She’s had a few fevers.

She’s had a cold or two.

She’s had the typical scrapes and bruises.

However, she’s never been on an antibiotic. She’s never had an ear infection, a respiratory issue or anything else requiring an antibiotic….until now.

This past week, Cheeks got a bit of a cold and started running a low grade fever that would come and go. By the time the weekend hit, she was waking up numerous times throughout the night in obvious pain. Earlier in the week, she had popped through a tooth and she has about five more on their way. (This kid is painfully slow with teething! Pun intended!) She was eating very, very little, but she was nursing up a storm. She was a bit of a crab and needed extra cuddling and nursing.

We didn’t think anything of it, it was just her teeth. She has a horrible time teething and this was par for the course. Except it wasn’t.

Sunday night she woke up SCREAMING and writhing in pain. My mommy instinct told me it went beyond teething pain and I made her an appointment for yesterday.

And the verdict is?

The poor kid has a double ear infection (one just beginning and one pretty painful looking) and possible RSV. I say possible because I declined the testing. Her oxygen stats were 98% (anything above 97% is considered “normal”) and when she was breastfeeding, the doctor couldn’t hear the wheezing that was present when she wasn’t (which means the wheezing was likely in her head and not in her lungs.) Besides, whether or not the RSV test was positive, the course of treatment wouldn’t have been affected. Therefore, why put her through sticking a cotton swab up her nose when she’s already miserable?

The solution? Antibiotics.

We made it nearly fifteen months of being antibiotic free. While I wish our streak had continued, I’ll take it. That’s quite an achievement!

Hopefully we’re on the upswing and she’ll be feeling back to her old self soon! The good news is, she only woke a few times last night (and it was to nurse, not because of pain) but the bad news is, we’ve taken a few steps back in our night weaning. However, with her reluctance to eat, I’m not opposed to a few extra minutes of nursing throughout the night. The doctor was impressed that she’s still nursing as much as she is and has no concerns about her not eating, as long as she’s nursing.

And, as poorly as she’s feeling, she’s still finding it in her to get into everything and anything she can! So far this morning, she’s dumped out an entire box of spaghetti, a bag of goldfish crackers and climbed on top of the coffee table twice.

You just have to love a kid with personality!

Hugs can do great amounts of good – especially for children.
-Princess Diana

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