to pick up the latest and greatest bugs out there. 
So far we have managed to go unscathed since Lily was born in July, which is a pure miracle in itself! Generally speaking we have been fortunate as we haven’t had to deal with a whole lot of colds and flu with Conor. He comes from hearty stock and seems to ward off most.
One thing that drives me to drink is the number of parents that send their kids to daycare sick. I shutter sometimes as I enter his classroom, only to see a half dozen runny noses or hear the hacking of uncovered coughing toddler mouths. I know we can’t take time off work every time our kids has a runny nose. It just isn’t practical…but there are still times when we should keep our kidlets home not only to recover, but to stop the spread.
When we first started daycare, I remember being mortified with the regular postings of “X confirmed cases of hand, foot and mouth disease“, “X confirmed cases of Fifth disease“. You truly become desensitized after a while. Both illness are easily dealt with, and very common. As a new parent though, hearing anything with “disease” in the title really makes you alert.
We vaccinate. Get over it, leave your judgement at the door. Our vaccination regimen includes the Flushot. Despite this, we fell victim to the cold/flu over Christmas. On boxing day Conor began to show cold symptoms and by the 27th I was a regular target for his uncontrollable vomit. Since Conor was little, anytime he has had cold symptoms it usually turns into Croup. We have been told for the last three years that he’d grow out of it, but here we are three years later and I’m still waiting.
That evening he became croupy and struggled to breath so we went to the hospital for our regular nebulizer treatment and steroid. It worked immediately and after several hours of observation we were sent home.
Our little patient zero, then was just dealing with a cold. Of course, however, he has taken the whole house down. First me, and I bounced back pretty quick. Now Rob and Lily are dealing with congestion and general malaise.
Arrgh. There is nothing worse than a baby with cold. There isn’t much you can do but ride it out, use a humidifier, and baby vicks on the chest and feet. One tool I now have multiples of is the NoseFrida. 
Oh my goodness we couldn’t live with out it. Any child that can’t either blow their nose, or haven’t quite mastered it.. this little tool will be a game changer for you. I use this combined with hydrasense for baby, and it keeps the kids breathing. It took a lot of trial and error, but this seems to be the only sure combo that gets our littles through the cold season!
Pray for me we don’t have another round!
What home remedies do you use when your kids get coughs and colds? I would love to hear them!
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