When will this sick winter ever end??

If you're feeling like you need to Clorox all of your walls, floors, and doors, and you're contemplating whether or not you need to develop, patent, and mass-market an antibacterial lotion that you could just coat your children in from head to toe, you're not alone!  This winter has been pretty brutal in terms of childhood illnesses.  Thankfully, it's been brutal in the not-life-threatening-but-just-pesky-enough-that-I-can't-get-all-of-my-kids-healthy-at-the-same-time sort of a way.  Nonetheless, it's frustrating - I know first-hand with all of the illness that's been floating through my 3-kid household.  When a trying sick season attacks your family personally, it's tempting to scream, "What am I doing wrong???!!"  The first reality, is that every year, from October through March, we see an upswing in typical childhood illnesses.  I remember in med school when I rotated through pediatrics for the first time.  The doctors I trained under kept referring to "RSV Season" and "influenza season."  I remember thinking, "Pediatric illnesses are so bad that they actually refer to on them as seasons??!"   The second reality, is that it doesn't take much to make a so-called perfect storm.  Here's what I mean:  your daughter started preschool this year, your son suddenly developed an obsession with sticking his fingers in his mouth , you took that trip to visit the cousins up in NY and they were all sick, your kids got invited to exactly 57 birthday parties in a span of 3 weeks...the list could go on and on, but the bottom line is this:  If you've had the misfortune of suffering from a particularly long winter sick season in your home, shed the guilt, quell the worry, and wear it proudly as a badge of parental honor that this was your year, and next winter it'll be the family down the street who's children haven't missed a single day of school this year.  It's the law of averages!

Lastly, I thought I'd share some information on the use of temporal artery thermometers.  If today's post applies to your family, and if, like my kids, your children look at you sideways when you suggest that you need to check their temperature, you may be interested to read this recent study on temporal artery thermometers! (Right-click on the link to take you directly to the page).

http://appliedclinicaltrialsonline.findpharma.com/appliedclinicaltrials/Phase+News/New-Study-Finds-Temporal-Artery-Thermometry-Equiva/ArticleNewsFeed/Article/detail/707862