One of the most amazing things about my daughter is her stoicism, she is unlike most two year old that I know in that she does not complain when she is sick, or in pain. She falls and more often than not gets right back up and continues on. When she gets sick we often don’t know it until it gets out of hand and her doctor looks at us like a DPW worker when we do finally take her in to get checked out. This was exemplified last week when Lucy was complaining that there where ‘bubbles in her ears’ and we laughed and said everything was fine and she probably just needed all the wax cleaned out.

Fast forward to Wednesday morning when her daycare called because she had a 103 degree fever and a trip to the doctor confirmed she had a ‘raging ear infection’ one so bad that her doctor was surprised Lucy hadn’t been crying in pain for days… Hardcore antibiotic treatments and the ear pain started to go away but they did nothing for the lingering, hacking cough that accompanied the infection.

The three of us had two sleepless nights rocking Lucy and trying to get her to drink some water to help her unrelenting cough. By Friday morning we were all tired, cranky and on our last thin nerves. And then my husband, my glorious husband discovered children’s Nyquil – safe for children two and over. I don’t know where he got it, I don’t care that the entire box is printed in a mix of Mexican and Cantonese. I didn’t ask any questions.

Channeling her inner ancestry and all of the generations of substance abusers that came before her, Lucy loves medicine, she gets so excited whenever she’s allowed to drink cherry flavored syrup or gets drops in her eyes. She was just as thrilled with this third world, back alley Nyquil as we were.

And it worked. She got drugged every four hours through the night for the next three nights until her cough had gotten better and she was able to sleep on her own.

She’s better now and doesn’t seem to be permanently scared in any way. She not shaking with withdraw or anything. I am adding this new remedy to the basket of goodies I buy all my friends when they find themselves with child.

Happy Day.