When Maddie was born she was on, oh, a bazillion different medicines. Stuff for her blood pressure, stuff to keep her PDA open, then stuff to close it, paralytics, diuretics, pain killers, etc. A bazillion. Slowly she was weaned off most of these meds, but she came home on a bunch – multivitamins, iron, calcium, and pepcid, plus her albuterol breathing treatment. We had a chart to make sure that we gave her all of them at the proper times every day. It was overwhelming.

Now that Mads is almost nine months old, we’ve managed to whittle down her medicines. She no longer takes the multivitamin or the calcium or the pepcid. We give her iron-enriched formula (although for a while we were, um…double-dosing her with iron. HELLO constipation!) so we don’t have to give her that supplement anymore. Those all had to be on a very precise schedule, and it was a bit nerve-wracking for new parents. And, when the meds were mixed in with her formula or breast milk, the whole concoction turned GREEN. Blech.

Maddie isn’t medicine free, though. She still has her breathing treatments, although now she has six of them a day instead of one. Two treatments are an oral steroid, and the other four open up her lungs. In the morning she takes prevacid for her reflux. The prevacid comes in a tablet, so we have to mix it with precisely the right amount of water to dilute it, and then mix it in with her formula. At night, she takes singulair to help with her breathing. This also comes in a tablet, so we have to smash it into a very fine powder and then mix it with water, AND THEN mix it with formula. It’s all precise and stuff.

We give her all these medicines now without even blinking, but we long for the day when our baby is medicine and supplement-free. Although I think the best medicine for her now involves tickling, peek a boo, and raspberries on her belly. And, of course, awesome boots.

Maddie Moozer Fashion Paloozer