How do you treat your kids when they are ill?

[Miaou]

This came to mind yesterday during a conversation with a neighbour, who mentioned in passing that when her kids were ill she would make up the sofabed in the sitting room for them, let them watch the tv and then sleep with them at night.

Just interested to know if others do that for their kids? I can't imagine doing it myself but then my kids have never been ill so I've never found myself in that situation.

It depends what kind of ill and what age of child. When dd (3) gets one of her awful chest infections with fever and asthmatic attacks then I do sleep in her room on the fold out bed as I get so concerned about her breathing. Sometimes she'll choose to sleep on it with me for half the night or so. I generally follow her lead. If she asks to sit and watch a dvd and doesn't want to play then I assume she's feeling lousy as she'd never normally choose to sit still rather than play. But I'm guessing you're talking about older children?

miaow , how old are your kids? cant believe they have never been ill! lucky lady and v. healthy children!!

Oh yes, also wanted to add that having had a tough Jewish mother who didn't believe I was ill even when I was (once with glandular fever, once with pleurisy) I probably tend to be lenient and loving rather than get-up-and-going.

I think maybe that's where the difference stems from - my dds are 8 and 7, and honestly, apart from the odd cold, and one day at school when they were both sick within 2 hours of each other (but right as rain straight afterwards, though obviously I took them home!), they have never been "ill". In fact, dd2 ended up in hospital once because she had ... er, not e-coli but something similar ... but because she was still her normal, happy smiley self we didn't realise anything was wrong until she started passing blood!!!

I suppose I'm thinking back to kids I have known who have a bad cold and get snuggled up on the sofa with a blanket and a stack of dvd's when in fact there isn't much wrong with them and they are simply milking it for all it's worth. But there is perhaps a fine line between that and genuine illness sometimes.

And kleist - I would say you are in a different situation entirely - that's a genuine health concern rather than your child being a tad under the weather.

Yes, I have still to face that moment when they use a tad under the weather to their advantage! A 3-year-old will generally keep going til they drop won't they?

I would never sleep with them or anything. I usually put them on teh sofa with their covers - if they are well enough to be 'up'. Or put them to bed to sleep.

Depends on age and degree/kind of illness. DD is only just 2, and I did sleep in her room for two nights when she had croup last summer - and am happy to snuggle under a blanket to watch 1/2 hour of DVDs with her when she has a fever - but thats about it. Not nearly at the bunking off school stage! But I'm not of the stiff-upper-lip school, not being very British...will probably turn out a soft touch, knowing me.

Mine sleep with us when they are ill and they are very clingy, so yes I do stay on the sofa with them and read or watch tv when they are ill. I get very over protective actually. I also buy them lots of chocolate. As long as they eat chocolate I know they are okeyish. When they go off chocolate, I really worry. This is how I monitor how ill they are.

I suppose I think a stack of DVDs and a snuggly blanket with a particularly bad cold sounds great - thats what I like to do, when I have a bad cold and feel like crap. But it wouldn't be ok if it happened all the time, IYKWIM.

Always, always have them into slepp with me when ill, kick dh out and have hugs with mum. I like to hear every breath change, cough etc also saves me having to get out of bed all the time

I love nursing them when they are poorly, making sure their every whim is met.

then I kick myself when they expect this treatment to continue when they get better but hey ho [sigh]