Getting Help From Your Child When You Are Ill.

It could happen at any time. You are at home with a young child and you become ill with dizzyness or gastro and you cannot function properly and all you want to do is go to bed and rest until you feel better. This helpful advice is mainly for temporary illness where you are home with your child and need to hold out until the cavalry arrives (partner or medical help).
How do you look after a young child (3 - 6) when you get taken ill?
You get them to look after you.

Preparation is the key here. As your child develops the skill of drinking from a cup and eating with utensils you should let them experiment with pouring from small jugs and getting things out of jars and so on. Let your children play with old jugs, cups, plates and containers including liquids so they get used to balance, weight and flow. This will come in handy when you need a drink of water and can't get to the fridge. If you have a toy telephone get your child to practice ringing a few basic numbers (your parent, inlaws, husband. wife, brother and the emergency number) limited at three so it is not too confusing. These numbers should be on your quick dial so they only have to press one button to make the call. Immitate the buttons on a toy phone so they are easily recognised.

If you feel you are coming down with something start putting things in reach of your child (water in small jug on lower shelf of fridge or bench with cups for drinking) before you  go  to your bed. Set up your child to play near you in the room next  to you or in ear / sight of you. Let them know that you will need their help and you have some important jobs for them to do until help arrives. Many children will thrive on the responsibility of helping Mum or Dad and they will feel real important. I have had to do this with my eldest son (now 6) and recently with my youngest (4) and they were a great help to me and gee did they think they were pretty good having to help thier dad. So here is a quick list of things you can do to make those horrible times just a lttle better.

• develop basic skills in your children to allow them to get themselves and you a drink without your help
• develop telephone skills in your child so they can ring a pretermined number if you cannot use the phone
• practice situations where they would know when they needed to use the phone (if you loose conciousness or fall etc)
• teach them how to say where you live (we use a little jingle they repeat when asked "where do you live")
• if you feel you are becomming ill put drinking cups and  a small jug of water in reach of your child so they can get drinks unaided for themselves and you.
• put small snacks and fruit in their reach to tide them over until help arrives
  
• explain to your child that you need them to look after you and that they are in charge for a little while and it is very important. (Watch them grow an inch taller when you say this and get a kick out of the change in their tone when they talk to you.)
  
• reward them when you feel better

This may not work with every child but if you develop the skills at an early age they will at least be equiped to deal with the situation and you will be supprised how helpful they can be when "they are in charge" for a little while.