Easter Runaway

At 9:32 this morning, Justin Alexander found out that he would be spending Easter morning in the doctor's office rather than in church. At that point, he proceeded to run away from home but as expected he didn't make it very far.

"Another doctor's visit? ... I'm so outta here."

Umm... This is the part where you chase after me... Hello????

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The Verdict
And so to the doctor we went to finally address the remnants of cold that Justin has had for over two weeks. As it turns out, the (ear) infection that he was treated for some weeks ago never fully left his system; which explains the lingering cough, runny nose, and occasional sneezes with icky discharge. The verdict today was a sinus infection and we were sent home with some more antibiotics and the usual order for plenty of fluids.

In terms of every other factor in his life, Justin has been all that we could have possibly asked for in a baby... everything from his intelligence to his temperament, down to his sleeping habits and adorable smile. But if the boy is one thing, he is apparently a sponge for health issues. If he could spell it, I'd accuse him of being a hypochondriac. But on the other hand, in the larger scheme of things, the truth is that he is probably not considered very sickly. Nor have any of his ailments been anything out of the norm as far as baby illnesses go (common colds, breathing issues, chest congestion, ear and sinus infections). But of course, when it's your child, it seems like the sky is falling and that the healthy days are too few and far between. And of course as new parents especially, we sometimes struggle to not take it personal.

It is especially demoralizing given that we are so overly cautious with him. We carefully monitor the temperature of his room, dress him appropriately, keep tabs on his contact with other people, etc... yet and still we end up in the doctor's office every 6 hours for something new. Meanwhile, every time we go to Wal-mart we see families with either... (a) babies that look about 12 minutes old and don't even have immune systems yet. Sometimes they look so young that I swear they had to just give birth to them in aisle 15 or something... or... (b) an infant / toddler on the coldest day of the month with no shoes, no socks, no coat, and no hat (all of which the parents have on themselves, mind you)... and a short-sleeve tee-shirt that says, "My Mommy Loves Me"(but yet mommy couldn't buy you a scarf).

But WE are the ones that end up in the aisle 26 looking for the Baby Motrin. These other kids look like they could lick a shopping cart wheel and not catch a germ, while Justin will get a runny nose from passing by the frozen food section. Good grief. Where's the justice?

Pros and Cons
Then of course there's the whole daycare vs. stay-at-home and breastmilk vs. formula-fed debates that some would argue until they were blue the face. The truth is, those are experimental statistics, not absolutes. And so I often find myself reminding V that, yes, "statistics show" that breastmilk-fed babies are less susceptible to illness... BUT that does not translate to the statement "breastmilk babies do not get sick". These studies are done across samples of thousands of kids and based on overall percentages (45% of type A stayed healthy versus 51% of type B, for example). Which means that for any given individual, anything can happen. And so the way I look at it is, imagine if Justin wasn't breastmilk fed!! Without the extra antibodies and whatnot that he gained from his mom, the kid would would've probably contracted some new cross-strand of polio and small pox... followed by measles, tuberculosis, whooping cough, tetanus, and Alzheimer's. All before turning 5 months old.

As for the daycare vs. stay-at-home argument, the doctor this morning was quick to point out that this is often overstated as well. She went on to tell a story that we've heard a dozen times already: Her first child stayed home for a year and contracted every possible sickness in the process... while child #2 was sent to daycare, ate dirt and drank mud everyday, and never sniffled until she was 14 years old. And of course for every six people with such a story, you'll have 1/2 dozen more that tell you the exact opposite ("junior was never sick until that first week of daycare!")... As a statistics teacher, I've gotta admit that it irks me when people cannot discern the difference between correlation and causation... but that's a whole different blog entry...

In the End...
As for Justin's experience, with only 3 other kids in his small daycare environment (none of which ever seem to be sick) I'm guessing we'd be hard pressed to pinpoint this as the culprit either. And so although we'd love to blame ourselves and sit around contemplating what we've done wrong... the bottom line is becoming more and more apparent. Justin's immune system is about as strong as Popeye, pre-spinach, and we're just going to have to endure these occasional bouts with illness until his system matures enough to put up more of a fight (which can be any day now... tomorrow would be nice). In the meantime, we only ask that you try your best not to laugh, point or stare as we roll our beloved son down the block in his hypoallergenic transportable bubble.

Here's to good health.