Zach's sick (not serious)

Zach has had a fever since yeserday. I've been having to alternate motrin and tylenol every 3 hours, and by the time the 3 hours comes around, his fever is back really high so the motrin or tylenol doesn't do much to bring it down (the lowest it's been has been 100.3 I think). I took him to the doctor today, and he gave him antibiotics. He is prone to ear infections, but the last couple of times he's had antibiotics his ears were fine. I'm assuming it's throat this time since his throat seems to be sore, and his glands by his ears are quite swollen. The poor boy is on antibiotics at least every 2 months if not more! I just don't know what I can do to keep him healthy anymore! We do have carpet in the livingroom. That's going to go soon (we bought enough hardwood to do the floor last year, but we need to re-do a lot in the livingroom, so we can't put the floor down yet), but in the meantime, I'm going to have to rent a shampooer once again to get rid of all the germs. It sucks to have to do that when the floor will be ripped up soon, but I have to do what I have to do to try to keep him healthy.

Thanks for letting me vent about this. I just feel so bad for him being sick so often and nothing I do seems to be helping.

Is some of it caused from allergies? We went through the same thing with our youngest daughter- ended up having tubes put in her ears and her tonsils out, which helped a great deal. I do not remember a holiday that we weren't in the emergency room with a high fever. I feel for you. It did help when we addressed her allergies too, but not as much as the other procedures.

It could be allergies. He's never been tested for anything, but I wouldn't rule that out. I'm hoping that when the carpet goes, that will help a lot as well. I'm thinking we might have to get rid of the cat as well. Before I make any decisions there tho, I'll have him tested. Maybe I'll suggest that to the doctor the next time we are there (which will probably be a couple weeks knowing Zach, LOL).

He has been to an ENT twice so far, and he doesn't want to do tubes. He's borderline for needing tubes because of the amount of ear infections he has had, but he said when he doesn't have an ear infection his ears are perfect. He also doesn't want to do tubes because Zach's speech/vocabulary is excellent for a child his age (2), so he doesn't want to mess with his ears. He talks in sentences and can say word that I didn't even know he knew let alone say (ex... ridiculous) They are usually all clear and understandable. The only times you can't understand him is when he gets excited and talks very fast. Nothing was ever mentioned about his tonsils tho. Maybe they will be soon since this has been his third throat infection (give or take) or assumed throat infection since antibiotics were given without looking at his throat (swollen glands tho).

I'll have to really sit down with our doctor and talk about what else we can look into. Either let him outgrow this stuff (my brother did), or do something medically about it.

Dawn, I don't have time to go into it tonight because the kids are not letting me. But I know a lot about the allergy issue and have advice. I'll try to post later tonight.

I hope he's feeling better soon! I find when Devon and Sam are running fevers that a lukewarm bath brings the fever down faster than anything. Of course then my doctor reminds me that a fever is the body's way of fighting the infection so I'm not really helping anything by bringing a low grade fever down

Rebecca - I try the lukewarm bath when his fever gets high and is still climbing after he gets motrin/tylenol. I wish he got low-grade fevers. LOL. Once he gets a fever, he's OK for the first couple hours, but it quickly goes downhill from there.

Karen - Any advice would be great! I have to call the doctor's office tomorrow because I realized he didn't tell me how long to give him his antibiotics for (he gave me 2 sample boxes and just told me the dosage, not the number of days), so I'll mention to him about allergy testing. We have an air purifier in Ceilidh's room, I wonder if it would help if we put it in the livingroom, then when he goes to bed, take it with him.

How are his BMs? Would a good dose of some gentle laxative help? With lots of water? I know you all are young parents from another generation but that is the first thing moms would do when we were coming up, the Phillips or Castor Oil (thank goodness I never had to do the latter) would come out and we would have to take a dose.

He had a BM a couple hours ago, and it was not normal at all! He seems to have a touch of diahrea now, but I was chalking that up to having antibiotics and no yogurt to go with it. He'll be eating the yogurt tomorrow morning tho, so hopefully that will help. Since he's not having any problems there, I doubt a laxative would help, but I really don't know. My doctor is very old school, and he didn't mention anything. I'm not even sure if he'll agree to give us the referral for allergy testing. We requested allergy testing for Ceilidh (peniclin) and he said no (her surgeons want her tested tho, so that will be our next discussion concerning her), but hopefully he'll be more receptive to the idea of it for Zach.

