Summer Sniffles....

Well, I took Joel to the doctor today for his coughing and wheezing. We actually saw the nurse practitioner. She aggravated me by saying that Joel should have been off the bottle by his first birthday. She also informed me that, since he has a cold, he should have had a jacket with a hood. It was 72 degrees! At first I was upset and felt like the worst mother in the world, but as the day wore on I pretty much decided to blow her off. She doesn't know me or Joel, so she doesn't have much credibility as far as I'm concerned. We are working on getting Joel off the bottle, but he isn't even 18 months old for Heaven's sake! I've seen lots of kids older than him with bottles. ANYWAY....he got a prescription for some cough medicine and we have to go back on the nebulizer for a while. It isn't the end of the world, but he struggles with the nebulizer and doesn't like the medicine at all. He does sound a little better, so maybe this will pass quickly. The nurse practitioner said that right now he just has a cold, but with his history of "reactive airway disorder" (wheezing) he needs the nebulizer to loosen up his chest and avoid airway constriction. She also said that usually kids outgrow RAD by the time they are three when their lungs are bigger and stronger. I hope so! I guess for a couple of years we will just plan on nebulizing him whenever he gets a cold. He is asleep now so maybe he will wake up feeling better in the morning. We did play with his bubble machine for a while and he seemed to like doing that. He needs to perk up though! More later....