Colds and Toddlers

I have an Alyssa too & she sounds alot like your daughter! :-) Will she drink orange juice? I would try to start getting more vitamin C in her, in one form or another if she won't do vitamins. We have been lying low since January, because she seemed to be getting sick weekly, so we avoided crowded kid places. Not the solution, but I hated seeing her sick so often. My other suggestion would be wiping her hands with sanitizing wipes after visiting the grocery store, malls, anywhere. That's helped with my daughter. No suggestions on the vitamins, as I can't get mine to take them either. It's been a bad winter for illness, hopefully Spring will get here very soon. Good luck!!

I can totally relate. As long as it's not a cold that is turning into an ear infection or sinus infection, etc - you just have to waiti it out.

It STINKS!

We use baby vicks on their chests at night, a WARM mist vaporizer in their rooms, baby saline nose drops to loosen the boogers, (we put it on a qtip and run it gently inside his nose) and benadryl. You can give baby benadryl to them at night before bed. Helps them sleep and it will also help dry them up.

This too shall pass, once the weather improves and the viruses calm down as they do, once...the weather improves!

You're tryiing hard to get her out and active -- good for you. Yes, hand sanitizer is vital; be sure you oversee her using it properly (at this age I just slathered it on my kid's hands and rubbed it on there myself since she would just shake it off!).

Try to find some ways to let her blow off steam at home inside when the weather's bad. Can you move furniture around so she has more space, set up an obstacle course with some pillows or foam pool noodles or whatever, for her to climb and crawl and jump? There also are a lot of fun kids' exercise videos and at the library they're free!

As for the mall play areas: Our pediatrician refers to them as "Petri Dishes," as in, they really breed germs and viruses. I took my daugher to one, once only, and she got pinkeye on that first and last visit. I know they're free and fun, but we avoided them after our doctor said that. If we went to the mall, I had her walk and walk and climb up every staircase instead.

We had a winter like this last year. We were both sick almost constantly. It was so tiring, and we were really getting on each others nerves being cooped up. this year, we made it to February without anything that caused us to miss anything. I have heard others say that there are just some years like this. I was more worried this year, because my daughter started preschool. hang in there, spring is coming!