Stock-Up on Essentials: Medicine Cabinet
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Starting daycare can feel like stepping into a wild whirlwind of tiny sneezes and sniffles. As the little ones dive headfirst into their new environment, it seems that coughs and colds flow in like a tide, leaving parents scrambling for hand sanitizer and tissues. It’s crucial to be prepared for this inevitable onslaught of childhood illnesses, armed with a robust supply of fever reducers, probiotic boosters, and your trusty thermometer. Ensuring your little one has a well-balanced diet and ample sleep can help bolster their immune system, but when the inevitable occurs, knowing when to seek medical advice is key. Embracing this chaos with a quirky spirit and a well-stocked medicine cabinet can make the transition smoother for both you and your little one.
Here is a list of essential items to keep stockpiled in your medicine cabinet, especially one month before starting daycare! Don’t forget to pack these on any travel trips where you could be far from the comforts of your local stores.
Tylenol x 3
Nothing is worse than only having one bottle of this at home if you end up with a 5-10 day illness that plagues your household. You do not want to have to run to the store in your slippers and a very dishevelled appearance where others will think the characters from “Grudge” and “the Ring” are real! Spare the public all our horrifying looks when we quarantine at home and stock-up.
Make sure you know your child’s weight. Due to my girl’s 90th percentile growth chart, we needed the children dosing sooner than I realized. Here are the links for the Infant (0-23 months) and Children (2-11 years) and the website for the dosing table to see what amount your child will need based on what product you have.
Tylenol is a USA brand name of acetaminophen. However, most of the Tylenol made in Canada is sold in Canada. Consider buying a Canadian brand name of acetaminophen like Life (Shoppers Drug Mart).
Advil x2
Be wise to pain… little ones experience pain wholeheartedly! If you want what’s best for them, don’t withhold an additional pain reliever if they truly need it. How will you know they need it? Trial and error. Try it once, if it helps change their mood, behavior, or appetite, then it likely worked! Don’t forget, teething is merciless- it doesn’t stop just because they get sick. Talk to your doctor or public health nurse first before giving your child both Advil & Tylenol so that you can feel confident you are doing it right based on the latest research.
Advil is a different drug than Tylenol, and is processed differently in the body, by different organs. So it generally is safe to take both or stagger them like I mention. Note that Advil for Infants is 3 months-3 years old, whereas Advil for Children is 2 years old- 12 years old.
Advil is a USA brand name for ibuprofen. Consider buying a Canadian brand name of ibuprofen like Life (Shoppers Drug Mart).
Shower steamers (CAN)
These are the best invention! Just plop them in the corner and turn the shower water on high heat, keep your bathroom fan OFF (I’ve totally left the bathroom fan on by accident and it obviously wasn’t as effective since the steam got sucked up in the fan), grab some books and read to your little one the bathroom floor. You can try turning off the lights and use a flashlight even for added fun!
Vicks Vaporub Products
If you don’t want to rub Vick’s on your little one just yet (you can rub it on yourself and then cuddle them), OR you can try other products in the line like the plug-in diffuser or nasal inhaler. That way, you still get the scent benefits and can have it close to your child or within the same room. Nasal inhalers are great fun if you’re trying to model appropriate sick behaviours with your child like covering your cough, wiping your nose, washing hands, etc. They love role play with parents! Vicks is a USA company. Consider exploring Life brand, Canada’s largest pharmacy medical product brand.
Any fluid loss I try to replace with equal amounts of this nourishing juice! Every time you have diarrhea or snot, you should be not just drinking water as a fluid, but a nutritious fluid source. I still don’t like to give my girl juice, but I call Pedialyte “juice” and give it to her as a treat when she’s sick and in a special twisty straw cup.
Abbott is a multinational pharmaceutical company that manufactures Pedialyte and similar products in Canada.
I like to have a big bottle with a gentle spray/ infant setting so that it isn’t as terrifying for my girl compared to some of the tik tok videos I see! Hydrasense is very gentle, and easy to use. I just wish it came with a cap to protect the tip for storage and transportation. The Bayer company is multinational based in Germany and USA, with manufacturing occuring in Canada as well.
