Mad scientist

My girl is under the weather.  She has a little cold, and to hear her tell it, she will have it forever.

"I dnon't want to be thsick" was the whine of the morning.

"Honey, it's gonna be ok." 

"Nwo, it's not, I'm gonna be thsick forever."  <stifled sob>

Ordinarily, when it's minor like this, I just let it run its course, but a few minutes of that led me straight to the medicine cupboard in hopes I'd find her some relief. 

No relief.  I'd given her the last dose of Pediacare yesterday afternoon, right before I made her take a nap.  

I figured we'd swing by Target on our way back from dropping of the big kids at the jr high, and I could have her back in bed by 9:30 at the latest.

Pediacare is one of those medicines you have to ask for at the pharmacy counter.  Because it has pseudoephedrine in it.  And in these parts, pseudoephedrine screams "meth lab."  

It's annoying.  I'm buying a bottle of cold medicine for the sick four year old on my hip, not running a drug lab in the garage.

They didn't have it in the pharmacy.  

I went to Costco, where they've always had it.  The girl chirpily told me no, that they didn't carry that anymore, and I had to resist the urge to reach across the counter and just smack the chirp right out of her. (Anyone who has ever been frustrated and out with a sick, whiny kid will recognize that flash of rage, irrational as it may be.)

Honestly.  I mentioned to my husband once, that I could see regulating it (pseudoephedrine) in the pill form, but I couldn't understand why they'd need to regulate the kiddie cold liquid.  Pills, I would think, would be readily usable, versus having to distill out or concentrate what you'd need out of a liquid formulated for children that would presumably have a lower concentration--you'd need more of it, and it would be another added step--not to mention the extra components that make the liquid palatable and in suspension, too.  Maybe they dump it in, chemical synthesis be damned, and the meth is cherry flavored because of it.

My grades in chemistry were far from stellar, so what do I know?

I know that Sudafed, the plain old Sudafed, is still something you have to request and sign for at the pharmacy if you are able to find it at all.  That stuff, the Sudafed PE you see out on the floor, is a different thing.  Phenylephedrine.  I guess it is supposed to work in the same way.  (Did I read somewhere that is doesn't?  Or doesn't for everyone?)

I settled for the gallon of Dimetapp.  No way I was dragging her anywhere else.

It tastes better anyway.

But not better than chicken noodle soup.

Which is probably where I should have started.