Thursday, September 4, 2014

Junk Food Hangover

Nick is lying on the couch with a stomach ache. It's 12:13am on the second day of school. The second day!

He ate a bunch of junk on our vacation, a big bunch of junk. Just two and a half days ago, he had a root beer float and and a day and a half ago, he had two root beers and a couple of over-sized corn dogs at the fair. My husband allowed it while I rolled my eyes and made my lips go thin trying to stop myself from nagging the whole time we were on vacation. Nick knew exactly what I was thinking. Mike knew what I was thinking. The kid has known that he has a fructose intolerance for three years, yet he wants to drink soda when the other kids do. I just grit my teeth when Mike lets him do it. And now Mike is in bed because he has to work and I'm up with a 'sick' child. I am not allowing Nick to miss school tomorrow unless he actually manages to throw up or get a fever. It's going to suck for him. I know it.

I don't know for sure that it's the high fructose corn syrup that's causing his stomach to hurt, but I can be pretty sure that Nick doesn't need another three-hour breath test to confirm what we already know. Soda guarantees him a stomach ache.

Now, it could be something else, a virus perhaps, or food that wasn't quite right, but my bet is on the high fructose corn syrup. If it were a virus or food poisoning, he'd have heaved by now. This is his classic response to high fructose corn syrup. He had to leave Boy Scout camp midweek two years ago when Mike let him drink too much Orange Crush and eat too many Doritos. Did you know that Doritos contain high fructose corn syrup? It does. Just look at the label.

Yes, it is my bet that high fructose corn syrup is the culprit and I don't have a lot of sympathy for the boy. He may be feeling sick, but his doctors assured us that this intolerance caused no damage and that the stomach aches would pass if he limited his diet properly. They said that it could take a couple of days for a stomach aches to appear after a binge.

Well now.

I know I'm supposed to be that caring and concerned mommy when my boy is sick. Oh, I know he's feeling pretty sick and he's tired by now too. I understand he doesn't feel well. I also used to know people in college too who expected sympathy after a drinking binge. If I had had too much to drink, I expected to have a hangover. It was that simple.

And this is nearly that simple too.

Or maybe I'm just cranky because I'm over-tired.

Thank you for listening, jules

No comments:

Post a Comment