Nasal Aspirator
As my daughter has aged, I’ve changed my nasal aspirator a few times. When she was a baby, the snot-sucker was great to control the pressure. Fridababy products were founded & created by a mom in Sweden, and now is manufactured in the USA and around the world! I really love their line!
But as my baby got older, I really just wanted something I could hold in one hand and get the job done ASAP! She wasn’t so easy to swaddle anymore! So an electronic, soft pressure like this one from BBLuv brand has been great. We’re still in the introduction stages, but the hope is I can upgrade to something with a stronger suction power before she’s 3 to help if she still doesn’t know how to blow her nose yet.
Baby Super-Hydrating Lotion
When they’re sick and sweaty, their skin can dry out easily. Especially their face with numerous tissue swipes or gross tongue licks if you aren’t fast enough to beat them to clean-up duty. I’ve always liked the baby oil in gel form for bedtime application. But we’ve since upgraded to good old Dove for sensitive skin and it really locks in that moisture fabulously!
Always have a new bottle of this stocked just in case! If it’s not your little one, it could be the sibling or cousin playing, or even you or your partner. Don’t be ashamed if you get it! Just make sure you do review your hand hygiene habits because that’s what it is folks- poop bugs in your eye! I like this product because of the individual droppers single-use. That way, if it spreads to anyone else you don’t have to chuck it and buy something new.
Thermometer
We started out with a simple under the tongue or armpit probe which was fine in the beginning. But as our girl got older, when she was sick she’d get so restless and fussy that we needed a quicker electronic probe that just scans the forehead and behind the ear.
Humidifier
There’s so many options out on the market. So try to pick something that will be easy to fill-up, easy to transport from the tap to set up in the room, cold humidity, and option to add diffuser scents. We like the color black because it shows if we have any calcium water build-up since our home does not have soft water. Here’s the one we use so we can add essential oils from Sage (CAN) too.
Probiotic Drops
You might not need these right away, but make sure you ask your pharmacist or family doctor if your child is ever prescribed an antibiotic what you can take as an option for a probiotic. Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional, so please talk to YOUR medical professional for specific guidance and support. Probiotics help to maintain or replenish the gut flora after an antibiotic treatment. My girl had to have 3 different antibiotics in a period of 4 months… not ideal at all! But when her ear drums were so inflamed and infected from back to back viruses or colds, we didn’t have much choice. This was the one we used, but had to stop due to a dairy intolerance she had that we did not know about.
Jamieson Vit D drops (CAN)
Don’t waste your time on other brands of Vitamin D drops. The Jamieson’s brand has more in the bottle and drops out faster! Every little efficiency gain helps in the 24hr day of a parent!
Extra Strong Zinc Oxide Diaper Rash Cream
We love Desitin! You don’t want to be caught off-guard if they’ve never had a diaper rash and suddenly it happens and they’re screaming at the top of their little lungs. Try to get the extra strength for real bad days, or at the bare minimum have a standard one and reapply more often if needed. Diarrhea is so irritating to their skin! Imagine sitting in brown orange-like acid that you don’t feel initially, but as soon as the tabs come off that diaper and the area is opened to the air and wiped off…it’s on fire. Poor kiddos!
Bedtime Lotion
When they’re sick, this is also the time to grab those products for a little extra help with sleep/ comfort. We love the Hello Bello nighttime cream. It contains valerian root, so I wouldn’t use this every night, but on special instances or to get through a few rough nights won’t hurt. Youtube some videos on baby/ toddler body massages and they will might settle right down.
Optimize your day!
Finding efficiencies in day-to-day tasks and emergency plans can be a total game changer when dealing with chronic pain. Simple strategies, like prepping meals in advance or organising a grab-and-go kit for unexpected flare-ups, can save energy and reduce stress. By streamlining your routines, you create a smoother flow to your day, enabling you to conserve spoons for the moments that matter most—like snuggling with your little ones, rather than getting bogged down in the chaos. When you equip yourself with these small but impactful adjustments, it’s like discovering hidden pockets of ease carved out of the daily grind, making the world a bit more manageable, one chore at a time.
