Good morning to all mothers and fathers ❤️

Hello everyone 👋 Today I am pleased to post again in this beautiful community of #motherhood since I had exactly 19 days absent from the platform because winter arrived 🌨️🧣🧤🏔️❄️🧦 and with it, my son got sick with a super strong cold and I had a terrible time. I speak in the singular, because although my husband helps me a lot, in the end I was the one who spent sleepless nights and in addition to this, I also got sick and did not feel like writing. Thanks to the specific care we had for each one of us, we managed to get out of this terrible episode and today we are better. But now I will tell you how it all happened.

Chronology of infection 😷🤢🤒

My husband Adrian works in a supermarket network here in Tenerife. It turns out that one of his coworkers was sick with the flu and ended up infecting all of them. When I noticed that my husband was sick with the plague he caught, I immediately forced him to wear a mask every time he was near our baby. It had been a week since my husband caught the virus and he was self-medicating with ceririzine and a powdered medication called Termargin (which is like a teragrip). It should be noted that from day one I insisted that he go to his primary care physician to effectively attack this illness and because he was lazy he didn't go. So far, my baby and I were fine even though my husband was very sick with the cold he caught.

For those who are not aware, I live in Spain 🇪🇦 Specifically in Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands 🇮🇨 Here each individual or patient is assigned a family doctor by the public health (social security). He/she is in charge of treating and medicating you under specific conditions and also referring you to a specialist when the situation warrants it.

My in-laws invited me to go out to a shopping center in the south of Tenerife to go for a walk and take advantage of the winter sales. That day it was cold where I live and we went out warm but it was hot where we went and we got a little warm. Everything went well until we got home. My baby was healthy and so was I, but when I went up to my house the wind was very strong and the next day my son woke up very sick with snot. During the early morning he had a fever of 37.8 degrees (fogaje as we say in Venezuela) and I managed to bring it down with pediatric paracetamol and water wipes at room temperature since we are in winter. My husband and I decided to go down to the emergency room to have him and the baby treated. My husband was prescribed antibiotics, a nasal anti-inflammatory and cetirizine because his clinical picture was more delicate. Since the baby had no phlegm, they only prescribed nasal washes for the mucus.

Applying the treatment 💉

The truth is that during the first few days, nasal washes only made him cough up very little of the mucus he had. On the other hand, with the help of a small vacuum cleaner, I also sucked up my baby's mucus. But I insisted that my baby had phlegm. I am a new mom and I was terrified that my son might have the flu. Since I didn't quite trust him, I made an appointment with his pediatrician. She explained to me that since his upper airways (nose) are very small and babies do not know how to cough, they tend to confuse mucus with phlegm. Therefore, the doctor prescribed a bronchodilator (Prednisolone drops) for 3 days to thin the mucus and after those days I started to see my baby improve. My baby at that time was about to be 8 months old and here they do not prescribe any syrups or expectorants for children of that age. For me it was really a relief that my baby's lungs were fine because the days of late nights took their toll on my mood and the constant headaches that I could no longer stand. I didn't sleep, I was worried that my son would choke on the snot.

We spend about two weeks with this virus. Here in Spain, people usually get very sick with the flu or cold in the winter 🥶 because of the low temperatures. It is wise to ask your family doctor to make an appointment to get a flu shot. I have never actually had it because although I am pro-vaccine, I have heard of many cases of people who after getting it get the flu instantly. In the three years I have lived here, I have never gotten sick with the flu or caught a cold because I am very cautious. Imagine how nervous I got when my baby had a runny nose if we practically don't go out during the winter to avoid these ailments and rub elbows with people we don't know if they are sick or not.

What moral did I learn from this whole situation? 🤔

I learned that even if I try, I cannot control external factors in my environment such as going outside. I mean, I can't put my baby in a bubble or not take him outside because he will get sick, he must build immunity too. Although I imposed on my husband to wear a mask when he was around the child, we also went out a week after my husband contracted the virus and my baby got sick. Would it catch the virus at that exit or was the virus waiting to proliferate? For sure, we don't know. But even though I was initially very angry at my husband for getting sick, sometimes these situations get out of hand no matter how much we avoid them. These are situations that we do not expect because we avoid them so much that in the end we do not escape from them. So we must try to stay calm and take the treatment to the letter when it comes to our little ones because their welfare is our main goal as responsible parents.

I think we have done well so far as first time parents and without any help. Because even though my in-laws are here living as well, their stay will not be prolonged and there have been a few times that my in-laws have taken care of my baby and as long as it is a situation that does not warrant the presence of our baby, we leave the baby at home for them for a few hours and that's it. Because I am a 24/7 mom and I am always taking care of my son.

Thanks again for reading my posts ❤️ I am open to your recommendations on how you have acted for when your children have been sick. See you another time 🌻

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