Surviving the Domestic Jungle

If its not one child sick, its the other! My little Hailey has a terrible cold and is pretty much miserable. Avery has just gotten over some bug that was pretty rough on her so I suppose it was Hailey’s turn for a day or two in jammies. Trying to keep my kids healthy is a losing battle this winter. I cant control what Avery does at school but I have given her all the essential tools of knowledge about washing hands etc. At home, they both get little kid vitamins and they both wash their hands a lot. Well, not so much Hailey but definitely Avery. When we get home from anywhere, it is straight to the sink to wash up. If everyone would just wash their hands what a difference it would make! I remember last year with that whole pig flu thing, I saw huge bottles of hand sanitizer on sale everywhere because people were paranoid about it. When I went to my pediatrician around that same time, I asked her if it had made a difference in how healthy or unhealthy kids were and she said that there had been a decrease in illnesses that winter. There is the argument that some bacteria is good and believe me, you are getting bacteria whether you wash your hands or not! Anyway, now that Hailey is sick, we are taking a day off and playing at home. It was a beautiful day for the park but, sacrifieces must be made for health!! I dont take my kids to the doctor for every little cold and every little fever. Kids get sick! That’s what they do and it sucks for them but most of the time there’s nothing a doctor can really do anyway. Of course if it is an infection of some sort (ear, sinus etc) but little viruses just need to work themselves out. Right now, we dont have insurance and the funny thing is, some doctor appointments are acutally a lot cheaper than if you used insurance. You have to reach your deductible, you have co-pays and of course, my favorite, everything is more expensive when you use insurance! Hailey got a shot and a well-child check up a few weeks ago and the whole thing was only about $100 dollars! That is not bad! With insurance that probably would have been $300. For the big stuff, you get sizable discounts but even 30% off $10,000.00 doesnt make that much of a dent! Anyway, we are working on getting better and staying better!!