Ear infections, Molars & Weaning OH MY

It's been a rough week in Liam's World... just miserable.

Liam's runny nose and whining has been a real fun-sucker the past few weeks, especially since Wednesday. The fact that he can't communicate his feelings/needs has been even more frustrating than the fun-sucking alone.

That whole "asthma" thing was, in my summation, a bad night with a molar breaking through. I found that pearly white a couple weeks later and had an AHA moment! You'd think the pediatrician would have checked his mouth when we went in for that "asthma" deal... not that I thought he had trouble breathing, I just had a relentless sobbing/moaning child for 15 too many hours... SOMETHING was WRONG! I guess being in that much pain and crying for that long with the right level of snot and congestion from teething can really mess one's breathing up!

Anyway, before I found that molar I was to the point of taking desperate measures to get rid of the high levels of snot and slime. I got a tip that dairy is a monster product that can really mess with histamine levels... furthermore that too much soy milk can effect my child's hormone growth... and even more horrifying that I have been pushing that soy milk so much so that I may have caused an allergy for my poor baby! My mind was twirling. I was so sure I needed to find a natural path to get him feeling good again. Teething shmeething, it had to be more than that!

WRONG!

After no dairy or soy for a week, a chiropractic adjustment in the middle of that week, natural immune boosters, creatively healthy and BORING diet choices... Liam is the same.

Then 3 days after that (Wednesday, April 11th) he has a temperature (won't eat, super irritable) so I take him to the doctor again suspecting his first ear infection. Tadah... Infections in both ears actually. Kids at that age with that much snot for this long can't drain it all properly, so it gets infected. Now I know. What a treat...

My poor kid was beyond miserable, flushed and zombie-like prior to getting to the dr. office and the same afterwards. In between though, while at the dr. office, absolutely ballistic! Liam would NOT calm down. He knew what that place was. I was so desperate to calm him that I nursed him (something a mom weaning a 17-mo-old should never do, I have since learned). I did feel fortunate that I had something to comfort him with, though. Liam cannot take meds orally... He. Will. Throw. It. Up. That said, a big needle was anticipated to be coming to a toddler leg near me... I prepared him by bearing his leg and nursing him until the nurse came to stab my child. All would be well until he felt the prick. He went nuts once again, but I was able to calm him down again.

So the aftermath of nursing a distressed and weaning child... it ain't pretty.

With more than the 3 additional molars breaking through, the ear ache and hunger pains, I think Liam is most upset at the fact that I am not nursing him in the day time (because of this one incident of me giving in). We have been down to one 5 or 6am feeding for quite a while now. Yes, there is the occasional feeding at earlier hours of the morning when he awakes and WILL NOT go back down without drinks, but I was only letting him nurse when he was basically asleep... the most opportune time for me to do it (so I get more rest and because alert/day time feedings are a real and literal pain when you have a writhing monkey attached to sensitive body parts).

Anyway, he wants to nurse so badly that he will get in my lap and literally beg me with "Peez, peez, peez"... it is a pathetic sight. What's worse is when I have said "no, I am sorry" more than once, he will throw the biggest and wildest fit you ever set eyes on! He does this sort of thing in the middle of the night, too, when he doesn't get what he woke up for. It's so so so sad! And since he had full access to me all of Saturday and Sunday, the fits and pleadings were amplified by like 100. I was at my wits end. I just didn't know what to do. I still don't.

I do know this, though. We took Liam back to the dr. this evening because he still isn't eating like he should. (He may be on a food strike to show mama that her milk is the only way to go.) The dr. said his right ear is completely clear and healed and his left ear is 90% clear. So the dr. checked his mouth and confirmed that most irritability was probably related to those dang molars.

In closing, I haven't blogged for over a week. Simply because I haven't had anything real sweet to say. I only took four photos of my darling snot box in a week's time. How odd is this for Liam's mom? Odd... very strange. But hopefully things will start looking up soon. Oh golly, it's got to get better!

Here is our tiny vulture mooching "Da Da's" VERY nutritious Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Liam would only eat "Da Da's" Trix the past few days. Don't judge me for feeding my kid sugar packed and color dyed cereal!
Seriously, he will not eat anything else. Sick indeed!