Thank you (read sarcasm here)

Warning- this is a rant from a tired Momma

This is a post for my dear friends in Washington D.C. who.......













decided that children under the age of 4 can not be given over the counter cold medicines. Apparently, we parents are a bunch of idiots who regularly overdose our children on OTC meds. So to protect our children, the government has stepped in and decided what we can and can not give our children when they are sick.

Admit it, you thought this was going to be about the bail out or election didn't you?

Case in point, Bug has been battling allergies and sinus drainage for the last 5 weeks. It started with the typically fall crude that comes this area, was exacerbated by the Hurricane and then it just continued to build up until he finally gave in. All the while, I have battled the same symptoms, but I can take any OTC I want. For Bug, I had to try steam, OTC allergy meds (there are a few that work, one of which I can give to Bug for a few days at a time), hot soup, hot tea and just about anything else I could think of. None of it worked, and the for the last week, I have watched him struggle with the sinus drainage, praying he would not get a sinus infection or an infection in his lungs.
Well, Monday, he lost the battle and was coughing for an hour at time. When your baby wakes up at 1 am coughing so much he nearly throws up, sweating from the effort of trying to clear his lungs, you know it is time to seek help. So Tuesday, Bug was too sick to go to daycare and we spent the morning at the doctor's office.
He is now on an antibiotic medication, thanks to the infection. His doctor understood my frustration, but she could not even give me dosing info on cough medicine for later this season.
This sucks- I am not trying to dose my child at every sign of a cough, I am trying to prevent more serious medical issues by alleviating his symptoms when they worsen to the point that he needs relief and it is not yet an infection. It pisses me off that if Bug was hospitalized, they would give him cough medicine that I can buy in the stores but for which there no longer is dosing recommendation for his age group. What is up with that, if the medicine can't be given to children 4 and under, then it should be across the board. But really, I just want to be able to get the dosing info so that I can dose my son when he needs it. I do not need the government telling me that my son is not important enough to received medicine. I do not need them to tell me how to parent, or for them to say that I am not smart enough to care for my son. I know my son, I know his symptoms, his moods, his comfort level and right now I have no options to make it better.

But- get this- he is in the recommended age group for a flu shot. Why? because the government realizes that with OTC meds, the likely hood of children getting flu to a worse degree than adults is significantly higher. So if you have a pre-schooler and you were thinking of not getting the flu shot for your child, you might want to think again. because even if you buy OTC meds for your child, the pharmacist, the doctor, the nurse, etc can not tell you the dosage to give your child (even if the know)

So thanks government for insuring that I will likely have to take a few more days off this flu season to care for my son, thanks for the late nights, the feeling of powerlessness I will have as I watch my son suffer symptoms I can take medicine for, thanks for the missed hours at work, thanks for the guilt I will feel as I notify my bosses that I have to miss another day, thanks for the fear that will creep into my mind as I notify them that perhaps I could lose my job due to missed work days. Thanks for helping me take care of my child- you guys are doing a great job being my son's advocate. Oh and thanks for the increase risk of over exposure to antibiotics- since by the time I take him in to the doctor's office, he will need another prescription for an antibiotic.


Love to you,
Momma Bug (who is symptom free thanks to medicines)