Can my baby sniff hot sauce to clear his sinuses?
weird searches during sickness & how to survive germ season
I’m trying desperately to make light of a pretty horrific couple of weeks. Laughter has always been my favorite medicine.
But, to be clear, my toddler did rummage through our pantry, pull an unopened hot sauce bottle off the shelves, and I did seriously consider letting him take a whiff. As he sat in a sea of Tupperware lids and plastic cups and pots and pans and condiment bottles with snot pouring out of his nose, I snapped a photo for my husband. Caption: “Mom of the year.”
“Open up the hot sauce and let him sniff it,” he replied. “Might clear up his sinuses.”
He read my mind.
***
I thought I would take off one week from writing Stuff Moms Google as we transitioned to daycare. (If you missed that essay, you can read it here where I agonize over the decision.) Instead, it’s been a whole month since I’ve written. A very, very, very long month.
We toured a daycare! It’s 7 minutes from our house. They had one opening! We went back and forth and back and forth on the decision, weighed every single pro and con like a nauseating game of yo-yo. We signed the contract! I spent literal days prepping with his “back to school” supplies list. I even bought these million-dollar fancy labels that are supposed to change lives. I made myself sick with the anticipation of dropping him off.
Sure enough, I cried. My son did not cry. The teachers hugged me. My husband cried when he saw me cry, then he let me messy sob (slash hyperventilate) into his shoulder. He took me out for a Dunkin’ pumpkin latte and a rainbow sprinkle donut.
It was a huge day for me for so many reasons. I’ve spent the last six months in therapy every week wrestling through postpartum anxiety and depression. My counselor and I have come up with the words “repair” and “reclaim” to mark my journey this fall to find new space for healing. Part of this space involves daycare, so that I can work and rest and discover pieces of myself that I’ve lost along the way.
And then, guess what? He made it to daycare for One. Day.
13 “firsts” that we’ve experienced in parenting this last month:
Our first family vacation to the beach as just the three of us. (Looking back, would we make the choice again to send him to one day of daycare before a long weekend trip to the beach? Nope, nope we wouldn’t. I really thought, What could possibly happen in one day?…)
Our first trip to urgent care while on this glorious family vacation at the beach.
Child vomit. So. Much. Vomit. (Where does it come from in his tiny body?)
My husband’s first time searching for a laundromat open at 10pm on this glorious family vacation at the beach. (My last time packing only one sleep sack.)
Holding down your flailing child to sneak in the syringe of Tylenol or antibiotics every four hours… only for your child to throw it all up. All over you.
Watching Ms. Rachel videos in the middle of the night because her magical unicorn voice is the only thing that will calm your sick child.
Going from no screen time to allll the screen time all day long. 500 episodes of Paw Patrol and counting.
Cleaning up diarrhea stains in our Airbnb. (Sorry, hosts. You said that we were quiet guests, but I don’t possibly know how this was true with a sick child screaming and watching Ms. Rachel on YouTube all hours of the night in a small condo with close neighbors.)
7 visits to urgent care and doctors’ offices in 7 days. Yes, you read that right. It spread and spread and spread.
Parenting a sick kid while you are a sick parent. (I always think of that DayQuil commercial where the sniffling Mom or Dad says to the baby in the crib, “I’m going to need to call out sick today.”)
Ear infection. RSV. Croup. Bronchitis. Covid. (I’m tired just listing it all.)
Asking for help. And accepting help. (Thankyouthankyouthankyou to friends and family for all the texts, calls, and meals.)
That exhausting but rewarding feeling when we’re coming out of the other side of our baby’s first sickness. We’re doing it, we did it, we’re going to be okay.
To be honest, which is what I always want to do in this space, most of my biggest fears about daycare have already come true.
I feared that it would feel like someone had ripped a limb off my body. It did.
I feared that he would get sick. He did.
I feared that I would get sick. I did.
I feared that we would spend and waste a lot of money. We’ve now spent $600 for one day of daycare, so yes, we certainly did.
I feared that I would feel like I’m failing as a mom for sending him off. I did.
Tomorrow, he’s going back to daycare for his second day, and it feels a lot like his first day all over again. We’re facing the fears all over again. And yet, I feel a little different this time around. Tired, very tired. But an ounce braver and for maybe the first time, I actually believe him when my son calls me, “Mama.”
Weird searches during sickness:
Can my baby sniff hot sauce to clear his sinuses?
How do you get out boogers from a baby’s nose?
Creative ways to give a baby medicine (pro tip: try mixing liquid medicine in a bottle with one ounce of Pedialyte)
Why does my baby’s cough sound like a seal?
Do I really have to stick the thermometer up my baby’s butt?
What does baby diarrhea look like?
Will this horrible week ever end?
What is Ms. Rachel’s net worth? (Please Google this one. She’s wildly fascinating.)
Give these a try…
Germ Season Survival Kit
We went old-school with this baby nasal aspirator after a few drops of saline in his nose. I bought the Frida Baby modern version with the calm, smiling baby on the package as the cartoon mom sucks the snot out of her kid’s nose. And then I laughed hysterically at the idea of my flailing son allowing anything like this near his nose. It’s still unopened in the package. (Has this worked for anyone?!)
My son giggles when we spread on this vapor rub on his chest before bed. Granny also hooked us up with soothing vapor bath and a steam vaporizer for his room, and it smelled just like sick days at home in my childhood.
Hydration, hydration, hydration. We mixed packets of Pedialyte with water in his bottles. Some days, that’s all he would eat or drink as we vegged out to Paw Patrol. The packets helped us explore different flavors, too. And LiquidIV for the adults. Here’s my favorite hydration mocktail: lemon lime liquid IV packet poured in a mason jar (to feel fancy), half a glass of coconut water, stir it up, add lots of ice, top it off with half a glass of bubbly lime LaCroix, then stir and sip with a straw.
“The world is going to get all over your child. It’ll probably be sooner than you’d like, and it might take you by surprise. Whether it’s a germ or a verb, your kid will get something you weren’t expecting. It’ll be okay. Someday our kids will come home for Christmas and we’ll laugh about these days together. We’ll tell the stories. This is the beginning of a great life filled with other people, and other people are wonderfully weird.”
-Melanie Dale, The Magic of Motherhood, “Bad Words”