I Learned Something Today

Mr. Destructo absolutely hates being confined to a room.  The exam room at the pediatrician's office is the worst.  He had to tag-a-long to Penguin Girl's well check a month ago so that memory is fairly fresh.  He started flipping out as soon as we got to the exam room for the nurse to do all the preliminary measurements.  The office has a physician's assistant in training who came to do exam stuff as part of her clinical rotation.  He was totally resisting her as well.  He did not want anything to do with the mountain of children's books in there.  He did not care that the whole room and exam table were fire engine themed.  He did not even want to look at my iPod that I loaded up with videos for him.

My secret weapon was a Yummy Earth lollipop.  His very first.  I pulled it out right before the doc came in.  He loved the lolly but of course the first thing he does is bite off half of it.  I asked him to spit it out for me and just lick what was left and he did.  He was happily occupied when the doc came in and we were able to talk in peace...

Until Nate dropped the lolly on the floor.  The doc scooped it up and tossed it in the trash.  I would have washed it off and given right it back.  Nate had the mother of all tantrums.  He started off with that red-faced silent cry that is usually reserved for when he is truly, painfully hurt from a fall.  But I suppose watching your lolly get dumped in the garbage is truly painful.  Luckily the doc was done and the nurses just had to prep his vaxes.  The entire time I was waiting for the nurses, maybe 5-7 minutes, I was wrestling with him to put his shirt on.  A nurse and I had to hold him down for the 2nd nurse to get his pants on.  I had to grip him to my body with both arms to get him to the car.  Then I almost had to sit on him to get him buckled in.

When he has a tantrum, you just have to ignore him and let him calm himself down.  He was still crying when we got home and still really mad.  I left him in the car backled into his seat.  I checked on him periodically but each time I asked if he was ready to be nice, he said, "NO!"  Finally, after a full 25 minutes, he said, "NICE!"

I definitely should bring more than one lollipop to the doc's office.