Sore Throat

I found something in the store that causes my daughter to mysteriously develop a sore throat in the middle of the night. I found a bottle of small chewables that look something like jellybeans, and they are a child’s equivalent of a lozenge. She tries everything she can to get out of going to bed, and she uses these as an excuse to get up. She tells me she has a sore throat and she needs one of her magic beans. I guess there is a fine line between finding a medicine your child will take without complaint and finding one they think is candy.

I don’t think having one of these will hurt her if she really doesn’t have a sore throat, but I don’t like the idea of her taking anything she’s not supposed to have. She’s never been a sick child, but she does get a cold at least once a year, and that cold usually comes with a sore throat. She hates to take medicine, even if she is having problems breathing. I don’t like sending her to bed when she seems like she can’t breath, but sometimes I don’t have a choice.

The problem with a sore throat is that you can get one when you have no signs of anything else going on. She might even get one when she’s been talking a lot, which she tends to do, or when she has been outside shouting at the top of her lungs. I know you don’t have to be sick to get a sore throat, but I don’t always know when she really as one and when she is pulling my leg. When she asks me for a ‘bean’ I sometimes just have to give her one.

Usually when she really has a sore throat she’s not asking for anything. Her voice will be raspy and she’ll say her throat hurts, but she won’t take anything. Even the beans don’t always work. That’s why I always suspect she’s not quite telling me the truth when she asks for one out of the blue. You can’t really see a sore throat, unless it is strep, so I just can’t tell. I guess I’d rather err on the side of caution than to deny her the chewable when she really does need it. I know I have had cough drops when I really didn’t need one, and these aren’t any different.

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