Sick

Both kids took turn to be down with flu, cough and fever for the past 2 weeks. It did not helped that Zethan insisted to sleep together with grandma and Zelyn in the same room.

 

First it was the flu and cough. Zethan got it first and soon spread to Zelyn so it's off to PD with both kids to ensure no chance of phlegm in the lungs especially Zethan. The phobia I had years back still remained till this day. Good thing was both are cleared and I took the chance to check with Dr. Dorothy on their growth and development. Zethan was both 90+% for height and weight while on the other extreme, Zelyn fare only 20% on the chart and the only normal average she had was the head circumference which is not a bad thing after all. Dorothy said that she is very likely to be petite so there should be no cause for concern and the minimum milk intake should be around 600mL daily supplementing her 2 meals of porridge.

 

So both kids recovered after a few days of medication but weird enough, Zethan's cough returned. Few days after, Zelyn is nursing a fever and I was caught off guard when the paracetemol in the fridge was opened more than 6 months thus need to be thrown away. Worst being we have no brand new bottle of Paracetemol except for Bifen which I am not comfortable giving since the fever was considered to be mild at 38+/-. We did suspect that she is cutting tooth thus the fever so monitor and patched her. When she recovered after a few doses of paracetemol, I received a call from Zethan's teacher that he is having a fever at 38 degrees thus will be keeping him in the office for us to pick him up. The daddy did and upon reaching home realised he had not taken lunch so gave milk. Halfway through his milk, he merlion big time. Observed that he is quite lethargic the evening I was home but luckily everything turned out find the next 2 days.

 

This is the first experience of both children having repeated episodes of bugs passing around. My guess was that the bug must be really strong since Zelyn was usually spared of it while Zethan tend to be more vulnerable which did worry me. The guilt got to me big time as well since Zethan was only partially breastfed till 6+ months while Zelyn had the privilege of  exclusively breastfed till 9+ months which probably explain their immunity levels. I expressed these thoughts to Dorothy and she put my guilt to rest stating that it is not a good basis of comparison since Zethan being a boy and firstborn so higher risk of lower immunity while Zelyn is a girl and being second born thus immunity naturally will be better.

 

Having recently read about an article of the side effects of paracetemol and bifen, even without a conclusive result, it was encouraged not to administer freely when it comes to mild fever. I am a little skeptical about the article though since it was not a documented study done to a large extent but it soon went viral, circulated in the social media. But still no harm to heed the advice and try to let the body fight the infection and build immunity in the process. Of course I must add that temperature have to be monitored lest it gets too high. So after all it is good to stay with home remedies like barley and chrysanthemum to cool down the body!