TFYO started her very first week of school this past Monday, and by Wednesday she had brought home her very first school cold. Those of you with kids understand this. When kids all get together, inevitably there is one with a runny nose and a hacking cough whose mother decides to send him to school anyway. And then that kid infects the entire class. So, instead of just one whiny, snotty four-year-old, there are now sixteen of them. It's sort of the same principle that lies behind zombies and vampires. Once you're bitten, you're one of them.
Well, Wednesday night, TFYO had a sore throat and a slight fever and she couldn't sleep. She was up every couple of hours wailing for water. I asked her, begged her, pleaded with her to take a Children's Tylenol to help calm down her throat pain so she (and I!) could sleep. No dice.
This requires a little background information.
TFYO hates medicine, and has since she was a teeny tiny thing. When she was about two years old, she came down with a virus. Our pediatrician at the time said to give her some children's Tylenol to ease her symptoms, and everything would run it's course, no problem. Well, we tried giving her the drops, but truth be told, they tasted awful. She'd run around the house yelling "No med-cine! No med-cine!"
We'd be following behind with the bottle, saying "It's just Tylenol, it's okay!"
So, our pediatrician suggested we hide it in something. I had the brilliant idea to mix it with the milk in her sippy cup.
As an indication of her intelligence, she already seemed to know something was up. I handed her the cup. She sniffed it. She looked at me suspiciously with those big blue eyes. She took a sip.
And then all hell broke loose.
She glared at me. She slammed the cup down on the table. She only said one word, and she said it with vehemence.
"TYLENOL!"
She then sat on the floor with her back turned to me and began to sob.
I felt like the worst mother in the world. I'd broken her trust, and we both sat on the floor and sobbed until Ray came home. Eventually, she crawled into my lap, and I told Ray the story. He laughed, which just made TFYO more upset. Even so, Ray is smarter than I am. He mixed the medicine with vanilla ice cream, and it was downed very quickly.
So, now, trying to get her to take anything, no matter how good it tastes is a struggle. It's a little like giving medicine to a cat. That, and for months afterward she would pick apart any food I gave her and sniff it to make sure I hadn't hidden anything in there.
All day Thursday we went back and forth, "Please take a melt-away, they taste like a cherry candy." Which they really do, by the way. They actually taste really good.
"No," she'd say "It's Tylenol, and I don't like Tylenol."
She finally collapsed from exhaustion Thursday evening about 5:30 p.m. She slept through the night and woke up Friday seemingly better.
"Hi, Mommy, I'm not sick anymore!"
"Oh, you're not, are you?"
"Nope! And I didn't have to go to the doctor, and I didn't have to take any Tylenol! Ha! I'm all better without it! HA! HA!" (That last bit should sound like evil laughter)
TFYO is now invincible. She is immune to all of my mommy powers. Except, perhaps, for vanilla ice cream.
9 comments:
You painted this so vividly Jen. Can relate to it for sure.
Thanks for your comments on my latest post. I can say on he that it relates to my sister. Can't say that on my own blog.
Poetessxxx
You will get your revenge when she is older and you tell her that she has to go to school if she doesn't take her medicine.
poetess Oh, dear, well, then I'm sorry for you. And feel free to spout off here anytime.
auntie Barbie , I wish that would work, but she LOVES school. So, I suppose I could turn that around and say "You can't go to school unless..." But knowing her, she'd say fine, and that she's never going to school again. I'm screwed either way, I think!
Revenge comes when they grow up and have children of their own. Then you can sit and smile while inside you are saying "HA HA, YES!YES!YES!" (Sort of like your parents are doing now.)
By the way, anything added to milk changes the taste. Juice is a much better delivery method.
Oh, your daughter is my daughter all over again. Well the good news is, it is fun having a really smart daughter, the bad news is at fifteen she still won't take liquid or chewable tylenol, and refuses to try to swallow pills. Luckily germs keep away, and honestly, she doesn't need tylenol very often. I had to agree to pay her to go to school the day of the end of year awards assembly becuase she DIDN'T want to be called up for perfect attendance!!
Also, before long the kids have passed around all the cold they are going to and they are all a lot healthier.
Ahh Jen, the first week at school cold.
It's so annoying.
Miss E always gets those and then passes them on to all of us.
Miss M is equally unimpressed by medicine. Even as a baby we had to squirt Calpol down her throat when she cried.
They should have tasted the medicine we had when we were little euughw.
We'd have probably thought the stuff they have now was pop.
Let's just see how strong her resolve is by the time she gets her first period.
Hey Jen, I guess you finally why you were given so much juice as a kid!
Can she say I-Bu-Pro-Fen? Really good for a fever and you can honestly tell her it isn't Tylenol.You never know...it might work.
None of my kids liked medicine much at four, but they've pretty much grown out of it. Pills are still a big issue though.
Hang in there!
First, don't tell her it is tylenol, just give it a goofy name.
Also, it is hard to be a mom, you don't want to hurt your kids, but medicines sooner or later become a necessary evil.
I don't like to take medicine and I at, 47 years old in a few days, will still hide pills in the corner of my mouth to spit out when Hubby's back is turned.
Hey, it is my pain. I will take the stuff when I am nearly incoherent and not before! LOL
It is unfortunate that recently he has caught one to my trick...could be when he hung around in the bedroom a little longer than necessary and the pill started to dissolve in my mouth.
He also remembers how I used to give medicine to our son waaaay back when.
I would walk up to him with the medicine syringe behind my back, I would say, "Here honey!" and pull his ear, just a bit, just enough to get the syringe in his mouth and push.
While he was still flailing about he would have no choice but to swallow the medicine.
The antibiotics were the worse.
He would cry and say he was never speaking to me again and go off to his bedroom. I would follow him grab him and his blanky and get in the rocker. After a few fitful minutes he would settle down, back to being my baby for a while longer.
Until the next time.
I remember him having a tummy flu. He wasn't eating or drinking much. The doctor wanted him on Pediolyte, it didn't come in flavors back then! He wouldn't drink it.
My mom came to the house, got a popcicle put it in his bottle and poured Pediolyte over it. She shook it up and he drank the whole thing and wanted more.
Trust me, new moms survive to become SuperMom, just like our own moms.
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