When To Call The Doctor

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:30:00 GMT

When is a cough the sign of a medical emergency and when should it be treated with a tablespoon of Robitussin? When is it not a big deal that your child is in so much pain that “she acts like she’s possessed”? And should you ever give your toddler Gatorade?

Thanks to Cookie for answering all of these questions in a concise article that details what to keep in your medicine cabinet and how to respond to any two a.m. attack of fever, nausea, earache, cough, or diarrhea. As the article makes clear, remaining calm when your child is sick increases the chance that you’ll get the illness under control without resorting to antibiotics--or a fun family outing to the ER.

I did notice there was no mention of what Mommy Pills to keep in the medicine cabinet, but perhaps that’s self-explanatory.

Photo: chpc.info

No Antibiotics for You!

Adrienne Martini — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Dr. Alan Greene over at the New York Times Well Blog insists that most earaches don't require antibiotics. He cites the reasons we've all become familiar with -- they are bad for the good bacteria in your body, they are bad for the environment, they are ineffective, etc. But two things leap out at any reader.

First, if parents can't approach an earache with antibiotics, what should they do?

And, second, how freaking cool is it that "a typical healthy child carries a pound or two of rapidly evolving microscopic bacteria in his or her body?" Now that is a fact to know and share.

Photo credit: www.ilovemybaby.org

Strollerderby : earache

When To Call The Doctor

No Antibiotics for You!