I haven’t been writing on Mommy Diaries for a while now. Perhaps because there are many blogs supporting women through postpartum, I didn’t see the need to write anything that has not already been dealt with before. Hence after a lot of deliberation I am finally writing this.
Diarrhea.
I know, I know, Bengali’s are obsessed with poop and the movie Piku pretty much showed Bandyopadhyay (Banerjee/Tagore) poop-obsession via a Bollywood movie exaggeration.
But come now, if you have a 10 month old baby who is pooping liquid and vomiting – to the point you get a call from the Kita (Kindertagesstätte/Children’s Day Care) to inform you, you don’t think “oh my parents brought me up without much medicines so I don’t need to take my child to the doctor, kid will be fine”.
No.
No. Forget your upbringing and previous knowledge, empty your jar full… and run to the doctor! Viruses are the most common cause for diarrhea in children. Teething babies want to put everything in their mouth so there’s no saying what’s getting them sick. Infectious viruses like rotavirus, bacteria like salmonella and parasites like giardia can cause viral gastroenteritis infection with fever, headache, stomach cramps and vomiting – alongside loose-motion. And this can be catastrophic if not treated in time. Once you consult the doctor you will know that oral rehydration solutions are strongly recommended for infants and toddlers with diarrhea and any child with frequent diarrhea or vomiting. And in some cases the doctor will also suggest natural yogurt in small quantities as it helps maintain good stomach-intestinal flora.
Other thing is salty food. I’ve realised that of-late we have been giving our boy minuscule taste of soups and food that we eat. Since he is teething it has been hard to get him to eat anything, so opening his perception to a variety was also a call for us. In such situations one has to regulate how much salt is in that food. If there’s too much salt this can cause stomach-upset. And babies under one should not consume more than 1-3mg of salt that is usually already present in their baby food. So even if you ate chicken-shit by accident and stealthily drank soup from grandpa’s soup bowl at lunch while playing on his lap, and survived to tell the tale, – kindly avoid this with your child. Accidents can happen. Let’s try to prevent it as much as possible without the cock-n-bull story of “it develops immune system”.
Sigh.
When we were conceived (at least the ones born before the year 2000), our moms could smoke and drink while pregnant without a doctor there to yell at them. And I don’t even want to imagine what their mothers did when they were pregnant with our parents! My grand-mother-in-law pointed out (when she saw the number of check-ups my co-sister and I have to go to during our pregnancy – as our boys are two months apart) that she didn’t have check-ups at all while pregnant. She just knew she was pregnant and then delivered the baby when it was time. Different era – different practices. Without them being so strong, we wouldn’t be here. Today, not seeing a doctor during pregnancy is unthinkable. Medicine has advanced monumentally since our grandparents time and so has science alongside our lovely society. Let’s make complete use of this privilege and not live under a stone.
So yes, don’t impose your upbringing on your child. Use your parental sense. Run to the doctor and get those meds!
ANTHROPOLOGY OF LOVE 