“It’s never what they ate.”
Before the cold set in.
Maeve is recovering from her first sickness. She just had a bad cold, but it completely zapped her energy and caused her a lot of discomfort from the congestion in her nose and chest. She sounded like an old man when she coughed while she struggled to rid herself of the mucus in her chest.
Nevertheless, her condition sparked a conversation with Charlie’s brother-in-law when we stopped at his house to break up our trip home on our way home from Pennsylvania. Phil and Charlie’s sister, Kathleen, are expecting their fifth child. They’ve seen their children come down with many colds in the past few years. They weren’t concerned that we brought our two children with colds around their kids.
Phil gave us one piece of advice as he told us colds in children don’t bother him. His advice was passed on to him from our mother-in-law when another nephew in the family told his mom, Charlie’s sister Liz, that his belly hurt. Liz responded that her son had a belly ache because of something he ate. As she overheard this statement, Mrs. Boyle whispered into Phil’s ear, “it’s never something they ate.”
Sure enough, everyone in the house came down with the stomach bug.
Kids will share their sicknesses with everyone. That’s how Maeve became sick. Michael caught a cold and pasted in onto her. Once he started to feel better, Maeve’s symptoms became worse. Although we had two or three weeks of tough days and even worse nights, I still agree with Phil. Colds are nothing like a stomach bug. So parents consider yourself warned: it’s never what your child ate!
What wisdom has been passed down in your family about children getting sick?