Boy, not knowing is so worrisome, isn't it? Hang in there with the wee one. I see that you've got your eye on everything. How old is Zach? Is that him and his sister in your avatar? What cuties...

I use a multivitamin with extra vitamin C for my son. He has a blood disorder too, and he's anemic. so we alternate those with the vitamins with extra iron.

I'm a huge believer in vitamin C. My son has a compromised immune system ( his spleen, which produces antibodies, is only partially functioning because of the blood disorder.) He stays pretty healthy, and has only been to the doctor once in 3 years.

It's worth a shot maybe ?

Pearly - He's 2, and yes that is him and his sister (she's 4) in my avatar. Thanks! I keep a close eye on him the minute he starts to feel warm. His fevers have a tendancy to go high very quickly. His sister is the complete opposite, and rarely gets colds or fevers. But when she does get a fever, she doesn't handle them well at all (she hallucinated once with a low fever)

I have a multi-vitamin for them that contains Vitamin C (I just have to remember to give it to them every day, LOL). Maybe when this bottle is done, I'll get the one with extra vitamin C. I love vitamin C, but my doctor doesn't believe in it, and apparently neither does the pharmacist I talked to when I bought the multi-vitamin I did (he told me there was more than enough vitamin C in the regular one, and no need to have the one with the extra vitamin C). When I was taking Vitamin C on a regualr basis, I never had any problems with my allergies (horses, cats, hay, dust, and every other animal we had at the house, LOL)

I'll have to tell my cousin about the extra vitamin C. He has severe allergy attacks sometimes.

OK, I'm back. I would strongly recommend allergy testing if he's getting recurring infections/colds of a mild to moderate nature. I know that most people think of allergies as being a springtime problem or a problem with cat or dog hair and unrelated to fevers. That's kind of true, but kind of not. I'll tell you what I know and you can judge for yourself.

First off, I knew that I had allergies for years, and that Zaven did, too. Both of us had sniffles year round, and I would from time to time have an "attack" where my eyes would itch and burn like I had something in them. But I didn't have money for an allergy test and I didn't think it would make too much of a difference. I was already taking prescription strength allergy meds and had stopped letting the pets into the house and we'd gotten rid of the carpet. I figured that it wasn't like I could realistically avoid trees and plants so I would just have to live with it. I also caught every bug that came around and didn't go more than a month without a head cold w/ fevers, runny nose, cough, etc.

When I was pregnant with Quinn, I went to see my nurse-practitioner for another cold. I didn't go to my OB/GYN because they always had a long wait. I was complaining that I always got every cold that came around and she recommended that I set up an appointment for allergy testing right after the baby was born because I'd still be covered by my medical card and it would pay for the test. So I did. It turns out I am allergic to SO many things. I could list them for you, but it would take too long. My printed out list is literally four pages long. I was kind of freaking out, too, because a lot of it is food. Food I like. Wheat and milk and corn and soy and all kinds of fruits, veggies, and meats. And I'm allergic to EVERY type of tree native to the state of Kentucky. Every one. I kid you not. But, this story has a happy ending that does not involve me living in a plastic bubble and eating only rice and water. Here's how it works. First, for all non-food allergies, I take allergy shots. I used to get them once a week. Now it's every other week and soon it will be once a month. It has made a huge difference. I also use an allergy pillowcase. Nope, it's not plastic. I would hate that. It's just a really tight weave of cotton and it zips up. So no more dust mites in my pillow. That was the simplest thing I did and I could tell a difference immediately.

Then for the food. You would think that if you're allergic to milk you can't have milk. Well, sometimes that's true and sometimes it's not. This is how my allergist explained it. Food allergies are different from airborne allergies. Airborne stuff goes straight to your sinuses, so you almost always react to them. But food allergies are filtered by your stomach acids. The food is broken down before it really gets in your system. So sometimes you can test positive to a food on an allergy test, but in reality you don't get symptoms from eating that food. So you do an "elimination diet". Basically, you don't eat anything that you've tested positive to for two weeks. You let it get out of your system. Then you add one thing. Just one. But you don't just add a little, you binge on it. If you're testing milk, you drink 3 or 4 big glasses during the day. And you see what happens. I was fine on all the foods I was allergic to except for corn. I react hugely to corn. A half hour after eating corn, popcorn, corn flakes, corn puffs, or even pizza that has cornmeal on the bottom of it, my eyes start itching and tearing up, I start sneezing and sneezing, my nose runs, and I am miserable. So I stopped eating corn.

