Snot season- January 8, 2012

Our little family has produced more snot in the last three weeks than an elephant with a sinus condition. Tissues litter my bedside and I’ve signed the Pseudoephedrine log at the drug store more than I care to admit. (To the state of NC: I promise I’m not making meth. I just needed Mucinex D. That other kind of “decongestant” you don’t have to get from the pharmacy doesn’t work.)

We infected our extended family while celebrating over the New Year. The Neti Pot saved Greyson and I, but Charlotte is coughing and all boogery again this weekend. I wish we could Neti Pot our little girl to help her out. But, I think Neti Potting a baby would be akin to water boarding, and thus child abuse. Besides, I want to save that torture for when she’s a teenager. (I’m joking. I’m joking.)

According to a study by the American Academy of Otolayrngology (Ear Nose and Throat doctors), the average child will have 8 to 10 colds per year lasting 10 to 14 days each.

Are you kidding me?! Do you know how many boogers that is?!

www.babyclipart.net

The study goes on to say that most of those colds are in the winter. If the child gets eight colds from September through March and they each last two weeks, then the kid is sick more than half of the winter.

I seriously cannot believe that Charlotte has gone 14 months with no ear infections or RSV. The AAO-HNSF also says kids in daycare are 4 times the number of episodes of Otitis media. (That’s middle ear infections. I didn’t know. I had to look it up too.) Now that she’s no longer breastfeeding, I worry about her little immune system even more. We try to wash her hands a ton and keep her home anytime she gets a little fever.

What are families supposed to do, especially during the winter? Should we have quarantined ourselves and hid out during the holidays? Oh, yeah, that would have gone over well. I’m not going to cancel every play date until April because Charlotte has a cough. Every kid in her class and every kid everywhere seems to have the snots.