Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Let's Hear It!

My first daughter had to take liquid steroids every day for eight months to help reduce the size of a birthmark on her cheek. My second daughter now takes antibiotics every day to help prevent infections due to a birth defect. The result?

I'm pretty darn good at giving medicine to babies.


Here are my tips:

1. Instead of using the squeeze-top syringe or the small cup that comes with the medicine from the store, ask a pharmacy for a plastic syringe. It is much easier to measure the medicine accurately and to control how quickly it comes out.

2. Hold the syringe in the baby's mouth for a while before actually starting to squirt it out. Give them just a second to get used to it before introducing the medicine.

3. You may need to pause between squirts to prevent the medicine from spilling back out, but keep the syringe in their mouth. If you take it out each time, you almost have to start over. Especially in younger babies, this will usually encourage them to start sucking and they may give themselves the medicine.

4. Have a pacifier, bottle, or breast (or sippy cup for older kids) ready. As soon as the medicine is gone, pop it in. This will help the child swallow any medicine that may still be pooled up in their mouth and help prevent them from spitting anything back out.

I don't necessarily enjoy giving my children medicine, but through lots of experience, I have become good at it. Yes, I am bragging.

And now it's your turn!

We want to know what you're good at! It's easy for all of us to get down on ourselves from time to time, feeling overwhelmed by all the things we feel like we could do better but aren't. But we all have something that we can do well, no matter what else is going on.

For just a moment, take a break from all your worries of the day and think of one thing that you feel you excel at as a mom and share it with us!


6 comments:

Tannie Datwyler said...

So... I've thought about this for a while since you posted. :) I'll start the bragging posts rolling....

It seems like there are so many mom things that I am "good" at, but nothing that I really excel in. I am just as good as most moms at most things. So this actually was a little hard to come up with something. My initial thought was that I'm good at teaching my kids, which is a no brainer since I'm a former educator. And I think that I am.... but I don't always excel at it - I know I could do so much better at that.

So, here is one I came up with. I am good with fussy babies!!

Both my kids were fuss buckets at some point (aren't almost all babies?) But neither of them had colic and/or screamed for hours at a time, so I can't say that I've been tested to my fullest extent. However, I know a lot of calming techniques that I've learned from books and DVDs. I remember when my nephew was freaking out (he was about 2 months old) and my MIL had been holding him for 5 minutes and couldn't calm him down. So I asked if I could take him and managed to calm him down. That's when I realized that I wasn't afraid of crying babies.

Now, I can't always calm a fussy kid (sometimes, no one can) but I do feel I'm pretty successful at it. Most of all though - I'm not AFRAID of a crying baby. Moms tell me all the time, "I'm so sorry, but when we watch him/her you will deal with a lot of crying, you can call me if it gets too much" and I say, "bring it on." I'd feel like a failure if I had to call a mom while I was watching her baby, no matter how fussy. I totally can handle it. Even if I don't get the kid calmed down, I can still deal with the crying and keep trying.

Rebecca said...

Well I am a brand new mommy so I'm just learning but the one thing that I'd say I'm really good at is swaddling my baby. It's not as good as they do in the hospital but it's pretty close! :)

Shantel said...

I have noticed lately that I am a great carseat installer. If I install a carseat you know that it will be firmly held in place and will hardly budge no matter how earnest your attempts to move it. It's small, but something I certainly excel at!

Jared and Delia said...

Those tips are great Laura. I have thought about this but I don't really know what to share. As a mom I tend to think of my faults first or I think of myself as pretty average at most things so I guess if I get past that I would say I am pretty darn good at changing diapers. If I really need to I can use one wipe on a three wiper diaper or if there is not much and I can go wipeless in emergencies by using the dirty diaper. Sorry...kind of graphic. I am also pretty quick even with a wiggly baby.

Tannie Datwyler said...

These are awesome!! I totally laughed at your's Delia - that's a great one. :) Made me smile.

I love swaddling babies Rebecca. :) That's one thing I think I'm pretty good at too. Hehehe.

I like the carseat one too Shantel - I think I need help with that one sometimes!

Jennifer said...

yep. I am pretty quick at changing those crazy diapers.