medicine

If you say you are ill then anyone, whether stranger or friend, will ask you "uong thuoc chua?"  which means, "Have you taken any medicine yet for it?"  This is all very well and it's ok to say "chua" which means "not yet", but when it's a baby that's ill the concern becomes very acute.  In fact we met some people at the weekend who thought the baby must inevitably die if it did not receive medicine for a slight cold.  The doctors apparently prescribe a course of injections, twice daily, for symptoms such as Bernard is experiencing, and no complaint is ever left to the body to sort out by itself.  I'm quite used to being confronted on my medical outlook in England, but this is a whole new level of disapproval, and it feels terrible to be labeled as a careless mother.  The nanny is especially worried that I am not dosing baby full of cough syrup.  I just feel that since he's turned a corner, no longer miserable with a runny nose, and he's happy and feeling well, there's no need to help his immune system along - it might even be counterproductive.  Plus that cough syrup smells disgusting.