Have I mentioned that OmegaDotter is sick? Again? A search on "how often children get sick" results in this, from About Pediatrics": "It is normal for young children to have six to eight upper respiratory tract infections and two or three gastrointestinal infections each year." Excuse me while OmegaMom runs screaming from the room. A search on "how get children take medicine" results in 23,300,000 hits. It is empowering to realize I Am Not Alone. On the other hand, it is depressing to realize that there isn't a definitive answer, repeated by all 50 of the top hits. My daydream is to find a child's cold/flu or fever medicine that does not require any cooperation from the child. A patch would do nicely. Then you could slap that puppy right between the shoulder blades whenever your child is feverish, in pain, somewhat incoherent, and definitely uncooperative. OmegaMom even, in the depths of the night, considered for a brief period the idea of BenGay for dotter--only to remember that it is definitely a topical ointment. In other words, maybe OmegaDotter's fever would go down wherever the BenGay was rubbed, but nowhere else. Besides, given the writhing and screaming that accompanies any attempt to get OmegaDotter to ingest nice bubble-gum flavored fever medications or nice bubble-gum flavored cold/flu medicines, the BenGay experiment would have been a catastrophe, with BenGay flying all over the bedroom. But, damn, that patch idea sings through my head at 1:30 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. A search on child fever red spots bumps is not reassuring, as the second hit is all about Chicken Pox, and the third is about Scarlet Fever. Google is a Bad, Bad Thing. Categories: [Family]