I thought I make a post out of this just in case someone needed to read it.
I'm back from Nigeria now but the days leading up to our return had me struggling to nurse an ailing child back to health.
DS had suddenly developed an irritable cough, a diarrhoea, severe loss of appetite, and endless bouts of incessant crying- nothing seemed to appease him.
I had gone to a family friend's house who had two sons aged 19 months and 3 years old and so when, before leaving for home that day, DS began to scratch his eyes furiously- which were themselves bloodshot- and to sneeze over and over ( at some point sneezing out blood), we rushed him to the hospital thinking it must be a viral infection in the air.
The gave him some allergy medication at the hospital and booked him in for a blood test the next day- it was late in the evening and the paediatrician had gone home.
He ran a high fever and cried the whole night- I think I joined in the cry at some point as I was physically and mentally exhausted and wished I could just take the pain he was feeling away!
It took all my willpower to hold still until the crack of dawn to get to the hospital, I was ready to appear there at 4am..... I managed to contain my anxiety and was there at 7am.
We saw the paediatrician who checked his ears with some instrument and the verdict?
DS had an ear infection. Infact, BOTH ears were infected!
I had a flashback to the night before when he'd cried incessantly- he had repeatedly tugged at his ear whilst closing his eyes ( as though he had been enjoying it ) and so I had thought it'd been merely the regular relief/soothing effect one normally got when one cleaned one's ears- I hadn't known it was much more than that!
I asked how that could have happened and was told that it could have been as a result of having water trapped in the ears (???) and was advised to shampoo his hair with his head backwards and not to have water running down his body from the head- I was advised to use a wash cloth to clean his face and ears.
I read up on ear infections immediately we got home and realised that DS had displayed classic symptoms:
1) He had presented with crying and generally being inconsolable for no evident reason
2) The little foodie suddenly lost all appetite- not even his best go-to-meal, Indomie noodles, could entice him into having a wee bite. I read that the act of chewing and swallowing in itself exacerbated the pain the child was feeling in his ear which generally put them off food
3) The sudden fever was highly indicative of an ear infection
4) The sudden constant stooling/diarrhoea should have alerted me had I had prior info on this,
5) The general uneasiness and inability to sleep- DS was literally up all night fussing and crying.
So, I just thought I share this because, prior to this incident, it never occured to me that African kids could have allergies/ailments as foreign sounding to me at least) as "ear infections"- I'd never heard of it..... Or maybe na me just dey ignorant but I will own my ignorance in that case.
So mums, the next time you see your little one tugging continuously at his ear, you better check to see that it's not infected!
Until we meet here again,
Love Always,
Judgejudyjudy...
X
No comments