Our very sweet little woke up early one day last week, sobbing and telling us he was sick. He’s almost always been pretty self-aware and given me heads-up before we end up in hospital, so my stomach dropped.
I went into panic mode and started treatments, but a little alarm went off when we said, “I bet a movie in your bed will make me feel better!” I knew I needed to outsmart him, which shouldn’t be this difficult when dealing with a 4 year old! I sympathetically said, “Oh buddy, if you are sick, we gotta get ready for the hospital. They will probably use deep suction to help you.” Deep suction has probably been the most traumatic thing that has ever happened to him. They swaddle him with a twin size sheet to keep him bound, turn on the machine, grease up a tube, and wind it from his nose into his lungs! He didn’t flinch! :/ I tried to think of something he hated here, but not harmful to use as an experiment. So, next I said, “Or, we could try to kill all the bad bugs with Sinugator,” which is an amazing sinus rinse (I’ll add a link below) that no one could possibly enjoy. When he agreed, tears filled my eyes and I’ll have to be honest that I leaned over to my sleeping husband and spelled a very bad word, signaling to him that the situation was real and happening! Our son finished that treatment and I started preparing the next one. He kindly asked for the same medicine his sister had the day before. I explained that her medicine was for fever, which he didnt have. When Daddy came out to check on…. us (this is usually harder on me than the patient himself), I started to explain situation and our son announces, “I could take a bath!” We did several tepid baths over the weekend to lower sister’s fever. I explained, “Buddy, baths arent for your type of bugs. You need saline treatment.” He finally broke and said, “Oh, I was just tricking you! I don’t have any bugs today!”
After explaining that tricks are supposed to make people laugh and what he did was dishonest and harmful, I basically spent the day trying to come up with extra consequences for lying.
We had a well-visit (something I haven’t been too familiar with these days) at the pediatricians yesterday and I had our son confess to her about his “trick.” She explained to me that its very common for chronic sick kids to use it for their benefit. They get an enormous amount of attention during, so why not use it later?! She giggled and commented on how intelligent he is, to be able to process through all that and not even let me outsmart him with my bluffs!
So now, I want to come up with more ideas that arent harmful, but will be horrible enough that he will call truce earlier. Or, even better, stop trying to “trick” me! Any suggestions?
I actually texted a close friend before typing this as she has a chronic sick kid, as well. Luckily for her, this child despises bandaids. I’d say that will be best approach to be able to say, “I’m so sorry your belly hurts. I want you to feel better. Let’s try putting a bandaid on your belly for 5 minutes!”
Man, this whole parenting thing is so difficult! There’s always something to process through. It definitely takes a village! Hopefully, you have at least one “lifeline” you can reach out to during these times to help you stay afloat. If not, please beg God to lead you to one!
NeilMed Sinugator Cordless Pulsating Nasal Wash with 30 Premixed Packets
