A couple of mythical creatures visited our house yesterday; the Chocolate Dervish and the Croup Fairy.
Much like Christmas, the nursery has been winding up the kids for the arrival of the Easter Bunny all week. The Spud came home every day with some Easter-themed concoction - nests made out of cereal; an egg that dyed everything it touched and various other little spring-themed fantasies. The arrival of the Easter Bunny, it was clear, was something we could not ignore.
So, last thing on Saturday night we crop-dusted the flat with chocolate. There were eggs on his trainset. Eggs on his slippers. Eggs on his sofa. A trail of eggs lead to a chocolate Buzz Lightyear. Eggs lurked in nests on tables and chairs, a massive egg hid in the armchair, bright colour eggs sat at Spuddy-eye level on all bookshelves.
About 8am I lurched awake to find him solemnly shaking me. "The Easter Rabbit Did Not Come, Mummy, it DID NOT COME!!' he intoned with no small amount of panic. Clearly he's not much of a morning person.
By 9am he had eaten his weight in chocolate eggs and by 9:15 he had turned into the Tasmanian Devil. After a day of tearing the place apart, he was fast asleep by 8:30; however by midnight it was clear that Bunny may have left the building, but the garden frog had moved into my son's throat.
This is probably the 6th time he has had croup and normally it means 5 hours in hospital plus a dose of steroids. Having recently discovered that the Frog had croup as a child, we resolved this time to treat it the old-fashioned way with steam and night air.
This was a great idea until the kettle caught fire and filled the house with the smell of hot aluminum... after a few minutes we were all croaking. We swaddled him in jackets and blankets and traipsed grimly into the garden to honk up the neighbours and after an hour the entire street was awake, however he had stopped croaking and was demanding Charlie and Lola. Result!
It wasn't a bad day, even with the croup. There was something lovely about sitting in the garden together wrapped in blankets and looking at the stars. It ended well and everyone is fine. Except, that is, for Buzz Lightyear. I am sorry to say that he did not recover from injuries sustained to his head and arms and sadly was put to rest yesterday in Charlie's tum.
11 comments:
Glad you didn't have to go to hospital. Croup is horrid.
So that thing about "the more chocolate you eat, the less likely you are to get croup and other illnesses" - that's not true?
I've never heard of Croup, do we call it something different here? Google? And lol you cracked me up with the buzz lightyear thing :D
Poor little Spud! Hope he's well on the mend by now.
I had croup as a child and my mother used to feed me a couple of drops of Friar's Balsam on a spoon of sugar. Of course, if that sounds too gross, you could put the FB in a bowl of boiling water for inhaling.
My grandson recently had croup - the Dr. treated it with antibiotics and cortisone - mmm, seemed a bit exreme to me, too.
Iota - mmmm... now that would be so easy if it was the case!
Gringa - it's where the larynx swells up and impedes a child's breath, so every inhalation sounds like a swan being strangled in the next room. It can be dangerous but is easy to treat. The main worry is that the honk turns out to be whooping cough which is more dangerous.
Sphinx - you know, you're the second person to talk about Friar's Balsam to me in respect to croup! I have no idea if they still make it, will have to look into it, thanks for that!!
Ugh...the croup. I'm not sure if this is the same as bronchitis or a step worse. They always called it the croup when I was younger. Oh...OK...just read what you wrote to Gringa. It is different than bronchitis. Very scary stuff.
I'm so glad you didn't have to go to the hospital.
Alas, if we'd had a chocolate Buzz Lightyear he would have been slowly eaten as well! :-)
Lisa - I don't know, bronchitis is pretty horrible for kids and croup is rarely fatal as I understand it. It's the 'can't stop coughing' bit that he found the most upsetting...
And Jono would eat Buzz Lightyear slowly? He has a lot of restraint that kid!
Way back in the Jurassic when there were knights in armour and brontosaurases (Sp?) and I was a student nurse we used boiling hot water with Friar's Balsam in pottery jugs with spouts to give some relief to bronchitis and pneumonia patients. It was a lot more effective than Vicks Vaporub, but really just a temporary relief. And believe it or not, I have never seen a child with croup, in hospital or as a public health nurse or a mum. And it is so common. Poor Charlie, glad he is better and hope he enjoyed the rest of Buzz lightyear.
Mum
Ah, the Croup Fairy...brings back memories of standing in the bathroom with the shower going to flush (steam) her out.
Glad to hear you all survived it!
(And hopefully the neighbors didn't leave you any whiney notes about disturbing the peace! ; ] )
Poor Spud. I'm really forntunate that BG isn't really interested in chocolate yet or ask for it!
Life is never dull huh? The whole croup thing sounds scary - a friend of ours little girl ended up in hospital with it. Well done for keeping calm and treating it with the night air - genius. And I love the expression crop dusted with chocolate! x
Mum - another one with the Friar's Balsam! What is this miracle stuff?
Cactus - yes, we've tried that in the past, no doubt will do again... we just don't have the world's greatest shower...
New Mummy - you are indeed! We didn't let him have it for ages but once that door is opened, no amount of carrots can close it!
That Girl - thanks - I think having sat through it 5 times previously has helped with the 'keeping calm' bit...
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