Yesterday I was feeling a little under the weather. At some point I was unconsciously rubbing my own throat and suddenly flashed back to my childhood. When I was a kid and woke up feeling unwell I’d tell my mom “I don’t feel good.”
She would first kiss me on the forehead, then feel my forehead with the back of her hand, and then her wrist. Then she’d hold up two fingers on each hand much the way flight attendants do to indicate the exits. She’d push on my head starting behind the ears and down along and just below my jaw line. The time I asked why she said she was checking to see if my glands were swollen.
As suddenly as this memory came I realized that my son is nearly out of high school and I have never ever, not once, checked to see if his glands were swollen.
Is this just something from a different parenting generation (like soothing a teething baby by putting whiskey on her gums)? I’m 45. This gland pressing would have taken place throughout the 70s.
Mom mom did all of that except the gland thing. I didn’t even know what that meant until I met my (now ex-) wife. When ever she was sick she would get what felt like golf balls on the back of her neck.
I remember my mother feeling my forehead, but I don’t recall any checking glands.
I must have been too young to remember, but I was told once that I had been feeling unwell once, and taken to the doctor, who said I had “swollen glands”. But to this day, I don’t know if I’ve ever had “The Mumps”.
My mother in the US Navy was the corpsman and all he would say is gargle with salt water and take two aspirin. Come back tomorrow if the problem persist.
I have noticed that my own glands (in the front of my neck, on either side of the trachea) swell when I get sick myself. Usually not visibly, but when I feel the area it’s pretty obvious. I’ve never tried to use that as a diagnostic, though - either on myself or on my daughter.
For me, it doesn’t really yield any new information; by the time I can feel the swollen glands I’m well aware that I’m sick. For my daughter - it’s never occurred to me to try. Maybe I should see if it gives me any advance warning. (What I’d do about it is another question, though…)
Yep, done to me, do it to my kids. I’m not entirely sure why, to be honest - glands have to be pretty damn swollen or swollen unevenly on one side for me to use them as an indication for different/additional treatment for my kids. I think it’s more so I can decide if they’re certainly ill or maybe they’re tired or anxious and trying to avoid school - which they’re allowed to get away with in moderation, but it’s nice to know what I’m dealing with. Normal sized glands don’t mean you’re not sick, but it means you *may *not be sick. Swollen glands means infection somewhere.
Swollen glands on myself mean it’s time to start pounding the echinacea capsules and red clover, burdock and poke root tinctures, and plan a meal with lots of garlic and mushrooms.
I had mono in 8th grade and lots and lots of sore throats with my tonsils getting covered in white gunk for years. From 8th grade to basically adult hood whenever I got an infection the glands in the front of my neck swelled to about walnut size. I could tilt my head and they would be obvious to the most casual observer.
I also notice that if I drink alcohol (more than two standard drinks… more than 2 beers) I get a sore throat the next day, but warded off by the vitamin pill.
Me too - or if I think I’m getting sick. My mother did all of what’s described in the OP, but I’ve no idea if my brother does that when his kids are sick.