Pee pee and Buckwheat Honey

This morning both SpaceDaddy and I went up to get Anna ready for school. Isn't she one lucky toddler to have BOTH parents greet her upon wake-up? Talk about some valuable timeshare there...

She was cheery and sweet but as usual, refused to get out of her crib. Then it dawned on me: "Anna, do you want to go sit on the potty?!" She said yes with a nod and we were off to the bathroom. SpaceDaddy credited me with creativity and as I left her sitting on the potty with her daddy nearby, I hear him shout: "pee-pee!" Coming back to the bathroom, she was pretty proud, exclaiming that she just made "pee-pee!" I was happy to be there this time to give her lots of cheers and high-fives! After she wiped (she wiped her hands, folks...I gave her a wipe for the fun of it and she just wiped her hands...wiping her butt is a new one I'll have to learn how to do with this potty stuff), she got up and flushed! She thought that was fun so she flushed again. Then we declared "All done, YAY for pee pee on the potty!" And she laughed and laughed and SpaceDaddy got her dressed for some breakfast before school. She earned eggs and toast with honey and apples/bananas. I am not sure if we're on a roll here, and I understand from those friends who have potty-trained before me that it comes in waves and ebbs...sometimes easier than others, so we are just enjoying the moments and letting them be what they are for now. No pressure.

In the meantime she has this nasty, stupid cough. While I realize coughing has a purpose, I can't understand what use it would have at night when the cough should know that the body needs its rest if it's going to fight off whatever's going on in there. So it bugged me (maybe more than it bugged her) that she had another coughing fit around 2am (no assistance from me required) and then this morning on her last hour of sleep. She was a little more tired than usual on the way to school.

Last night I read a few articles on how honey is better for night time cough than even cough syrup itself. Most people who like the natural cures probably would have tried to encourage me to try it awhile ago, but this is the first time I've heard of a real clinical study for myself (maybe I'm behind here), just in time to offer an alternative to over-the-counter cough syrups that haven't been shown to work in children Anna's age, and could do more harm than good. Granted, the more harm part is caused by idiotic (albeit hopeful, helpful, desperate) parents who feel like the cough syrup isn't stopping the cough so their child must need more. Thus the overdose scares, giving OTC cough syrup the negative spotlight. It's painfully simple. Give your child the dose on the bottle, people. If it doesn't work, then it doesn't work. You don't give more. You try something else.

I sent Anna to school with a dose of 8-hour cough suppressant today. Don't know if it will work, but I went to the local nutritional store and picked her up some Buckwheat honey. According to the research, 1/2 teaspoon 30 min before sleep should help do the trick. And buckwheat honey is the best for all of its good stuff (like antioxidants). HEB had no buckwheat, though they had every other flavor and variety! Apparently buckwheat honey is produced in states along the upper East coast, and not Texas. So it's a little tougher to find. Anyway, I brought it over to the school with instructions for them to give just before Anna's nap. One of the administrative assistants had heard the same study. Another I talked to was surprised and skeptical. I guess we'll see... granted Anna does still have the cough suppressant in her system.

Hopefully the honey will help with her nap.