Meet the Zoo Animal

[celticdragonfly]

Today's Zoo Animal expedition - not the usual guy, not the promised mammal and half-promised cat of some species. Some other guy, with an Indigo Snake.

Well, still somewhat interesting. And Maggie got to pet a snake. I think Jamie even got to pet it. And it was educational.

Interesting snake fact - the guy said the snake could feel his heartbeat just from danging around his arm. He said the constrictor type snakes just keep squeezing until they can't feel one anymore.

And we got the stuff we needed from Central Market and went over to have chicken and let the kids play in the play area at chickfila. That last is turning out disappointing. Jamie goes to the top of the climbing part and then stays stuck up there, doesn't come down the slide - even though he's done it before - and eventually I have to go up it after him and get him down, somewhat painfully. And Maggie pitches repeated fits, wants to go home early, and then claims she's sick, when she's not. What's with these kids? As cooped up as they've been lately, a chance to run, play, and climb should be a godsend.

And the claiming to be sick thing gets annoying. I don't want to ignore her if she actually is sick, but it's mostly crying wolf. Tonight's definitely was, because when we said okay, if she's sick we better keep her away from candy and tuck her right into bed for rest, oh, she was immediately insisting she was well.

I'm wanting to investigate the old cod liver oil thing. Tons of vitamins and tastes vile, right? I'm beginning to think that should be the answer when she claims to be sick. Are there any bad side effects? Is it still available? They haven't made it taste yummy like all the other kid meds, have they?

Comments

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

There's a Canadian-made cough syrup like that, too. ohiblather was mentioning it a couple of weeks back. I'm repressing the name.

[shadefell.livejournal.com]

Cod liver oil can induce vomiting.

It might just be the texture... it's really oily. My youngest brother had horrific constipation and the family doctor recomended cod liver oil, which just made him puke.

[archangelbeth]

While it might lead to pretending to be well some of the time, I think you might get milage out of, "Okay, you're sick? Time to go to bed, no candy. No, you said you were sick. This WILL HAPPEN NOW. No take-backs. If you weren't really sick, you shouldn't have said it."

And then stick to it. Don't let her back out of it. (Hard on you, I know. But "takebacks" on being sick are longer-term annoying. We had little miss takeback for a while. "I want X! no, Y! no, X!")

It might give a few false negatives, when she feels a bit ugh and doesn't want to miss something, but it should eliminate the false positives after she realizes that you're not going to let her take it back.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Oh, we do that. Last night she got no treats and sent to bed even though she was protesting no, no, she was better! Well, but you said you were sick, we said, so that's what's happening!

[archangelbeth]

Hopefully that'll make an impression, and you won't have to do it (much) again. O:> Luck!

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

Pretty much what I was going to say. Including the bit about false negatives.

Homeschooling pretty much negates the other big disadvantage of this tactic: the return of the false positive when the kid discovers "illness" as a way of skipping school and getting away with it.

[archangelbeth]

I should note that when I finally got to go to (private) school, after being spottily "homeschooled" till age 9ish, I once faked being well in order to go to school. I remember it well, since I put the thermometer up on top of my tongue and occasionally took a breath of air around it.

I felt absolutely horrible around lunch and had to be picked up, and never did that again. But I did do it once!

[majellen.livejournal.com]

I think it was mainly given to cure constipation. Maybe talk to your pediatrician t see if there is some sort of placebo they can cook up for you that tastes terrible. Maybe even some sort of vitamin.

When kids pitch fits, they're trying to test who is in control: you or them. Short term, they want it to be them, but ultimately, deep down, they need and want it to be you. If she says she's feeling sick, tell her she should sit down and rest next to you, check her head for a fever, and if there isn't one, tell her that you're staying a little longer because she isn't dying.

Of course, the other thing my mom used was, "Oh, your tummy/hand/leg hurts? Should we go to the dr. and have them chop it off?" We knew that wouldn't happen, but in the off-chance that she wasn't kidding...well, we shut up fast.

I also agree with calling her bluff. It'll only take one or two times before she realizes that pretending to be sick isn't worth it. Sure, she gets to do what she wants for a moment, but she has to go to bed early.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Eh, we don't really have a pediatrician - can't find one that will treat a child that's not fully vaccinated. And it's hardly worth the $20 copay to the family doctor just for that. We may hunt down some kind of vitamin drops, it's just hard to find anything that isn't sweetened until it's a treat.

Maggie doesn't understand "chop it off" - but she loves attention enough that she'd be all for going to the doctor. She got doctor visits she ended up not really needing because she was faking so well. We're learning.

[castiron.livejournal.com]

I recall one liquid vitamin in the Nature's Harvest section of HEB that I didn't find palatable, but I don't remember the brand. (Thomas wouldn't touch it, but Thomas won't touch vitamins in any form. I'm convinced that one of the vitamins in the mix has a flavor that he dislikes.)

Liquid chlorophyll might be worth a whirl too; it's not _bad_ tasting per se, but it's pretty weird. (Then again, it might have the side effect of turning her off veggies....)

Would a teaspoon of straight molasses work?