Too Rough

This morning Daniel was still coughing and running a fever, though not as high as yesterday. I called the pediatrician's office and made an appointment for later in the morning. Then I called his school and spoke to his teacher. Miss Dawn was sorry to hear that Daniel was still sick. I asked her to give Daniel's homework from yesterday and today to Danny's mother. We will pick it up some time this weekend.

The waiting room at the doctor's office was crowded with kids. Stephen and Matthew sat at the little round table, drawing on scrap paper with the colored pencils I'd brought. Two pretty little girls with dark curly hair, sisters evidently, were sitting there, too. Across the room from me sat a mother with her three children, a girl of perhaps eight, a baby girl, and a boy who looked to be about three years old.

The little boy was intrigued by the plastic toy that one of the curly haired girls was playing with at the table. He tried to take it from her but she held on to it, protesting.

"Let him have it, Jenna," said the mother of the curly-haired girl, but the boy's mother chided her son.

"Let go, James!" Turning to the dark-haired girl, she said, "Boys are too rough, aren't they? Yes, they're too rough; they don't play nice."

A little later this woman's oldest daughter started yanking on her mother's arm, trying to get her attention.

"Ouch! Don't be so silly," her mother said.

So boys are "rough," but girls who engage in similarly annoying behavior are just "silly," hmmm?

This exchange really bothered me. I wouldn't ordinarily have noticed it if I hadn't been reading Real Boys recently and consequently thinking about the way boys are raised in our society. I can't help feel sorry for that little kid, though. Sandwiched between two sisters and with a mother who is all too willing to berate him in such a demeaning way...poor boy.

Then we were called into the examining room. We saw a different pediatrician this visit, but received a similar diagnosis.

"It's a virus," she said. She checked his ears and performed a throat culture to rule out strep, though neither of us had thought Daniel had a bacterial infection since he had just finished up a ten-day course of antibiotics. Fortunately, his chest was clear. Dr. Boim said the use of the nebulizer yesterday had helped prevent more chest problems and advised me to continue the nebulizer for several more days.

I was glad to get a chance to speak to her about possible drug interactions. Specifically, I wanted to know whether he could continue to take Claritin for his seasonal allergies and cough medication for sleeping while he's using the nebulizer. She said there was no problem with these combinations. She also said she would write a referral to a pulmonary allergist. Perhaps this way we can find out what is triggering these problems for Daniel.

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