And that was almost two years ago. I've only had about three colds since then. Maybe just two. It's been a while so I don't remember. The colds are related because an allergy will cause your sinuses to swell and that prevents them from draining properly. So there is fluid that bacteria can thrive in. It also puts stress on your immune system, which can cause viral infections to flare up.

And it turns out that not only does Zaven have allergies, Caly does too. I didn't know because her nose never runs from it. But she had frequent sore throats, awful stomach problems, and got nauseous all the time. It turns out that in some people, when their nose runs, it drains down their throat (causing the sore throat) and into their stomach (causing them to be nauseous). When Caly started taking Claratin, she quit having any throat or stomach problems. She only has seasonal allergies so she decided to not do the shots. Zaven takes the shots with me and no longer has to take any additional medicine except on rare occasions. He also can't eat anything with caffiene. But it's a small thing and he feels much, much better. He told me once that he'd rather have shots every day than have allergies like he used to.

I take medicine only during the spring and early summer, and I take less than I used to. I'm hoping to be off of all of it by next year. I will have to take allergy shots for several years, but soon it will only be once a month. Some people can eventually stop taking them. Others can't. I don't mind them too much because they use a very thin needle. It's not like other shots. Sometimes it hurts, but frequently I can only tell that they're doing it when they put the band-aid on. The big annoyance is that you need to do it in a doctor's office and wait around for a half hour afterwards because it's possible to have a dangerous reaction and you need to be where they can treat it.

Of course none of this helps you tonight. But yes, ask his doctor. And yes, fight for it if he won't give the referral. I had to do that with Zaven's doctor. But it was worth it.

My youngest is 11, and has had 9 sets of tubes, tonsils and adenoids out. Nothing helped, she kept getting ear infections....until we cut out Gluten( wheat, oatmeal, anything baked really). We also cut out High Frustose corn syrup and that helped tremendously.

Has he been tested for Yeast? With all the Anti's I would have it done. And don't have the crpet steam cleaned, it encourages mold growth, and doesn't kill germs.......actually makes more.

Karen - Thanks for all the info. I mentioned to DH yesterday about asking about allergies, and he doesn't think that's the problem since this all started once Ceilidh started preschool this year. He was completely healthy, not even a runny nose until she started preschool and bringing everything into the house. I'm going to ask anyway tho. I'ld rather rule everything out. DH thinks it's more because he's not really at a healthy weight, so his body can't fight normal colds. At 2 years old, he only weighs 23 1/2 lbs. The doctor isn't concerned about his weight, but that could be a reason as well. When I was really underweight, I would catch everything, but now that I am a healthy weight, I don't catch nearly as much as I did before.

Edbson - No, he was never tested for yeast. I'll mention that as well. I really hope that's not causing this! Zach is a carbaholic. LOL He eats a lot of bread everyday.

He's doing much better today. He is his normal self right now. Last night was bad tho. He didn't have any extremely high fevers (101-102), but everytime you touched him he cried, and every time he moved he cried. I think he was just overtired from not napping, being woken up every 3 hours for medicine and the room was actually quite chilly last night, so that didn't help matters much for him.

I hope he is doing better.

Last spring (sping '07) my son was sick alot. He was the same age as your son. It seemed that every 2 months I was in the DR's office, and he was on antibiotics. I never did find out the real cause of it, because (*knock on wood*) he hasn't been sick since. We moved so I am sure it was something to do with the old home, probably allergies.

I will hope that he is feeling better and that you are able to find something that works for him.

Shampooing the carpet is not teh way to go. Edbson is right it encourages mold growth and can further aggrevate allergies. Get a vacuum with a hepa filter- that will do a better job removing allergens than shampooing. (this I know fropm countless months working with the health department when my daughter had elevated lead levels)
As a kid I had Kowasaki diease, they still really have no idea what causes it (this was 1982) but the two other moms with kids with it and my mom all shared a freshly shampooed carpet.

