I am not one to add to all the hype that is already going around about Swine Flu this winter which is why I am writing this post to share my recent experience with Thomas being ill. To hopefully alert any readers to the symptoms we experienced with Thomas, and if they are experiencing similar symptoms my advice as a mum would be to get them to hospital especially if you have a very young child. Throughout the time Thomas was off colour at home I was debating should I go to the doctors again?, am I wasting their time? I am glad I took him back to the doctors as they confirmed that Thomas needed to go to hospital.  I have gone into more detail about his time spent in hospital in my previous three part blogs – My baby is ill, part 1 can be read here

On the Monday Thomas started to show some flu like symptoms:

• A temperature of 38 Degrees
• Cough
• Sneeze
• General loss of appetite

We took him to the doctors who confirmed he is showing flu like symptoms and advised to keep his temperature down with Ibuprofen and try to get liquids down him – The doctor said he is likely to get worse before he gets better. On the Tuesday Thomas was worse, his temperature was up and down, he started to become very tired and was off his food and drink to the point where he was sick when I managed to get something in him. I was extremely concerned but I thought about what the doctor had said about him getting worse before getting better so I did everything could to keep him comfortable.

On the Wednesday Thomas had:

• A temperature of 39 Degrees
• Sleepy all day
  
• Not interested in anything apart from sleeping
  
• Shallow breathing – His chest was working hard when he breathed
  
• No appetite for food or drink
• Cough

It was at this point I thought that enough was enough, I knew something was seriously wrong and this was not a straight forward flu. I got an emergency appointment at the doctors where they confirmed Thomas needed to go to hospital. My previous blog goes into detail about the tests carried out but it was confirmed that Thomas had Bronchitis. He also had a 2nd infection highlighted in his blood test but the doctors could not diagnose this at the time, the antibiotics they put Thomas on in hospital thankfully cleared the infection. But to this day I torture myself about what the 2nd infection could have been. Swine Flu has been mentioned on my local news a lot recently there has been cases of babies being hospitalised because of it. I have done a lot of reading about the symptoms of Swine Flu which are identical to the symptoms that Thomas had. I do think he had Swine Flu – I wanted to write this blog for anyone who is concerned for their baby who may be showing similar symptoms, I am no doctor or health expert but as a mum I can say that it is worth getting them to hospital to be on the safe side.

I have been experimenting more with the texture and flavour of the foods I offer Thomas. I’ve read that now is the best time to try lots of different flavours as he is more likely to try them gaining a variety of taste which will hopefully prevent him from being a fussy eater when he is older….I will have to let you know about that one! I do enjoy cooking homemade meals from scratch for him so experimenting with different ingredients has been fun. I have also been sneeking a few lumps into his food to get him used to chewing, now he has 3 teeth and I must say it is going quite well. I used to puree everything in the blender but now I use a potato masher to mash the food up – So for example I would steam a couple of potatoes,  some broccoli, carrots and cauliflower until soft, then use the masher to mash the vegetables together adding a small amount of butter to help bind them together and give them a creamy taste, Thomas loves this.  I leave a couple of the vegetables whole and put them on the side of the plate to offer Thomas throughout his meal to get him used to picking up the food himself and trying them he loves carrot sticks and is getting better with the broccoli but mashed up to a lumpy texture he has no problems with now at all.

An alternative to butter to give the creamy taste I have also made my own cheese sauce to put over the mashed vegetables. Its really easy to make a cheese sauce, I was daunted by the idea at first but there was no need to be All you need is:

• Whole milk
• Grated cheese
• Cornflower

Add some whole milk into a small pan, heat the milk whilst adding a handful of grated cheese Cheddar or Lancashire make tasty sauces and add a spoonful of cornflower to thicken. Keep stirring the sauce it will thicken and possibly become lumpy but that doesn’t matter as long as it tastes like a creamy cheese sauce your baby will love it and not care how it looks when its mixed into their yummy vegetables.

One thing Thomas is becoming very practiced with throughout our lumpy food stage is picking bits of food from his high chair tray and launching them on the floor when he has had enough. I don’t mind this though as its all part of the learning experience he is going through Its all worth while when I see an empty plate and a full belly in the end with bags of energy for more fun.