H1N1 Causes Potty Training

Yesterday our entire family got the H1N1 vaccination. With all the hype and hoopla about it, I decided to watch carefully for any unusual side effects. Might we soon cluck like a chicken or oink like a pig? Thankfully for me, I learned that Toddler is quite fond of oinking before we got the shot, otherwise I might be a little bit concerned.

I had some aches last night, and Toddler was pretty restless, but so far no one has started to turn any funny shades of any color. Starting about an hour after the shot, though, I started a pretty intense craving for ice cream. I am wondering if that is a side effect of the vaccination? And what am I going to do about it?

I figure I'd better hurry up and decide in case the "Establishment" decides to hire food police after all, because then I'll never be able to eat ice cream again, no matter how bad the craving and no matter what the cause -- vaccination or just randomness. You see ...

Techincally, I'm not supposed to eat any dairy products, because I get a funny allergic reaction (as in funny-odd, not funny ha-ha). But, hey, I've lived with this my entire life, and I didn't find out about it until I was 25. That's a lot of ice cream that didn't kill me or put me in the hospital. The way I figure, it's my decision whether the ice cream makes me feel so bad that it isn't worth it. Woops! There goes my independent streak again.

Moving on ...

I have to confess that we did notice something odd from Toddler today, and I'm forced to conclude it is related to the shot. As of yesterday, his reaction to the potty was anywhere from, agreeing to sit on it because we asked, and sometimes using it and sometimes not, on the one hand, and screaming, "NO POTTY! NO POTTY!" on the other hand. In no case did Toddler ever ask us if he could use the potty. Fastforward to this morning, and he wakes up especially early. DH and I played rock, paper, scissors to see who had to get up to try to put Toddler back to bed. DH lost.

As DH walked into Toddler's room, Toddler demanded, "DADDY! Potty, now!" (And not a second too soon, I think.) This has never happened before -- Toddler asking to go ... and needing to go no less! A successful, spontaneous potty attempt ... first thing in the morning after a sound sleep. And afterward, the child asks to go back to bed because he's tired. Huh?

Given the circumstances, I am forced to consider that potty training is a side effect of the H1N1 vaccine. We had two more successful attempts over the next 30 hours, each at our request, and not his. Don't worry, though. There were plenty of diapers to change in between, so no one felt deprived.