Or a really big, multi-coloured pill. Veterans of this process will always inform me at the outset of our interview that they not only require an antibiotic but that they need the brand-new, hot off the pharmaceutical pipeline, once a day, kills everything in sight, antibiotic. That is to say, the one they saw advertised in a medical journal last week. It is not an entirely inspiring experience seeing coughs and colds all day. We must dodge sputtering children who assume that turning one's head before you cough is not a rule of etiquette which applies when some stranger has a large wooden stick stuck in your mouth.
Some children can do one better.
They generously give the gift of last night's supper. I am certain that kids swap doctor stories at many daycare centres. I hear there is one kid who is so strong and quick she can actually flip the doctor over. The physicians dole out prescriptions. The children get better.