I’ve been up with my 8 year old daughter, who was coughing repeatedly until she threw up, so I didn’t have a chance to post tonight (I guess it’s officially last night by now, since it’s almost 2 am).  I gave her tea (with mullein, lobelia, apple cider vinegar, and honey), I gave her homemade cough syrup, I gave her a hot water bottle to keep her chest warm, I gave her a homeopathic remedy – no luck.  She kept coughing so hard that she wasn’t keeping anything down for more than a couple of minutes.  I think all of those things would have been helpful if I had heard her coughing earlier in the evening, though. 

Finally at 12:45 am, I told her to get out of bed and into a nice hot bath, which she did.  I wanted to give the steam a chance to relax her chest and give her a break from all the coughing.  After she was in for a while and I told her she could come out, I gave her Vick’s to rub on her chest.  (I was so happy to find it – I was hunting all over the house for it this entire time and getting annoyed that I couldn’t find it – you know, ‘where is something when I need it!?!’- when I opened my kids’ medicine cabinet, and what do you know?  It was sitting right there all along – it didn’t even occur to me to look where it was supposed to be!)

After she finished getting dressed, I rubbed more Vick’s on her neck, and covered it with a scarf that I designated a while ago for this purpose but never used since then. Then I put some Vick’s on her feet, and had her put socks over it. 

After all of that, I gave her a refilled water bottle, brought her to my room for the night (where I can keep an eye and ear on her if she needs me), and propped her right in front of the heater to relax.  I gave her some easy chapter books to choose from, and put on the classical music station in the background, after covering her with a nice thick blanket.  And just in case, I put a container next to her in case she feels like throwing up again. 🙂  I left her there cheerful and relaxed, and told her I needed to finish cleaning up the kitchen and a couple more things, and would be right up.  Which is where I’m going now.

So that’s why I couldn’t post earlier, but I wanted to get here before I get to bed and say hi!

Avivah