Thanks for the suggestions. One of the answers raised another question – knowing when he’s sick. Although verbal, even chatty, my son has a strong resistance to making declarative statements of any kind. For example, the other day he had a nose bleed, and my only clue (until he came into sight) that this was happening was him starting to talk about things that are red. Yes, it’s a never-ending game of 20 questions in our house! This means I can’t rely on him to report on how he feels – he will very occasionally complain about an obvious illness (“I don’t like it when my nose is stuffed up”, for example, or, commenting on a bout of vomiting, saying that he didn’t want to have another “long cough”) but otherwise it’s a guessing game. Basically if he doesn’t get out of bed in the morning, goes to bed unusually early, or lies down on the couch and pulls a blanket over his head, he’s sick, not that he’d admit to that. (Our family dog, who died several years ago, was a useful barometer for our son’s health, seeming to have an instinct that drew him (the dog) to stay close to our son when he (the boy) wasn’t well. Anyone encountered anything like that? The problem is, of course, that feeling sick is so subjective, but sometimes I lie awake at night worrying what would happen if he had symptoms of a serious illness that simply didn’t present in a way I could actually see….