Author’s practical guidance
A slight cold, a whole day lost
Source named in the book: illness and recovery in early childhood (AAP)
Young children cannot locate or describe what is wrong with much accuracy.
Say this now
“Your body is busy today. We're doing less.”
Explains the flatness without asking them to describe symptoms they cannot describe.
“Point to where it feels bad.”
Pointing works when words do not, and it gives you something more useful than a rating.
Do this
- Clear the day rather than reducing it, if you have the choice.
- Expect the day after the symptoms to be part of it.
- Keep food and drink small and frequent rather than at normal mealtimes.
- Ask them to point instead of asking where it hurts.
- Move bedtime earlier without announcing it as a rule.
Avoid this
- "It's just a cold." — accurate about the virus, not about their day.
- Keeping the normal schedule to avoid setting a precedent.
- "You were playing five minutes ago!" — children this age cycle in and out much faster than adults do.
TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR IF
- Any fever in a baby under three months.
- A fever lasting more than three days.
- Breathing is fast, noisy or looks like hard work.
- They refuse to drink, or no wet diaper for eight hours.
- They are hard to wake, floppy or not themselves.
Why the book suggests this
Young children cannot locate or describe what is wrong with much accuracy. A blocked nose, a sore throat and a headache all arrive as a general sense that everything is worse, and the only report available is behavior.
So a mild illness that an adult would work through shows up as a child who cannot manage anything at all. The illness is minor. The effect on a child who was already operating with little in reserve is not, and it usually lasts a day past the symptoms.
From this collection
Same Words: Deep Feelings
45 prepared situations in this family area.