what should i do?

[arwen]

well, we went to the mcdonalds play place today....
when i first stepped in i heard a loud wet burp :wow and saw the mom holding her little girl and putting her hand up that i assumed was to catch her throw up :sick
i should have left...
but she said do you want to eat, here eat some of this...
i knew she must not be feeling well but i didn't really know and was too afraid to ask...

they had an older boy who played in the playground area...close area too...my kids played, had a good time...ran around...
the mom and dd left...the father was left to chase the boy to try and get his shoes on....
then we see the mom coming in telling the father to hurry because the dd had puked everywhere :doh

so i ran to target and got some chewable echinacea and vit c...i'm giving it to my kids...but wondering if there is anything else i can do?
other than pray of course....

and be mad too...why do parents insist on bringing their children to public places like that when they are sick!? :rolleyes
but i guess i should just be mad at myself...because i didn't leave. :shrug

[BeckaBlue]

no, i think they shouldn't have come, unless of course the dd was puking from reflux and not sickness :shrug

you had every right to be there. hope your kids stay healthy! *crossing fingers*

[cobluegirl]

I would start giving other immune boosters as well as vit c and acidophilus and if they will let you peroxide the ears once a day for a week. Germs like to enter through the ears.

[2sunshines]

As a side point, the child may not have been sick. My dd throws up sometimes while eating, just because she puts too much in her mouth or it doesn't go down right or something. So it's not an uncommon thing for us to be out eating, catch her throwing up, and she is not sick at all. I wouldn't want other children (or children's parents) to be afraid of her because of this. :(

If the child was sick, just give your child what everyone else has recommended.

Think of it this way -- it's helping to build your children's immune system to, right? :mrgreen

Praying that your children stay healthy... :pray

[ChristineG]

Echinacea and vit c are great, but the studies all show that absolute very best thing you can do to prevent illness from spreading is to wash your hands well. After your kids play in any public play area, it is essential to march them right into the bathroom and scrub their hands thoroughly. A good handwash is 15 to 30 secs long with soap and warm water. A friend of mine's children have caught hand-foot-mouth disease from McDonald's Playland twice, probably from the balls which are extra icky and don't get cleaned as often. She really washes the kids down, now. If everyone practiced handwashing on a regular basis, illness would spread far, far less often. I know that for me, I get sick a lot less when I have a young baby. Part of this is breastfeeding (bfing moms have been proven to get sick less), but I think the other part is the number of times a day I am washing my hands because of changing diapers. The power of handwashing is very well documented, but not taken very seriously because it seems too easy. An excellent example from long ago is the dreaded 'Childbed fever' from which many women died. At this point in time, many women were terrified to have their babies in the hospital with doctors because of the huge risk of CF. What was happening, and the doctors didn't realize this was a problem, was that the doctors would go from a post-mortum to a birth or a post-partum exam without washing their hands. Essentially, they killed many women unknowingly. When a doctor (forget his name) studied this and realized that handwashing could prevent a huge number of deaths, the doctors were initially very resistant to his suggestion and very offended at the suggestion that they were somehow 'dirty'. Shortly, however, handwashing became the norm and CF was reduced drastically and is now almost unknown.

Also, I wanted to add my 2 cents from the other mom's point of view. Out of my 4 children, I have 2 who are extremely well sick children. What I mean by this is that, particularly my son and somewhat one of my dds, acts perfectly fine, playing, no fever, eating well and then all of a sudden...BARF!! This can hit at any time, any place; I never know. It is very inconvenient. I could have easily been that mom, though by now I know that when on of those two starts in with a wet burp kind of a thing, we run! :eek Maybe this mom has kids like this and just doesn't realize it, yet. We have had several embarassing situations like this and there is nothing we can do. Heck, one of my kiddoes puked in the grocery store aisle just a month ago, so I am still learning. The other thing that is difficult is that it is very hard to tell when the two kids are better. They often act quite well long before they ARE well, so I might think, "Well, it's been 2 days, no puking, he looks completely fine...I think we're ready to go to the park." and then he will be sick at the park. :sick

So, all this to say, I empathize with you. It seems inconsiderate of this mom to take her sick child out and risk infecting other kids, as well as the fact that the poor kid should just be home recovering. However, don't be too hard on the mom because you never know what her point of view is and she just, plain may not have known her dd was ill. :heart

[arwen]

no, the child was def. sick...
her cheeks were flushed, she was clinging to her mom the whole time....she didn't have any food yet to even put in her mouth when she acted like she was going to puke...
and when they were getting ready to leave she stated that the little girl wasn't feeling girl and then the dh stated that also...

so no reflux...
i usually carry purel with me but i totally forgot....

just crossing my fingers as well...
and the mcdonalds we go to doesn't have those balls....it's like a C shaped....u go through one end and then go through the other to the slide...that's about it... :shrug

[ChristineG]

i usually carry purel with me but i totally forgot....


That's okay :) ...it will do nothing more than soap and water will do. I think antibacterial gels are great for times when you cannot wash your hands, but they aren't necessary otherwise. The key to preventing illness with handwashing is the length of time you wash your hands. It must be 15-30 secs. You don't need to use antibacterial soap or anything. Just plain soap and water and enough time will do an excellent job. :heart Those antibacterial gels, as well as antibacterial soaps have become popular simply because most people don't wash their hands for long enough.

I had to get something useful out of my years of nursing school and handwashing was it!! :)