Bribery Works

For the last three weeks my daughter has not been feeling well.  She's been extra clingy (not one of her usual traits), hasn't been eating well, and has been more fussy.  Her only symptoms were a runny nose and puffy eyes, so I chalked it all up to allergies and the onset of the terrible twos.  Then on Saturday she started to cough.  On Sunday it was worse and on Monday morning it was bad enough to make her cry.  I set up an appointment with the doctor for the same day.

It turns out she has some kind of viral thing going on in her little lungs.  It's probably like what she had back in November, but that was bronchitis.  She was prescribed a liquid steroid and an inhaler to open up her lungs and reduce the inflammation.  Not fun for daughter and not fun for Mommy.

The steroid is a nasty tasting liquid and we tried several things to get her to take it.  Note:  do NOT put the steroid liquid in strawberry milk to disguise it.  It doesn't work.  We're still diluting what's left of the nasty strawberry milk to get her to take it and not waste what little we have left in the bottle.  We just gave her the first huge dose (10 ml as opposed to the regular 2 ml for every dose after the first) in a syringe and a spoon.  She took it much better than the adulterated strawberry milk.

The inhaler is the real problem.  The kid won't have anything to do with it.  She screams and squirms and wiggles until I can't hold her in place.  I started offering a piece of chocolate for every breath she takes with the inhaler.  No go; she didn't care about the bribe.  Last night Eric had to hold her down while I plugged her nose.  Then I gave her the chocolate.

This morning I steeled myself for another inhaler fight.  I showed her the inhaler and said she could have chocolate after she took a breath.  As I brought the inhaler closer she opened her mouth and let me put it in.  I pushed the little can and she took a breath.  I was stunned!  While I stood there wondering what had changed she said, "chocolate," and started looking for it.  I told her if she took one more breath I'd give her two pieces of chocolate.  There was a little bit of fussing, but she opened her mouth and took a breath again.  I guess it's all about proper motivation.