Parent Thread

Just started transitioning to crib-sleeping with my daughter who is 4 month old. So far it has been a mixed bag, two amazing nights, two about-what-I-expected nights and two[email protected]/* <![CDATA[ */!function(t,e,r,n,c,a,p){try{t=document.currentScript||function(){for(t=document.getElementsByTagName('script'),e=t.length;e--if(t[e].getAttribute('data-cfhash'))return t[e]}();if(t&&(c=t.previousSibling)){p=t.parentNode;if(a=c.getAttribute('data-cfemail')){for(e='',r='0x'+a.substr(0,2)|0,n=2;a.length-n;n+=2)e+='%'+('0'+('0x'+a.substr(n,2)^r).toString(16)).slice(-2);p.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(decodeURIComponent(e)),c)}p.removeChild(t)}}catch(u){}}()/* ]]> */?!?! nights. Hasn't helped that my wife is back to work and works nights so I have been flying solo.

Nice part about the wife working is now instead of my wife putting her in a bunch of pink shit I get to dress her in all the geek-stuff I got and then run around in public chastising everyone for being sexisit when they ask me how old my son is. Today is her Star Trek captains shirt, yesterday was this:

Dang skinny jeans! Poor kiddo can't even move her legs I bet!

That Chr score might be a bit low.

That is what I thought when I first saw those pants, but they are actually a nice stretchy material made to look like jeans. Also we are using cloth diapers and they definitely give her a Kardashian butt so most pants that are for her age range look like they fit tight, it is either than or the legs go way past her feet but she seems to kick around just fine.

Your kid looks like my friends kid did at that age.

Just chalk it up to pre-revenge. Make your kid sick now to get them back for the dozens and dozens of times that they will get you sick over the next couple decades. Kids are disease farms.

Wash hands, carry tissues to catch projectiles, wipe down handles with something that contains ammonia or bleach, get sick anyway. Usually you get the flu by ingesting it orally (touching your mouth after touching something). Colds? I imagine the same, but /shrug.

The flu was bad this year I've read a few places. I regret not getting vaccinated for the first time ever. I'm still recovering a little every day, but I'm 99% back to normal. I'll probably try to get a flu shot next year. I don't want to go through that again.

Definitely get flu shots if you have young kids. Maybe you're the type of person that almost never gets sick and never gets the flu, but that doesn't mean you can't pick up the germs and pass them on to your kid, even if it doesn't effect you at all. Our pediatrician basically insisted on it starting last year after our kid was born, and in no uncertain(but nicer) terms informed us that we would be complete idiots to not do it. I never get sick, haven't had the flu in literally decades, so I never got flu shots, but I started last year.

I try to get my flu shot by about the first of November, as it does take a few weeks for the antibodies to really form in your system, so they don't really start working right away, gotta plan a little in advance.

The good news is, in most younger people with fully-functional immune systems, the positive effects can stay in your system for several years, so if you get a flu shot every year, by year 2, 3, 4 + you're immunized against dozens of different strains, not just the handful that were targeted in that years shots. Its a cumulative effect.

We wash our hands religiously and use paper towels to dry them, instead of a towel. My wife is a kindergarten teacher, so our kid is pretty much screwed when she goes back to work but at least it should build his immunities.

Deathwing_sl said:

How long do strains stick around? I guess I had assumed that older ones just eventually exit because the population becomes immune.

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It's kind of a grey area from what little I know. FLU strains mutate constantly, so one strain could work its way around the globe and be totally different by the time it gets back to where it started and you can get it a 2nd time. So a lot of it depends on just how much a strain mutates. Some basic strains stick around for years and years, but they are always changing slightly, it just depends on how long it's been around, and how much it's changed if the vaccination is still effective or not.

The flu shot sucked this year.

We've all got the flu at our house. My girls are so miserable they have reverted to crying how they did when they were babies. One sounds like a duck right now when she talks.

A couple weeks ago I was showing our girls pictures from when they were born. Our daughter with ABS got sad and started crying after she saw a few of her and her hand with the necrotic fingertips. Broke our hearts, all over again.

We're going back to see her orthopaedic surgeon soon to see what she thinks about Web spacing since she now has started the slightest thumb movement. They would cut the skin between her fingers on her little hand so they could have more movement as its kind of grown together. The most realistic goal is for her to have a basic pincer grasp with her thumb and middle finger.

Even though she's slightly handicapped, and this is probably all due to her occupational therapy, she can take off her jacket, shoes, socks, clothes, diaper, all by herself. Her sister struggles with several of those but is almost to the point of being capable of the same. Getting dressed is still a challenge and sometimes hilarious to watch.

Tuco_sl said:

So I'm getting over a cold. What do you guys do to prevent sickness from spreading in your household with children?

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In early Dec I got a pretty bad cold from my kids. That lasted until around Christmas, then we all got the flu around new years. After getting over the flu I have had a sinus infection and still can't hear out of one ear. Other than a constant, maddening ringing. This has all happened before, and it will happen again.

Disease is your new housemate, love it bro.

Anyone had a toddler with constant runny nose? Most of the family was sick back in November with strep which she didn't get because she's too young, but she did end up with a cold and a runny nose. Since then she has had one basically non stop. It cleared up for a bit in December then came back. She isn't uncomfortable at all, no fever, just constant runny nose.

Allergies?