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Medic Alert Bracelet Information...

Medic Alert Link

This is a link to a page on the web where we have posted a partial scanned image of the Medic Alert Bracelet brochure. They are a very helpful organization. Some people find them expensive. A bracelet will cost you $35.00. You get more than the bracelet....when your child needs medical care, the doctor can call Medic Alert and find out who your doctor, pharmacist, and family members are so that they can get you the help you need. As far as we know, Medic Alert does not have a web page. Its a good idea to get your child a bracelet as soon as you can. Our daughter had hers from age 3 months. The emblem used to be a little smaller, (but not a whole lot smaller), but the slightly bigger emblem allows you to get in the information you need. Having started at 3 months, our daughter never questions the bracelet. She is in first grade now, and to my knowledge she has never been hassled about it by other kids. Our jeweler says that the stainless steel bracelet is sturdier than the silver. It is a good idea to have a jeweler reinforce the links next to to emblem. Our jeweler has always adjusted the links for us free of charge. The only fee we have ever paid is for soldering. (This is apparently a service the jeweler provides out of the goodness of their own heart, as we are not big customers:).) dkbosmith@aol.com
March 5, 1998

Learning to detect fevers

Learning to detect when your child is in trouble before he/she gets in trouble is a big plus. We kind of stumbled along for the first year. Over time we learned to recognize the signs. During our first year we had to give several injections. (It seems like frequency of injections sort of goes in spurts, but I know we have gone an entire year without having to give one at some point.) The signs of needing a stress dose are much easier to detect once your child can talk and tell you what is going on. When people tell you it gets easier, this is why. The first year is quite a bit of guess work. Each child is different, and you will talk to parents who never had to give their child a shot. In our view, these people are very fortunate, as it is pretty normal for babies to get fevers. Even teething can get you an elevated temp high enough to need a stress dose. What we would say for the first year is to not be afraid of taking your child's temperature periodically. Our daughter was not a fussy child. This helped us out. If she cried she was either tired, hungry, or had a messy diaper. After we got to know her, we were able to get suspicious that she didn't feel good just from deduction. Signs of problems include tummy ache, head ache, being overly tired. Obviously, it will be easier to know there are problems when your child can say "I'm tired, my tummy hurts, I have a head ache or My ear hurts." Early on, my husband and I did not see eye to eye on how to take temperatures. He felt rectal was the only way to go, and was reluctant to count on digitals. I was sure we would have a broken thermometer some day, and we did. That was not a pleasant day for any of us:(. After that we comprimised and got a digital rectal thermometer. It has proved to be reliable. Ear thermometers don't seem to be accurate, and oral thermometers don't work for young kids. Our daughter is nearly 7. At school they use an oral thermometer for her, but at home we still use rectal. It is quick and reliable. dkbosmith@aol.com
March 5, 1998

Care for cortef suggestion....

If you are on oral cortef, it is temperature sensitive. You don't want it overheated. It is helpful to get a small cooler. What we are using now works good....a thermal lunch bag that we got at an office supply store at the beginning of the school year. We have had various forms of coolers. When our daughter we had two coolers. One went to the sitter with her. It was one of those miniature coolers. It in that we put a cortef bottle, and enough short bottles of milk for her day at the sitter. One of these bottles had her sodium. We used a red band for the nipple on the sodium bottle so the sitter knew that bottle had to be finished. The other bottles she didn't have to worry about not finishing. Our other cooler was a tall Coleman softsided cooler. I don't know if these are still available. It worked great because we could carry tall milk bottles, medicine and medical information all together. We always make sure we have cortef, Tylenol, Tylenol suppositories, solu-cortef, alcohol wipes, and both needle and non needle syringes with us, along with a sheet with medical instructions including doctors names and phone numbers. When we leave our daughter with someone else, this bag goes with our daughter.
March 5, 1998

Tylenol (acetamenophin) suppositories....

