To me, there is nothing worse than a sick kid. The sleepless
nights. The endless runny noses. The hacking coughs. The general misery. I hate feeling so helpless. I also loathe being quarantined in the house
for days on end. Therefore, keeping our household healthy became a minor
obsession for me.
I open public restroom doors with a paper towel, push
elevator buttons with my elbow and take a cart cover any place that involves a
shopping cart or high chair.
Don’t even get me started on the pediatrician’s office. To me that is a living virus
hotbed! I take my own pen so I don’t use
the communal sign-in one, open the door with a Kleenex and don’t let my kids
touch one single surface if I can help it.
I have antibacterial hand gels in every purse I own and keep
one in our cars. We are armed and ready
to anti-bacterialize at any given moment. Viruses beware.
So you can imagine my concern last September when just two
months after we welcomed baby sister to the family, I had two looming issues
swarming in my head: the start of my oldest daughter in her first year of preschool
and the media-hyped H1N1 potential pandemic. Can you say paranoid?
Sleep deprived and on the fast train to loony-ville with a
newborn, I came up with a plan of attack for the preschool germs. After school
we would immediately go wash hands, strip her clothes in the garage when we got
home and give her a bath right away before lunch. Awesome plan, right!?
So, how did it work, you ask?
Well, about two weeks into her first month of school and my
virus-fighting rituals above, she gets her first cold. For a kid that was sick a total of maybe two
or three times in her whole life, I think she was sick with recurring viruses
for what seemed like three months straight. That is an exaggeration, but it
certainly felt like it. No amount of
hand-sanitizing could keep the colds away and our entire household was hit. HARD!
It was at a routine visit to my baby’s doctor that I sort of
got a wake up call on my little obsession. We got
to talking about kids and getting sick and I lamented about my oldest this
winter, which he said is a bad thing/good thing, because at least she was
building up her immunities. Not like
anyone would consciously expose their kids to illness, but his take away point
was “let your kids play in the dirt a little.”
So, after that conversation I have learned to relax a little.
Kids are going to get sick, period. Unfortunately it just is part of life. Baby has gotten sick too, but I hope that
maybe that means she won’t be quite so sick her first year of preschool. Or maybe that thought just makes me feel
better!
We don’t take baths after preschool anymore and there is no
stripping of clothes in the garage. She
does wash her hands after school, but that is the extent of my germ warfare these
days.
But I will always bring my own pen to the doctor’s office!
This is an original post to Orange County Moms Blog. When Jennifer is not sanitizing hands, she
can be blogging about fun finds, cool outings and amazing giveaways over at
Tiny Oranges.
