I had to get a urine sample from Zeki this morning. This was easier than I expected, especially when I saw that he was about to piss on my basil. Mental note: must wash all herbs thoroughly before cooking! The vet is going to test his thyroid function. He still scratches lots but our new house does not have the flea infestation that our rental had. Dogs with flea allergies only need one flea to cause a reaction, though, so it could well be a flea that jumps on and hitches a ride when we go for walks. The flea will die as soon as it bites him because he’s on flea treatment, but it’s too late by then as he’s allergic to their saliva. I think Zeki likes the Auckland heat and humidity about as much as I do.
Freud also visited the vet last week. He has mitral valve disease which causes fluid to build up on his lungs and so he takes a diuretic to alleviate the problem. I ran out of pills and couldn’t get an appointment to coincide with Daniel’s kindy so we all had to go together: me, two children and Freud. Let’s just say the vet and I had to resort to shouting at one another in order to be heard.
I’ve been thinking recently about how babies wake through the night and how so much parenting advice is geared towards getting them to sleep straight through. Obviously it’s really nice for the parents when they do sleep through, so I can understand why, but from what I’ve read, the majority of babies do not. Elizabeth is one of them. Advice often given is to leave babies to cry it out because once they’re past a certain age, they don’t require feeding through the night anymore so they’re just feeding for comfort. The problem I have with this is that it implies that babies don’t need comforting, that as long as they have full tummies, that’s all that matters. Heaven forbid we should provide our children with comfort and security and affection and all those other things that they obviously don’t need. I have no issue with suggesting the cry it out method be used for the benefit of the parents: e.g., if they’re going crazy through lack of sleep. But to imply that comfort-feeding is wrong is to return to an age where it was normal to deprive children of all affection and indeed was actively discouraged.
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