Snot Ninjas - How to Fight Your Kid's Cold

BRAD Welcome back to the Lab. I’m Daddy Brad.

CLAY And I’m Daddy Clay. This week’s lab is brought to you by Baby Bjorn. European design and dad friendly. Baby Bjorn.

BRAD The subject of this weeks lab is snot.

CLAY Because it’s that time of year of year again. Colds, coughs, runny noses. As a visual aid, I’ve brought in this specimen jar.

BRAD Holy Viscosity, Batman. That’s not what I think it is.

CLAY Using this bulb, I collected snot from my three kids, just this morning. Before school.

BRAD That’s disgusting. And why we’re bringing you this cold and flu season episode on Snot Management.

CLAY You think Baby Bjorn is having second thoughts right now?

BRAD I think snot.

CLAY DadLabs. Snot very classy.

BRAD We want to start out by saying that we’re talking today about snotty colds and crud, not the serious stuff.
CLAY Fever over 103, persistent cough, swollen glands. Go see the doctor. We’re talking kids that are runny and gunky, not well, maybe even too sick for school, but not requiring a doctor.

BRAD We’ll start with a quiz. Which of these over the counter cold medications are most effective at relieving cold symptoms in children under six?

CLAY None according to the American academy of pediatrics. A review of six clinical trials found no benefit from over the counter cold medicines compared to placebo.

BRAD Placebo? People take afterbirth for a cold?

CLAY That’s placenta. Common mistake.

BRAD Oh. Anyway, cold medicines can have negative side effects, often from improper dosing. That’s why an advisory committee to the FDA recently recommended that manufacturers stop marketing these products to kids under six.

CLAY So about the most you can do is hand them a tissue. At what age do kids start wanting to wipe their noses? When do they actually get bothered by the pendulous green/yellow tusks?

BRAD When it comes to colds six fluid ounces of prevention is worth a gallon of cure. Wash your hands, kids.

TROY According to the CDC, frequent handwashing is one of the best ways to fight disease. They recommend kids scrub for at least twenty seconds. For younger kids handwashing feels like waterplay, but older kids sometimes need a bit of motivation. Consider singing Happy birthday twice, or the ABC song take about twenty seconds. Or keep a plastic animal by sink and encourage the child to give the animal a bath, too. Cool soap dispensers like this Squid Soap -- that marks the hand, you have to scrub the mark off -- or these foam dispensers work pretty well. Or teach the kid to blow soap bubbles. Do what it takes to get to twenty seconds.

CLAY You know what I can’t stand. The daycare dose and dump.

BRAD Dose sick kids with a little Motrin and drop ‘em at the daycare. Sure. Everybody’s tried.

CLAY No everyone has not tried it. It’s a dishonest game you play with the daycare providers and bad for the community of children.

BRAD So you never do it.

CLAY My wife and I both work.

BRAD Lots of families both parents work.

CLAY But we have it harder than other people. Plus I’m an internet celebrity. Let’s keep the focus where it belongs.

BRAD Everybody else.

CLAY Exactly.

BRAD Well, that’s all for us this week in the Lab.

CLAY If you have any tips on how to encourage hand-washing, just drop us a comment, and you’ll be automatically entered in our weekly drawing -- this week: a stylish Baby Bjorn carrier.

BRAD Speaking of Baby Bjorn, we’d like to once again thank our sponsor for bringing you today’s show. Stay healthy everybody.

CLAY Some people may think this is easy but it’s snot.

BRAD And you may think that’s funny...

CLAY But it’s snot.