Sick or Not?

A day or two in the life...

This morning I slept in a bit and when I got up I could hear Ben talking happily to himself in his room. He seemed content so I let him chatter to himself for a few minutes while I helped Bess attend to a few necessary morning functions. When I finally went into his room he was standing in the corner of his crib with a huge grin on his face, his hair in wild disarray and vomit all over his bed (but oddly none on himself). Talk about feeling like the worst mom on the planet!

The other night – I want to say that it was Monday night – I took Ben upstairs to put him to bed (it was about 8:00 pm) and when I laid him down on the changing table to change his diaper out of the blue he started vomiting. Talk about shocked. I’d had no tip-offs that this was going to happen. The only weird thing was that he’d been a little grumpy right before I took him up to bed. (He is rarely grumpy or difficult.) But, I attributed his actions to being tired. After the first vomit, it kept coming. Of course my initial thought, and the consensus of the house, was that he had caught the stomach flu. (Oh, joy!) After I cleaned him up, I took him back downstairs so I could watch him – his room is upstairs – and he proceeded to lose the contents of his stomach several times. I think he and I went through about four outfits. Anyway, I can guarantee that you’ve never seen three other children and a husband run out of a room faster. (Luckily, Bess was already asleep.) There is a great fear in my house of the stomach flu. So anyway, he finally went to sleep and I prepared myself mentally for a long night and additional sick children. I also started praying. Believe me, if you have a houseful of children, you start praying very hard when the stomach virus/flu rears its unpleasant head.

Well, I don’t know if God answered my prayer or not but nothing happened, none of the other children came down with it and the next morning Ben was fine. He was his happy little self, maybe a little quieter than usual, but otherwise fine. I passed it off as one of those things that happens and thought that maybe his body was ridding itself of some left over congestion (he has suffered from some nasty colds this year).

So this morning suddenly he is sick again or was sometime during the night. (Poor guy. And all alone too! I can’t believe I didn’t hear him.) And now, like last time, he appears to be fine again. Perfectly normal. Not even grumpy. The only thing that might have tipped me off last night was that, like the last time (and a little more so), he was grumpy and unlike last time he didn’t want to go to bed. Last night I held him until he fell asleep, but then I put him to bed in his crib and didn’t think anymore of it. It is important to note that he is not a clingy or a hold me child so his wanting to be held is out of character and made me wonder what was up with him.

So my question is – Is he sick or not?

I did a little research online and all I found out was that this "sickness" is something that seems to happen often to two year olds. I didn’t find any real answers only questions and suggestions. The answers given ranged from GI problems, to sinus drainage, to a flu that only shows up at night (which sounds crazy to me). In the end there were a lot of questions and a lot of confused moms. So I’m asking if anyone out there knows what this is and if I should be concerned about it or not? Note, that he does not have a fever and he is not noticeably congested. He doesn't have a cough.

Okay, what do you think? Is he sick? Does he need to go to the doctor? Do I take him to church tomorrow? Would you want your baby in the same room with him? Can he go places with us today? What would you do?

P.S. I’m not taking him to the E.R. unless you tell me that he is dying. They would take one look at his happy face and send me home or keep me there for six hours of unnecessary and expensive tests.