Ana's feeling better now

[conuly]

Although I insisted she skip Double Dutch anyway. Either she WAS more injured this morning than she is now, in which case she shouldn't push it, or she was overreacting, in which case I cannot let her think that she can do that on purpose and still get her treat. She actually just *forgot* she couldn't walk and then she could again! (And this after I lugged her in the wrap first to the supermarket and then, carrying groceries, to the school and home again with her sister! I love my wrap, though. You can't do that without a wrap, no matter how small your 8-year-old kidlet is!)

It's hard to tell with her, because when she's going "oh, it hurts it hurts, I can't I can't" I know she really believes it'll hurt a ton if she does whatever-it-is and that she can't do it. I know she believes she has to limp and not bend that knee and whatnot. But that doesn't mean it's true in any physical sense, and therein lies the problem. She does this about everything (the number of 98F "fevers" she has is absurd!), so I did think it'd be the case about this as well, though it could easily have gone either way. You can never tell if this time it's something serious. Lucky for us she's generally in good health, huh?

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

Health feedback is hard with any being that can't give good self-report info. With kids, I think it's a skill they need to acquire through experience. We had the opposite problem for a time with one of my nephews; he didn't seem to react to almost anything. It was really worrisome, because there was always nervousness about missing a health problem until it got much further along, because he was so mild about such things. One time when his older brother was complaining about his ears really bothering him and got diagnosed with an ear infection, they had him checked too, just in case, and it turned out he had a much worse one. But he's gotten better at giving feedback as he's gotten older (including complaining about having his hair brushed, which isn't entirely a plus).

I think reacting more strongly is more common with kids, and I do think part of it is that most kids haven't experienced that many really painful things, and they really do feel it quite strongly. If it's one of the most painful things that has ever happened to them, then it certainly seems like a big deal, and that makes sense. It does make it hard to scale it though.

[conuly]

It was really worrisome, because there was always nervousness about missing a health problem until it got much further along, because he was so mild about such things.

I can appreciate how that can be a big problem!

[leora.livejournal.com]

Yeah, fortunately it worked out okay. Sure, little things, like his ear infection being caught much further along than ideal, but nothing major. And he's much better at reporting things now, so it's less of an issue.

My sister used to say how with her older child she had all these ideas about teaching him stuff, and then the younger seemed to feel so little pain and also have so little fear (likely linked) that she was just so focused on keeping him alive.

But he's still alive, and the focus can now be a bit more on also trying to help him grow and be raised and all that good stuff. :)

I think with kids, it's just always going to be tough. I, of course, threw horrible fits whenever people tried to brush my hair. But I remember that, and it really did hurt. I don't know why it hurt so much, but I'm sure it was really annoying, and clearly I wasn't being injured or anything, but it's tricky. And, on the other hand, there was a time when I totally thought a school administrator was blowing things out of proportion for insisting I go to the nurse to be checked, but I turned out to have a fever and be fairly clearly ill. I think the best caretakers will miss things, and you just do your best and hope you don't misread anything too badly. Even with adults things get misread sometimes, and it's usually going to be harder with kids.