Anemia

During Stink Bait's 2 year well baby check, I asked his pediatrician when he would finally stop putting objects in his mouth. We could be eating dinner and he wouldn't touch his food. Then when you take the plate away, you turn around and he is eating the napkin! The child knows that he is not supposed to put certain things in his mouth yet he does it anyway. He seemed perfectly healthy to her until I mentioned this. She did a blood test and found that he was low on iron. Really low.

She prescribed an oral iron supplement (liquid) and wanted to check him again in six weeks. Now, I don't know where he gets it from, but this child is STUBBORN! And SMART! The directions stated that we needed to dilute the medicine, don't allow dairy products within 2 hours, and take it twice a day. Easy enough... However, my child is/was a milkaholic! So we cut back the milk, which was part of the problem to begin with. Next obstacle is getting that damn medicine down him.

We started out with juice.... after the first cup or two, he caught on. Refused to drink juice. Then we tried just plain water.... We succeeded once. He was boycotting liquids all together in our house unless he watched us get a clean cup out of the cupboard and put only water in it! I tried the straw approach. Wrong! Putting it in food. Wrong again! This child learned the phrase "I don't want to..." very quickly! 2 years old!!!! We had an old fashioned stand off and the sitter was about to kill me for it. My instructions to her was don't give him anything else to drink until he drinks this 2 ounces of liquid. Guess what? That didn't work either and I caved.

Last resort... operation shove it down his throat.... undiluted. Brush teeth directly after. The first time you can imagine what happened. Yep, we were cleaning up the contents of his stomach. We finally, after three weeks, figured out how to get it down him without him gagging and throwing up. He will sit in a chair, crying of course, and allow me to hold his arms down while golf man pours it in his mouth. Then we both blow furiously in his face. He doesn't fight as hard as he did anymore. But it is still a battle. The saving grace... the kids LOVES to brush his teeth. So as along as we promise him that he can brush his teeth, he will take the medicine! Go figure!

But I will tell you.... that kid is too smart for his own good!