post-tussin emesis

Do you know what that is? It's projectile vomiting from coughing. It's lovely. The fever started yesterday. Fortunately, these things seem to happen on the weekend and I have my theories about it that I'll share later. Once the fever started we put ourselves in lock-in mode. We stay home and just care for the baby, with just a few exceptions. We had an exception errand so we packed Bella in Matt's car and we were all off. Bella didn't get out of her car seat. On the way home, we heard a few coughs and then a very loud splash. You guessed it! The vomit flew out of her and hit the seat back next to her and fell down into the cracks, where the seat belts were. Penny (yes, Penny was with us in the car) jumped to attention and cleaned 90% before we even made it home. Good Dog! Bella ate strawberry yogurt for lunch. You can imagine what it smelled like. At first, kinda nice, strawberry fields! But then it changed; it was more like putrid, sour, bottom-of-the-trash-can stench. Matt's car is made for clean ups like this. All seats come out completely and there is no carpet so Matt cleaned the car while I cleaned the baby.

Two hours passed and it was dinner time. She seemed hungry so I fed her apple vanilla grain something and beef stroganoff (to heck with baby food making today) from Earth's Best. All was going well, then Matt gave her some Motrin for her fever. A cough later and everything from her tummy was on the floor, high chair tray and on her. Nasty yellow. Did I mention that Matt had just finished cleaning his car - literally, just washed his hands. So, round 2 started. I cleaned the baby (again), Matt cleaned the mess (again) with Penny's help (again). She vomited several more times in the bathtub. We got out Baby 411 and started reading.

Bella has always been a spit-upy kind of kid. Always little barfs all the time, especially after eating and when hungry. We call her Barfarella. It's reflux, but it doesn't bother her so there's not much to do about it. We're just thankful that we have Penny who quickly learned the command "come" once the baby arrived. Previous to baby, Penny was taught "come" but never, ever followed the command.

We learned 3 things from Baby 411. First, it's common for Motrin to upset stomachs. We switched to Tylenol. Second, how to make our own pedialyte. We adminstered it ounce by ounce to coax her tummy into tolerating liquids. Third, it's somewhat common for babies to barf while coughing hard (post-tussin emesis). We stayed up on and off through the night, waking to Bella's cries, giving more pedialyte and tylenol.

After tolerating pedialyte and tylenol we gave her breastmilk (saved, frozen) which she loved. 3.5 ounces down and it seemed to stay down...until a cough. Post-tussin emesis kicked in again and barf was on the floor, but mostly on a towel. It was just a bit, not a tummy full. I cleaned the baby (again) and Penny (again) cleaned the mess. By now, Penny's very well trained about how to clean the carpet so she needed no help from Matt. Matt got a break!

Back to my theory about why she's sick on the weekends. The incubation for most sicknesses is 3-5 days. Our daycare allows sick kids so Bella gets exposed to the germs and by the weekend, she has whatever they have. For instance, a 14 month child in Bella's room had a cough and a 102 degree fever earlier this week. They claim that she was teething and she stayed at daycare, clearly infecting everyone else. Everything I've ever read says that teething does not cause fever, especially a 102 fever. We keep Bella home if she has a fever and keep her home until she back to normal and has been fever-free for over 24 hours. I think this is typical etiquette for sick kids.