I admit it; I seem to be one of those Mom’s constantly trucking my daughter to the Pediatrician for this or that. Most recently cough, diaper rash , diarrhea and fever… not all at the same time. Despite my common sense telling me otherwise and I may add that so far my Mother’s intuition has always been right on target. I leave shaking my head wondering why I even bothered. I caved to the pressure. The pressure of my husband saying I need to take her to the doctor. The pressure of what if. What if this cough turns into bronchitis and then pneumonia? I better just get it checked out. That seems to be my thought process. My husband is always thinking Livi is having an ear ache or infection but she soothes herself by sticking things in her ears (a sensory thing).


After a week of diarrhea my husband said “aren’t you going to call the doctor?” I knew it was a tummy bug as I had the same thing. After getting over a recent cold she had a lingering and chesty sounding cough for the past few days so I decided to take her in. You know just in case. It’s not my husband who feels like an utter fool and has to endure the embarrassment when my daughter is dancing around the examination room, clearly just fine and no longer coughing .There I am trying to mimic her cough and explain if it was wet or dry, productive or unproductive and she gets a clean bill of health. It sounded really bad at home I would plead.

I knew as soon as the nurse asked me nicely but a little sarcastically “so coughing is her only symptom then?” that I had wasted my time. Typically you would be concerned if you had two or more symptoms- coughing and fever, coughing and lethargic, coughing and not drinking. I really need to learn to trust my Motherly instincts when it comes to this stuff. I have always been right on target. I guess I should not view it as a waste of time, better safe than sorry I suppose but I always feel so silly. Are you one to run to the doctor for every sneeze or sniffle?

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Some related links


http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/toddler/toddlerills/todcold/11420.html

http://www.practicalparenting.co.uk/health/Coughs_and_colds_article_88835.html

http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/toddler/toddlerproblems/uri.html