One useful thing that we didn't catch on to right away for some reason is Tylenol suppositories. If the child's fever is high and there is vomitting you give shots for the cortisone. To help with the fever, using suppositories is useful. Some grocery stores keep these behind the pharmacy counter for some reason, so don't count on being able to get them at all hours of the night...it is best to have some on hand for emergency. If the cortef isn't staying down the oral tylenol won't stay down very well either. dkbosmith@aol.com
March 5, 1998

Keeping tummy calm to avoid shots.....

If your baby is vomitting, you will probably need to give him/her a shot. Sometimes you can calm their tummy and get them to keep down a stress dose of oral cortef instead. Our daughter loves pedialyte. When she was a baby if she vomitted a stress dose, we would wait 5 minutes and give her a real small amount of pedialyte. (We used those 1 oz (30 cc) breast milk vials and put in a small amount of pedialyte so that she wouldn't crank down a lot of it without us noticing.) If she kept that down for a short while we would try to repeat the stress dose of oral cortef. (Then hopefully she would go to sleep and not want anything else to drink.) Now that our daughter is older we can kind of tell if it is worth it to try to avoid a shot. Like if she has been at school and there was an undetected fever that is making her vomit, chances are that we haven't caught things in time and her tummy just won't be able to handle anything. Sometimes you can tell that you just need to give a shot and get it over with. dkbosmith@aol.com

Shots vs. Oral medication thoughts....

Different doctors do things differently. Some doctors give shots for newborns. If your child spits up a lot, then it might be better to have shots. On the other hand, if your baby never spits up, then it seems unnecessary to use shots for the regular (non-stress) cortisone replacement. If your baby is does not spit up, and your doctor is using shots, we would encourage you to visit with him/her about the possibility of using oral cortef. It worked well for us, and sure seems to result in a much happier childhood!
March 5, 1998

About blood draws.....

Our first year we had a doctor who wasn't managing things well , and we had many more blood draws than necessary. Blood draws are still not easy because of some traumatic experiences . You wil find that some phlebotomists or nurses are great at blood draws and some are not. Some think they are great (but they are deceived!). If you have a good experience, get the name of the person and ask for him/her again. Be careful how you act during a blood draw. If you are tense, the child will pick up on that easily. If you are not uptight, it will be much easier for your child. If your doctor seems to be ordering weekly blood draws, you might consider getting a second opionion.
March 5, 1998

Debbi's suggestion for giving meds....
Use a baby bottle nipple and ring to give any medications. Slip the nipple in the mouth and once they begin to suck...put in the medication. I usually diluted the florinef in warm formula and poured that in last. This will work if you need to give the meds at an odd time or when sleeping. They will begin to suck and hardly awaken! Good luck!
March 2, 1998

Danny suggests...
We use the tablet form of both the Cortef and Florinef. Linda dissolves the meds in distilled water and uses a needleless syringe to give the medicine to Ginny while she's breast feeding.

We carry a small see-through "make-up pouch" that we keep a paper with the meds-times and dosages, a bottle of Cortef, a bottle of Florinef, a pill cutter, a few needleless syringes, SoluCortef & syringe, "days of the week" pill case, a small bottle of distilled water and a tiny cup for mixing meds. (Linda says that the tiny plastic cap that comes on squeeze syrup bottles make a perfect cup for mixing meds)
http://OptionOne.interspeed.net/carlton/
March 2, 1998

Another parent shares...
When my daughter was born she was on pills. We had a pill crusher. It was great, because it had a container on the end to hold all the pills. We took it everywhere. We crushed the pill then mixed it in a 1 ounce medicine bottle with a nipple on it and she drank it all. Then she discover at about 5 months that didn't taste so good and we graduated to crushing it and giving it to her on a spoon with jelly. Shortly after, she decided just to chew them up. YUK! At about 3, she started swallowing them. Now, she is 6 and we have a daily container that we put her doses in and she knows which one to take when we tell her it is time. This is nice, because we can see if she has taken it and also if we are going somewhere we can just take it with us. I also keep extras in my purse.