Sunday, October 3, 2010

Self Determination

 Mrs. LIAYF and I were a bit creeped out by something that transpired the other night.

We were sleeping soundly at around 4:00 in the morning on Saturday when Lukas woke up crying loudly.  After waiting a minute to make sure he wasn't just sobbing in his sleep, I opened the door to find him standing in the dark whimpering.

"I don't feel well" were the first words out of his mouth.  This was followed shortly by "I need to go to the hospital daddy."

"What? Where does it hurt?" I asked him as I picked him up and held him in my arms.  He pointed to his belly.  Shortly thereafter, upon hearing what had transpired Mrs. LIAYF entered the room.

"I need to go to the Doctor Mommy.  It hurts." he firmly stated as, feeling him squirming to be let down, I obliged.  He then walked past her, opened the gate at the top of our stairs and started down them. 

His mother and I exchanged worried glances, before following him down the steps.  He made it to the foyer and was picking out a coat when she scooped him up and took him to the kitchen.  Once in there, we sat him down further assessed the situation.  We knew from holding him that he wasn't running a fever.  We pressed on the area where he had pointed, but there was no painful reaction. "You didn't swallow anything Like Curious George, did you?" I asked.  "No."

"Are you hungry?" Mrs. LIAYF queried.  He had eaten a decent meal.  "No. I just don't feel well." "I need to go to the doctor" he continued.

"Would you like some cereal?"  his mother then asked.  To that he nodded yes so we fed him what was left of a box of Wheat Chex, and then a large bowl of vanilla yogurt both of which he ate up heartily.

"You were hungry Buddy" I mentioned.  He had calmed by this time and seemed otherwise fine.  "Have you been pretending to be doctors at school?" Mrs. LIAYF then threw out there.  We hadn't been at all at home. 

"Hmmm....sometimes" was his response.  Though it didn't sound like it had been the previous day.

With that we carried him back upstairs and brought him to bed to sleep with us, for the first time since he was an infant. We wanted to monitor him.  At that he went right to sleep and we all woke up a couple hours later.

He seemed fine so I made pancakes and eggs, and together we watched several episodes of The Muppet Show.  Before eating though, he once again mentioned that he didn't feel well.  However, after the devouring the pancakes with peanut butter he seemed to feel much better.

Thankfully, he hasn't mentioned needing to go to the doctor since.  Obviously, we are keeping a close eye on his behavior but I think the diagnosis may be that he was just hungry and had a bit of an upset stomach.

Still, that struck both of us as a pretty bizarre sequence of events. Certainly nothing like we have experienced before.

How about you, readers?  Have any of you ever dealt with anything similar with your young kids?

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Normally, this complaint is followed by one of us scrambling for a bucket.

SciFi Dad said...

Yeah... like morethananelectrician said hurt tummy = "quick get the bucket!"

And my kids are terrified of going to the hospital; they would never ask for it.

Homemaker Man said...

Hm. The Pnut has requested the doctor before, with out actually needing one, but not in the middle of the night. And not for her tummy.

S'good way to guarantee a meal, though.

Didactic Pirate said...

Yikes. Ok, if I discovered my kid up in the middle of the night asking to go to the hospital, I'd definitely freak out.

Good call with the muppets, though. Just proves my theory that they can cure anything.

Slamdunk said...

That would be odd. Nothing like that before here--the trips to the hospital have been obvious for us.

Anonymous said...

That's some scary stuff man. Glad he's ok.

Rachael said...

Where do kids pick stuff up? It's crazy. I'm glad he's okay and it was just a tummyache.

DadStreet said...

That is terribly cute!!! O asks for all kinds of things but it's usually to go to the park, the beach, get pizza or that type of thing. I could see how you'd be terribly scared in the middle of the night like that, as I would.

Glad to hear it's just him being a little cutie!

Jessi said...

My daughter loves her doctor and started being a little quick to say she needed to go there when she was about 3. It wore off when she was four or five or so.

I always took it as a good sign, since I don't want her to be afraid of the doctor. But it did make determining the seriousness of an issue a little harder.

Mrs. M said...

Maybe ask his teacher if they have talked about this at all at school???

Danny Grubb said...

Wow. I would be freaking out. Sometimes I don't think straight in the middle of the night. In our house he would have had just as much a chance of hearing "Ok, lets go."

ericdbolton said...

It's one of two things.

They need to eat or they need to barf.

It looks like the toss up landed on heads this time..

WILLIAM said...

I am glad all is okay. Our Kids think the hospital is aplace to go and either have a baby or die.

Keith Wilcox said...

Wellllll, since you mention it, yes. My kid has done that on several occasions. Each time it has turned out that he just needed to take a really huge dump! I swear I have no idea why kids hold it like that, but he swore his belly was going to explode. After looking what the kid produced in the can, I'd have to agree. Anyway, I was thinking all along that your story was going to end with going to the bathroom and feeling better. Sounded so similar :-)

Anonymous said...

I don't know if this is just coincidence but I did hear another story tonight about how unexplained stomach pain could somehow be related to a brain issue, not to worry you or anything. I'd probably mention it to your pediatrician next time you go if it continues to happen.
But on a lighter note, I did laugh at the question "did you swallow curious george?" I'm sure it was asked in all seriousness but reading that back has got to sound hilarious...

Irrational Dad said...

Poor kid. The most I've gotten from Ty is "I have a tummah ache." He's asked for medicine before, but nothing more than that.

Ed said...

My kids don't ask because they know -- if they have to go to the doctor something is seriously wrong (mom is an ER physician and I was an ER nurse, in pediatrics).

Though it has been my experience that about 90% of all trips to the doctor could just have easily been handled at home. Nice job!

Doc said...

Random thought: was he actually sleep walking/talking during the first part of that conversation? We have certainly seen that.

Calandreya said...

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If I Could Escape . . . said...

Awww, hope the little guy is feeling a lot better. Mine have never volunteered to go anywhere near the doctor/hospital.

stekome said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
James (SeattleDad) said...

@MTAE - Thankfully that wasn't it.

@Scifi - He clearly hasn't been there enough. Again, thankfully.

@Homemaker - He knows how to score a meal alright.

@Didactic - The Muppets are great. Wears a bit after 6-7 straight episodes though.

@Slamdunk - Yeah, it came out of left field.

@DC - Thanks man.

@Rachael - Not sure, but it certainly freaks us parents out.

@DadStreet - Afterwards. It's cute afterwards.

@Jessi - Yeah, we need to teach the gravity of that kind of statement.

@Mighty M - We did, and they hadn't that they could remember.

@Danny - That was our 1st thought.

@Eric - Heads it is. I need one of those two headed coins.

@William - So true. lol.

@Keith - Well, he DID do a big one that morning. But that wasn't unusual.

@Irrational Dad - I think that is what this was.

@Ed - Yeah, I bet. But as parents that is a call you don't want to get wrong.

@Dad U - That is why I waited a bit to be sure he was awake. He was. I wouldn't want a sleepwalker.

@Calendreya - Thanks, I am honored.

@Karen - He will learn that in time. Glad it hasn't been an issue.