I’ve always had the suspicion and have now confirmed that Ilan does not chew his food before swallowing. This morning Ilan and I drove Jorge to work (long story short, his car is in the shop). While rushing to get out the door so he wouldn’t be late I filled a sippy cup with milk and put cut up strawberries in a snack trap for Ilan. I figured I could make him breakfast once we got home. Well, breakfast didn’t happen when we got home…but projectile vomiting sure did! Strawberries, cut up just the way they entered his body, and milk were ALL over him, me, and our floor. It was disgusting. My mind rushed through a million different thoughts including:  “AGH!!!”, “this stinks!”, “wait, these are whole strawberries!”, “what do I do now?”, “who do I clean first: him or me?”.  And my final thought was “what caused him to projectile vomit all of a sudden?!”.

It could be one of two things. My not-so-expert expert opinion told me it was either A) a virus or, B) cough induced. Why virus? Stinky projectile vomiting. Why cough induced? Because he had a coughing spell right before “it” happened. Now, because he has shown no other viral symptoms and has been able to keep down his liquids and foods since then, I am going with guess “B”. My next task to complete is to figure out why Ilan is having so many coughing spells. For the past week he has coughed and coughed, to the point of gasping for air. It happens mostly at night, and occasionally during the day. Is it allergies or something more? Or even something less? Oh, oh, oh, the trials and tribulations of parenthood.

I want the easy way out. Dr. Ferreris or Nurse Lori: If for some ridiculously rare reason you are reading this, please tell me what to do about the cough! Oh, and how can I teach Ilan to chew his food before swallowing?!

-Victoria