!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I am very upset right now.

Chloe had a bad night last night. She was very congested and fussy. As most of you know, she still gets up usually at least three times a night for a bottle. Usually 11ish, 1ish and 4ish. Then she wakes up between 6-7am.

Well, last night sucked. She was up every 30-45 minutes. The child couldn't breathe and was miserable. She didn't even want to eat, she just wanted to be held. I tried using some saline in her little nose, but it didn't seem to help much. She'd go back to sleep and then wake up again a half hour later...

So this morning I gave her some infants tylenol cold medicine. The bottle was almost out so I thought I would go to the store during my lunch and get some more.

Well, to my surprise, I can't. Apparently the FDA has recommended that cold or cough medicine not be given to children under 2. So nothing for a runny nose, congestion, coughing, sneezing, anything. I'm thinking...this can't be right, I'm going to call her pediatrician to confirm.

So I call the pediatrician and this is in fact true. No over the counter cold/cough medicine can be sold.

So what does the nurse recommend I do to alleviate the misery that my child is going through??? Glad you asked. I was given three suggestions:

1-Take a steam shower with her. "The steam should clear up some of the congestion." Ok, lets think about this. First, how long does steam ever actually relieve congestion? For about two minutes after you take it away??? Second, how hot do I have to make the shower in order for it to sufficiently fill up with steam? I'm thinking that after that I won't have to worry about it, as I'll be dealing with third degree burns, as I don't have the luxury of having an actual steam shower.

2- Have her sleep sitting up or standing. Maybe this is cool for some babies, but mine is not one of them. She lays down or she doesn't go to sleep. She doesn't stay asleep for that long in her car seat or anything. She suggested that I elevate part of her crib and that might help. Well, if you've seen Chloe sleep, she's all over the place. She actually crawls around in her sleep.

3- Do nothing. I could take off of work to bring her in to the doctor Friday to prove that she is in fact congested, at which point, they might or might not prescribe something.

Those are my options.

Now why are things like this? Apparently there's a risk of infants overdosing on cold medicine if the manufacturers directions aren't followed. Isn't that the case on any medication???

My prediction???

1 - Many parents aren't going to be able to take off work anytime their child has a cold or stuffy nose. They either don't have the time, can't afford it, etc. It's going to take even longer to get in to the doctor because there are going to be so many "emergency cold" appointments fitted in between already scheduled appointments.

2 - Children will go untreated.

3 - There will be more over doses because those parent's who can't afford to take off work will start using children's cold medicine for their infants and self dosing.

So am I over reacting here???