I hope he is feeling better soon and you get some answers.

I'm glad that a vacuum with a hepa filter does a better job. I already have one, and I love it! I guess I can save time and money on renting a carpet cleaner! We are hoping to get rid of all carpet at the end of the summer. Our mortgage is up for renewal at the end of the month, so we are hoping to get some more money to do the renovations (basically re-build 3 rooms) and build a garage (we have NO storage space whatsoever). Hopefully once all that is done and there is no more carpet around, it will help. I'm going to move the air purifier out of Ceilidh's room and just keep it wherever Zach is. She's only had one cold since preschool ended, so I'm sure she'll be fine without it.

He's doing better today. Still miserable at times, but at least those times are only when he needs more meds instead of before where he was rarely in a good mood.

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions.

I am sorry that he is sick, I sympothise with you. All 4 of my kids had 103 fevers for a week and were not allowed outside for 2 weeks. I thought I would go crazy. But it was a mosquito borne illness. or flea, or tick. LOL out here you never know.

anyway, I wouldnt worry about the weight. Rayley doesnt weigh much more than that and she is 4. and TALL. I have to make her clothes, cause she has to have 4T for the length and 2T for the waist. But she is small boned.

I am kinda like pearly, get it out of the system and you get better. LOL I dont even usually try to treat diarea, (except with lots of fluids and electrolites) cause there is a reason your body want to get rid of that stuff... same with fevers, unless its real high I hate to give meds. But like you I have one that will run a HIGH fever for everything. Of course his normal temp is 99.7.

I am courious, cause I am one of those people who almost refuses antibiotics. (I have bought maybe 4 scripts of them for 4 kids in 10 years. ) but when you said she started school and he started getting sick, is it cause he isnt around enough dirt? or kids? or ickyness?


I know that in my family I have a cousin who has 2 kids, from the day they were born every time there was a runny nose, sniffle or cough she took them in. They got an antibiotic. Literly till the antibiotics stopped working.

She wouldnt let them outside, they couldnt go to the barn, you couldnt touch them if you hadnt had a shower from coming in from the barn (since I was there 18 hours a day I was never allowed to touch them.. LOL) she was way overboard.
She boiled everything, then washed it in the dishwasher, had special plastic sterilized bins that the bottles and nipples went in in the cabinets, the whole nine yards.

Me, I had my first kid, went to walmart the next day, handed him to who ever asked, had him in the barn at a week , picked binkies up off the floor, blew them off and stuck them in hismouth.

My kids DO have some alergies. cedar, pine, pollen.. same things I have, and have to take claritin, but all in all they are healthy. they get the occasional bug, or like 2 weeks ago, they get an illness. but they are not near as sick as her kids.

So I guess what I am getting at, is : does he get enough ickies to build up a good immune system?

I hope none of this came out wrong. I am not accusing you or trying to be superior. And as far as I know your kids might be like mine and you have to give them a bath everynight to get the dirt off just to identify them. (mine all look alike, eerily alike....)

I don't treat diahrea at all either (except for the way you do it). I don't start to treat his fevers until they hit 100. As soon as I notice he feels warm, I keep taking his temp, bec1ause once it finally gets to 100, it goes up fast from there (sometimes it will take a whole day to get to 100). He was never really around other kids, but that wasn't from me not wanting him to be. We live out in the middle of nowhere, I'm the only person in my family with kids. The only time he was ever around any amount of kids was at birthday parties (and those were very few and far between). He doesn't like to get dirty, so he doesn't play in the dirt much (as much as I tell him he is a kid, he's allowed to get dirty, he just doesn't listen). I'm not bad with germs. I don't care if people are sick and around him. People thought I was crazy when I took him to a 1 year olds birthday party the day after we were discharged from the hospital (so he was 4 days old). And again, I would pass him off to anyone who wanted to hold him. Other than that, he wasn't really around a whole lot of sickness until Ceilidh started preschool. I wish he was tho. But the silver lining to all this, by the time he's in school, he'll have an immune system like steel. LOL.

I know what you mean. we are WAY in the country too, so my kids only get their germs from the bugs or walmart.

