“Baby shark do do do do do. Baby shark do do do do do. Baby shark do do do do do, Baby shark (times by about 300 while my son was getting a breathing treatment).
This was what I was frantically singing at my son’s pediatrician’s office in front of several different nurses and doctors a few months ago, with occasional desperate tears running down my face (I was trying my best to hold them in). This was not because I was having fun or trying to entertain one of my kids, it was because I didn’t want me toddler to end up in the hospital.
There is nothing worse than watching your children get sick over and over, especially when it involves their breathing.
In the first year and a half of life, my youngest ended up having so many ear infections that I have lost count. So many trips to the doctor. Rounds of antiobiotics. Sometimes fevers. Sick days. The occasional bark cough. After my toddler had hit the required quota of ear infections, he was finally referred to an ENT by his pediatrician and within a few months later, he had tubes put in. We saw immediate improvements in him.
Our little guy did not start walking until he was 16 months old. He started walking the next week after he got tubes and he has only had one ear infection since then. Although we saw many improvements, he was still often having daily runny noses. Sometimes he still had the barky cough. He was put on allergy medicine, eventually had an appointment with an allergist, and was allergy tested. It was determined that he was extremely allergic to cats, so we got rid of our kitten. It was determined that our youngest has asthma, otherwise known as underdeveloped lungs, which he may or may not grow out of as he gets older. His first 1.5 years it seemed as though he was always battling something and I was ready for him to be healthy and worried that these different issues were never going to stop.
Our little guy’s breathing issues do not cause him trouble every day (as long as we give him his daily inhaler), but if he gets any kind of respiratory illness, his condition can often go downhill fast if we do not intervene. Well, one day our almost 2-year-old seemed to be bothered by allergies. His daycare told me that he was doing quick shallow breaths. I described his symptoms to the doctor’s office and based on what I told them, they said that I should bring him in and we can see if a breathing treatment will help. They gave him medicine and then we started his first breathing treatment.
He had a few different breathing treatment sessions that day. The first 10 minutes, he was absolutely miserable. He was screaming, thrashing his legs, and trying to rip off the mask. This made it increasingly hard to keep the mask on because I had to overpower a very unhappy little man for long periods of time. After the first 10 minutes, he fought a little bit less. It seemed as though he started to understand that he could breathe easier, his lungs could expand more easily.
But when the doctor would come into check on him, he would act out and his breathing worsened again. She was planning to send him to the hospital in an EMS vehicle if his breathing did not improve soon. I thought, what can I do to get him to calm down? Then I remembered his favorite song “Baby Shark.” Almost anytime when he was a baby, if he was upset, we could get him to calm down by singing that song to him.
I played it on my phone complete with the video and noticed that his breathing slowed down right away and he did not seem scared, even during the second breathing treatment. We continued to play it over and over again, him in my lap, my right hand holding the mask on his face and my left hand helping him to hold my large phone up. I continued to play it over and over, and sing with it as well, even when there were doctors and nurses in the room.
I cried occasionally because I was worried. Years ago I would have been embarrassed to be listening to a child’s song over and over and singing it in a doctor’s office. That day, I just wanted my little buddy to get better. It did work. Eventually, his breathing improved drastically and we were sent home with a few prescriptions in hand. That is the day that I realized that I will do anything to help my kids, even if it is making a fool of myself in the doctor’s office.
