Saturday, November 21, 2009

Teething and other challenges

Poor Cameron has been teething for the past few days. Her upper gums are swollen but no signs of teeth poking through yet so it appears as though we are in for a bit of a rough ride for the next week or so. With her bottom two teeth we saw little signs of fussiness or pain. This time around Cameron has woken up crying several times.

It would probably be less painful all around if Cameron was willing to take medication. But Cameron has decided that she doesn't want to take anything. Not motrin, not Tylenol, nothing. She clamps her mouth shut and shakes her head violently while slapping our hands away. Good times. I've tried given it to her in a multitude of ways but she doesn't want it. Anyone else have this problem?

The other challenge for us has been around eating solid food. It usually crops up during dinner. Cameron will whack her hands against the tray and many times manages to hit the spoon and coat herself and us with food. If we're lucky she will eat about a 1/4 of the jar before we give up and spend the next ten minutes cleaning up. Apparently she doesn't engage in this behavior at day care. She saves it up for us. Thanks, Cameron! Again, looking for validation and help with this issue. So please let me know if you've encountered it and managed it successfully.


4 comments:

susanne13 said...

sorry to hear that! jake will actually close his mouth when the spoon gets close to his mouth. no good advice. i just try and be patient,sometimes it takes awhile to get him to eat 4 oz of food!

LauraC said...

On the eating front, Nate did this a lot. We gave him a spoon to play with and it stopped. He just really likes to be in control, wonder where he got that? :) We had to work a little around the spoon he played with but it worked.

On the medicine front, my kids had to take SO MUCH medicine the first two years. Nate had to take zantac for months and that tasted horrible (I tried it). He could spit it out from a young age. Then he had four months of ear infections and then tubes so more meds. Anyway my friend taught me this medication trick and it works like a charm. You can do it as they grow too. If my kids refuse meds now, I tell them we'll do it the hard way (this way) and they cooperate.

*Sit down on floor with your legs in a V.
* Place baby in between legs with head in your crotch, facing up.
* Squeeze thighs so baby head is immobilized.
* Tuck one baby arm under each of your legs and hold down. Baby should not be unable to move anything but legs.
* Put medicine in baby mouth. If they spit it out, pinch baby nose so they are forced to swallow. It helps if you squirt it with a syringe a little bit at a time so they don't choke.

It takes some practice but it is a very good trick to have in the arsenal. Toddlers are notorious for refusing medicine and for times like fevers it is good to have something that works.

Nicole S. said...

Maybe try some finger foods? I know my son would often go through phases (days, really) where he would seem to prefer finger food and barely eat puree. She is almost 8 months so it might be worth a shot, even if she doesn't have a lot of success with it. Its good practice.

Mommy, Esq. said...

Another way I get medicine into the kids - in the highchair I "recline" it (ours go backward). They are trapped in the chair and the straps, then I squeeze their cheeks and do about 3 squirts. Blow in their faces to make them swallow. As Laura said, pinch their noses if the blowing doesn't work. After 1.5 yrs Penny takes medicine like a champ.