What is best for the child...

As a parent, you have to do a lot of things that aren't pleasant. Some of them are because you know it is the right thing to do, some of it is because it is the best thing to do and some things simply because you have to do what is best for the child.

This is one of those types. It was something that was best for the child but not best for Grandma! Alyssa has a bout with pneumonia. She hasn't run a fever at all, but has had a bad cough that just kept getting worse, and would not eat anything. Then she started having a raspy rattle every time she would breath. The doctor prescribed breathing treatments with a nebulizer. You know, those machines that your Grandma had to use to keep breathing.

I knew she wasn't going to like it, had already been warned by her mom. So, I thought we would try to make a game out of it. Pretended to put the mask on and giggle then take it away. Turned the machine on so the noise wasn't scaring her (she hates noises)...everything was fine, until I tried to put the mask on her. The fight was on!

She is only 16 months old, but she is already stronger than Grandma! Holding her arms down, trying to hold the mask on her and trying to keep her head still...I really got a workout. I'm not sure who cried more, her or me. I was really having my doubts as to whether or not she was getting any benefit from it, but now as she is exhaustedly sleeping, there is no raspy noises at all. In fact, if I did not see her chest rise and fall, I would not even know she was breathing!

This makes me think back to all the things I've had to do as a mom...things I never would have thought I could do, but managed. Simply because I knew it had to be done for a sick child. Things I can now turn over to mom or dad...because Grandma should be the one the kids run to when bad things happen...not the one that is making the bad things happen!

Nini