Yesterday evening, Ethan had not one, not two, but FIVE surprises when he came home from daycare. The mailman delivered these five books from the Dr Hippo Series, which is a wonderful collection of stories written by Dr Charlotte Cowan, depicting animals with an illness, and how they recover from it with the help of a pediatrician named Dr Hippo.
As soon as I showed Ethan the books, he got all excited and he wanted me to read the books to him. I asked him to choose which one he wanted to read and he chose this one:
The Moose with Loose Poops tells the story of a little moose named Miles, who is suffering from gastroenteritis. Coincidentally, Ethan has had gastroenteritis before, and as I read the story to him, I was not sure if he recalled the ordeal he had been through. The book describes the symptoms of gastroenteritis in simple kid-friendly terms, referring to tummy upsets as “having waves in the tummy” resulting in Miles “throwing up”, and having diarrhea as “pooping a waterfall”.
Ethan adored the beautiful illustrations in the book. They were very colorful and drawn really well, enough to sustain my toddler’s attention till the “The End” page. He kept pointing out the details in all the pictures, i.e. the various toys, the animals etc. I found that I had to ad lib the story at times, because impatient Ethan would ask me to “turn the page” very quickly. And also, because he is more used to Daddy and Mommy instead of Papa and Mama as is being used in the book, I had to make the necessary modifications too.
All in all, a very informative book that teaches kids about what happens when they are ill. I also liked the fact that home-trusted remedies like “drinking lots of fluids” was included in the story, and I took this opportunity to stress the importance of that to Ethan.
Our boy was already very sleepy then, but he was still determined to finish reading all five books consecutively. After book number 2, I had to take a break from reading to breastfeed Hannah, so Daddy took over the reading task. After two books, Daddy remarked, “Why is everyone sick in these stories?” LOL – at that time he did not yet know the concept of the Dr Hippo series.
Well, you see, in addition to educating kids about the illnesses, these books all come with a detachable guide for parents on the back cover that provides parents with everything there is to know about gastroenteritis. Very useful for times when we don’t feel like reading through some thick childcare book.
Ethan fell asleep with the five books at his bedside last night. And he asked to read those books again today. I foresee the start of a beautiful friendship there… 🙂