My child, who is normally a very light sleeper, slept on and off throughout the day on the couch in the middle of the gamesroom surrounded by siblings. He must be sick!
The larger your family grows, the more important it is to have some standby plans for managing those days when you have a sick child, the baby cried all night or unexpected interruptions take away all your usual “keeping things running” times in the day. It requires some preparation and planning ahead, but that investment is well worth it when one of “those” days arrives. Many of these tips are also useful if you are preparing for a new baby.
Here are a couple of my ideas to get our family through a day or two when life is just too difficult to even think about what you are going to cook for dinner.
Meals should be healthy – avoid takeaway if possible or sick children’s already overloaded immune system will be fighting off the effects of bad food on top of everything else.
Keep a supply of freezer stock meals to defrost for “those” days.
Make an emergency menu – meals that you or older children can put together in minutes and ingredients that are always on hand.
Put the crockpot/slowcooker on in the morning when sick children may be less likely to need your attention.
Have your regular menu already planned so that the meals do not require thought.
Have a list of suitable toddler activities that can be pulled out from an easily accessible place with a good storage system (Ziploc bags, shoeboxes, crates etc.) Set it up so that an older sibling can get them out for your younger child.
Create a flexible routine that includes activities such as playpen time, table time, mat time and highchair time so that you know you will be free to attend to the children who need it. Implement it on a daily basis so that it is a usual part of your day and well established before “those” days hit.
Today it is ok to watch TV.
Teach your children to work independently.
Leave the subjects you absolutely must teach yourself for another day or a suitable moment throughout the day.
It generally works better if we go ahead with school regardless of sick children. Well children mixing with cranky sick children without a lot of structure is a recipe for a bad day.
Read aloud a lot while children colour/play quietly/fold laundry or simply rest.
Train older children to help out with regular daily chores.
Remember that every day will not be like this and it is ok to just let it all slide and simply survive! Routines and schoolwork can all be quickly re-established, especially if your children are used to having a fairly structured day. With a new baby, you may be tired and lacking the drive to get things started, so perhaps putting in the preparation and endeavouring to keep things ticking along will be more successful than allowing it all to fall into a great heap that needs a lot of time and energy to get back out of later!
Mat time was uneventful this week – too tired to sit up, let alone play!