My suegra arrives early evening at the door of our house. She takes a blanket, wraps my youngest Maia in it and pops her on her shoulder. Maia starts to cry. ‘I’m taking her to see the neighbour,’ she says. I think she means her neighbour who is a paediatric nurse. We step out into the dark street together. Maia has a fever. She’s had it on and off for three days.
We stop at the house next door but one. ‘The child has a fever,’ she says. The man beckons us to enter. He gets a tatty old pink towel out and asks her to hold the corner to Maia’s belly button. He then holds the towel taut to the other corner. Starting at the corner he is holding he places his elbow down and measures the towel from the length of his elbow to his fingers. The length of the towel is three times the length of his forearm with a small amount left over. We mark this place and hold it to Maia’s belly button. He does the same motion again on her tummy and then once on her back. ‘She’s not got indigestion or a bad tummy,’ he says. ‘It’s probably the throat.’
I remember when Eleanor had tonsillitis at the same age and think I can see the signs. A fever in itself wouldn’t normally bother me too much but she’s also not eating anything and when she’s being bathed she cries when you touch her neck. I arrange to go to the drs with my suegra early the next morning. Before she leaves I press her on how the towel knows. I need to know what happens with the towel that tells them if they are sick in the stomach or not. I’m not sure why but instead of explaining she gets a towel out and repeats the process. ‘But you don’t know how to do it!’ My aunt implores.
‘Yes, I do,’ my suegra replies.
This time the towel decides Maia is sick with indigestion. I start to frown. My suegra begins to burp.
‘What class of indigestion she has!’ she cries out.
She’s marking rapid crosses on her tummy and back burping as she goes. I frown a bit more – I am wondering how Maia could get indigestion so badly when she’s not actually eaten anything. As she’s making these crosses my suegra is emitting burps as if transferring the indigestion from Maia and getting rid of it. It’s actually quite comical. The look on her face as she measures the towel, the burping, the quick motion of the hand. I am sure my face gives me away, which in turn makes her more determined and the burping gets pretty serious. She continues until the towel says so. I am still none the wiser as to why the towel knows although I am sure that my suegra does not know the towel trick.
We go to the dr the next day and they confirm tonsillitis. We are issued antibiotics.
It’s later explained that they measure as many forearm widths as fit (in this case three). They mark where the last one ends on the towel, this part is then put to the child’s belly button. It should be the length of three forearms exactly (as you’ve just measured it). If when they come to mark the length the second time and the towel comes up short the child has a sick stomach or indigestion.
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