So I admit it: I regularly kiss Will’s boo-boos to make the pain go away even though I know it really just feels good to him to get some love and attention after a spill or a crash. I’ll even put band-aids on sore spots without a hint of blood if Will insists that he’d like a band-aid. But I always tell him, you don’t really need a band-aid if there’s no bleeding and it won’t really stop the pain, but you can have one if you just really want one. To avoid band-aid waste I try to talk him out of it first. One day, after I couldn’t entice him to take it off, he even wore a band-aid smack in the middle of his forehead to school after a mild bump on his head the night before. He looked like he’d suffered some horrendous head injury.
But I would never buy Will this. It’s Obecalp, a placebo “owie” drug for those times when a kiss doesn’t quite make it feel better. (Promise me you won’t follow the link and buy the stuff). I heard about this one yesterday in an NPR commentary, in which family physician Douglas Kamerow pointed out that Obecalp – that’s placebo spelled backwards in case you wanted another reason to groan -- teaches kids that it’s OK to lie and that medication is the first place to turn if you have even the most minor physical ailment. Not to mention the fact that this mommy inventor is profiting off of her sham of a medicine.
Do you have any tricks – honest or dubious – for comforting wounded kids?
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1 comment:
Thats Horrible! I have a 3yr old little girl and I hate even thought of having to give her medicine as it is for "pain."
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