And dont you love it when folks freak out cause you have a new baby out in the world? Some of the older teachers at Bretts and Matts school were so upset that I would bring Bow up there at less than a month old with all those kids around, and all that. I told them that he was exposed to those same germs when my boys came home!

I bet at one point he finds dirt and ends up LOVIN it. I hope not as much as matt did though. We would take him to the beach and he would EAT sand. I kid you not. FOR DAYS afterwards he would poop sand. Even the Dr's said it was something that he was craving and we needed to up his viatimin intake. LOL He would sneak to eat it too. He stopped after a few months. But it was weird. LOL

maybe all it is is a little immune system building. All kids have to build one and if he does it now it will help

heck, my husband was such a sickly child. he was always sick and pittiful, had pnumonia and all that. They thought he was going to die before he hit 4. Hostpital stays for wierd blood infections, colds, high temps. (and the other 3 kids were fine) Finally at 3 years old or so, after yet another ER trip one of the old Dr's in town gve him a gamagoblin (sp) shot and honest to God, he never slowed down again. He very seldom ever had another cold his entire life. Till he was 19 and got the chicken pox. Now he is 6 ft 300 pounds and the picture of health. (except a bout of pnumonia last summer). You'd have never thought he was sick a day in his life. But that shot really turned him around. Wonder if they still make it?

chelle wrote: We would take him to the beach and he would EAT sand. I kid you not.

Two days ago Quinn found a pom-pom of Zoe's. It was one of those colorful ones about the size and shape of a cotton ball. He licked it, made a face like it tasted nasty, then popped it in his mouth and swallowed. The whole time he did his face looked like it does when I'm making him take medicine that tastes awful. He did NOT like it. But he did it so fast I couldn't even get close to him before he swallowed. I have no idea why he ate it since he obviously didn't like it, but sometimes you just have to shake your head and go on.

OMG Karen. Bow did the same thing today. He was spitting and sputtering and I looked across the room, he had a bar of soap that he had dug out from under the couch cushin (cause I was getting awful charlie horses so I put ivory soap under the couch cushions and the foot of the bed. havent had one since)

anywho, he HATED it, spit, sputter, and then TOOK another bite! and when I took it away he was spitting and sputtering but cried to get it back! Oh well, at least he is gona be cleaned out...

But Hoover (thats matts nickname) would cry if you took away sand. LOL of course he always was putting something in his mouth. Now little Dyson (cause he is worse than hoover) is a crawling babbiling vaccum...

Zach was horrible for putting things in his mouth, but so far he has never eaten sand. Actually he never ate anything he put in his mouth. He would gag on it, and would either spit it out, or I would remove it from his mouth. The kid that hates having his hands dirty, has no problems picking up food from the floor and eating it if given the chance. LOL. Zach does the takes a bite, spits it out, takes another bite, spits it out etc... thing with food he hasn't tried before. LOL. It's like he's hoping it changes it's flavor on the next bite. Never seems to work for him. But at least he would try the food (Ceilidh wouldn't, just insist she doesn't like it and still does).

The country life is great! We are lucky that we're not so country we don't have a Walmart close by. The closest Walmart is about 10 minutes away. I just wish there were more kids around their age (the next door neighbor has a 3 year old that we hardly see) and less wild animals. LOL

59pearly wrote:How are his BMs? Would a good dose of some gentle laxative help? With lots of water? I know you all are young parents from another generation but that is the first thing moms would do when we were coming up, the Phillips or Castor Oil (thank goodness I never had to do the latter) would come out and we would have to take a dose.

Pearly you sound like my Aunt who helped my Mom raise us, we were afraid to act even a little bit sick around her because her remedy for everything was "working medicine" as she called it.
Stomache ache = Castor Oil
Headache = Castor Oil
Fever = Castor Oil
Broken Bones = Castor Oil
Missing Limbs = Castor Oil

aurora04 -sounds like a combination or allergies & picking up every bug he's exposed to. When I first put the girls in daycare it seemed they stayed sick, as soon as one got well the other one would come down with something. Believe it or not I started giving them Flintstone Vitamins 6 months agon and neither of them has been to the dr since. I don't know if the vitamins made such a drastic difference or if they just ran out of new bugs, I'm giving the vitamins credit