Noah was Sick and Child Health Tips

This past weekend Noah hit two milestones. I am not happy about these milestones but I knew it was going to happen at some point. The first milestone that makes you a worried parent was his very first ear infection. He also had Pink Eye.  It’s common to get an ear infection and Pink eye at the same time because everything is so close together. He was miserable. His eyes were so red and he screamed about his ears hurting. I had to take him to the doctor after keeping him home two days from school. Sure enough he was sick. The doctor basically looked at him and said he has pink eye and looked in his ears and he had an ear infection. That was that. She handed me a prescription for Augmentin aka the super expensive antibiotic, that no store includes in free antibiotics.  So this is milestone number two, he had his very first prescription. Any other illness he has had was treatable with over the counter stuff. He is extremely healthy. *Knocks on wood twice*. The two different places I went the pharmacists were impressed when I said it was his very first prescription when they asked me if he had been there before. 

I thought I would share some tips on keeping your children healthy.

Wash hands after going to the bathroom and before you eat. You can also wash your hands when you come home from the grocery store.

 Parents you are the example, if you start a routine your child will follow

If you are eating something with nuts wash your hands after, so you don’t accidently make someone else sick.

Take multivitamins every day

Eat healthy and drink a lot of milk and water

Keep your hands to yourself, don’t share hairbrushes, lip balms etc, with your friends. They may be sick.

Be aware of what sicknesses are going around where your child goes to school

Keep doctor’s appointments and well checkups.

If you choose to vaccinate, keep up to date on their shots

Don’t share drinks or share food with others

If your child gets sick, remind them to:

Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze and throw away used tissues.

Stay home from school or daycare until you don’t have a fever or at least a day or two with a cold.

Sometimes when you are sick you miss out on fun things like field day or a trip to the playground but you don’t want to make your friends sick too.

Rest as much as possible, even if you think you feel better, you still need rest.

Even if your mom pays extra for them to flavor your meds and it tastes bad, you still need to take it.

Parents don’t stress, sickness happens. It’s usually just a germ they picked up. Remember the more
children your child is in contact with, the more likely they will get sick.

For more health tips and great information about health check out Molina Healthcare.

The opinions in this article are my own. I do not work for, or with, any brand mentioned in this article, nor do I have any official relationship with them.  I have a relationship with GigaSavvy, for whom I create original editorial content. 

GreatCall Urgent Care App Review

We all get sick sometimes. I don’t always know if it is serious enough to go to the doctor or not. Sometimes you just don’t feel good.  As a mom, it is hard to know if your child has just a virus or if it’s an infection. It seems to usually happen at night or during holidays, when no one is open.  Of course if it were serious, I would go to the emergency room, but most cases it’s a tummy ache or a sore throat or something that doesn’t need a hospital. I would also feel guilty about going and taking up their precious time when it wasn’t serious. I learned about an app called GreatCall Urgent Care. It will put you in touch with a nurse for advice. It reminds me of that Ask a Nurse service they had in the 90’s. They used to play the commercials for it all the time.  I remember watching the ads at my Grandma Rose’s house with my cousin Dan.

GreatCall Urgent Care is really easy to use. I haven’t had to use the phone service yet and hopefully never will. It is great to have just in case. How many times have you gone back and forth on whether or not you need to go to the doctor? I have done it before, mostly for myself.  One of them being when I fell down the stairs and bruised my tailbone really badly. I love that it also has a medical dictionary, Google is great but can be unreliable.  I also like the symptom checker because I can see what possible health problem I have.

Here is more information from the developer:

The free GreatCall Urgent Care app allows you to:

• Have one-touch access to a live nurse for advice 24/7, who can escalate the call to a board-certified physician if needed
• Get health-related assessments, general health information, diagnosis or even a prescription
• Have access to an easy-to-understand medical dictionary
• Research your symptoms with the medical symptom checker tool.

It’s particularly convenient to use this tool when:

• You simply don’t have time to run to the doctor,
• You need medical advice when your physician or Urgent Care is closed or unavailable
• You don’t feel totally comfortable discussing your symptoms in person with your normal doctor
• You want to save money. (The app is free, and calls are only $3.99. Much less expensive than a doctor’s bill or co-pay!)
• You have a quick on-set of symptoms
• Etc.

For more information please visit GreatCall Urgent Care

GreatCall Urgent Care App is available in the iTunes and Google Play Store.