I Am "That" Mom

I used to be an expert in everything parenting related.  Of course, that was before I had kids.  During that time I also worked in a daycare with infants and toddlers which made me even more of an expert and it was obvious that I knew what was best for those kids much more than their real parents.  I mean c'mon - it was my job.  It is true that I spent many more hours each day/week with the kids than their parents did, but as anyone who has had a child in daycare will attest, there is still no replacement for the ingrained knowledge of your child that comes from actually giving birth to them.  It wasn't until I had my kiddos that I understood.  

However, there was one mom in particular was notorious with us teachers for being completely clueless.  She was the mom who had to be completely overwhelmingly annoying in trying to prove she loved her kids.  I don't know if she felt guilty for leaving her kids there a million hours a week (no joke - they were at school before 8am and were the last ones in the school to be picked up at 6:30) or if she was trying to convince herself that she was a good mom, or if she was just lonely and had no one else to talk to other than us,  but everyone would cringe every time she came in the door.   She told me more details about her symptoms that led her to think she had Celiacs than I ever care to know.  When I ended up with a c-section with my son she stopped me one afternoon to ask how I was pooping because it was so horrible for her after her c-section.   We all thought she was nuts.  (Quite possibly she really was).  But anyway, one of the big things that made all the teachers cringe was the pride she had about needing to give her kids laxatives.  She obsessed over those kids' poops and gave them daily laxatives to help it along.  There were times that her daughter would have weird diarrhea and she'd still be giving laxatives and she always claimed the pediatrician told her to.  We all thought she was crazy.

But this week I became that mom.   Cutie Pie hasn't pooped in almost two weeks, except for a little bit last week after needing to use a suppository to help her along.  I talked to the pediatrician yesterday morning and he wants us to start giving her a daily dose of Miralax.  He explained that it's not really a laxative, it doesn't make you go.  Instead it pulls water into your digestive tract which softens it up and makes it easier to go.  He suspects that the iron supplement we are needing to give her for her anemia is making her constipated and she her colon has gotten so stretched out that her system is just out of whack.  So now to counteract the side effects of one medicine, we are giving her another one.  I feel so bad for her.  If she could just eat a balanced diet we wouldn't have to give her EITHER one.  I feel guilty that iron is one thing my milk doesn't provide for her.   I feel like there HAS to be a better way.  And mostly I just feel guilty for judging that one crazy mom.