It Bites
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Family on Thursday, February 18, 2010 10:53 PM
Several times a day I hear Camilla shriek suddenly: “Mama! Blaise BIT me!”
I come running to see her looking outraged and her brother looking toothily unconcerned. Even if he hasn’t left bite marks, I know she’s telling the truth, because I myself am often the victim of those eight sharp little chompers. The baby sinks his incisors into the nearest available surface whenever it pleases him. And boy, is it painful if my skin happens to be the nearest available surface!
I’m pretty sure I know the reason for the sudden rash of biting: teething. Camilla was never a biter except when she had new teeth imminent, and Blaise appears to be the same way. Right now he’s cutting his eyeteeth on the top, and I’m blaming every bit of unfortunate baby behavior on those emerging canines.
Before I had children I never thought much about teeth. I was grateful to have them, grateful I hadn’t needed braces on them, and that was about the extent of it. Then I had my first baby, and when she was six months old she was chewing her fists, drooling like crazy, and sleeping fitfully. Her first incisors didn’t peek through her gums until a month later, and I dreaded thinking of the many sleepless nights we’d have to endure before she had a full mouth of pearly whites.
(It turned out to be many. Very, very many.)
Teeth are a lovely thing, and I’m grateful that my children have them, but teething is not so lovely. And it does drag on so. The baby is working on a tooth for ages, and then finally, FINALLY you feel the sharpness of the new tooth in his mouth. You can breathe a sigh of relief, but it must be a small one, because do not forget that there are more teeth coming! Many of them! The cycle may start all over again in mere weeks!
I know that for some children teething is not a huge deal, while for others it is awful. My mother-in-law once waved her hand when the topic came up and said, “Oh, teething? That was no big deal.” On the other end of the spectrum, my poor nephew’s mouth looked like a war zone, with bloody bruised gums, when he was cutting EIGHT teeth at one time.
I’ve pondered the problem of baby teeth many times, often in the middle of the night when I’m soothing a little one with an unhappy mouth. As far as I can see, there’s no solution. It wouldn’t be better for babies to be born with all their teeth - can you imagine how much more painful it would be to breastfeed a newborn if he already had a mouthful of sharp things? Cutting them all at once, instead of gradually, would obviously be [even more] excruciating for the baby. I guess God knew what he was doing when he designed the process as it is.
But when I feel those telltale hard spots under my little one’s gums, I shudder in anticipation of what I know is coming. Not least because I know that once those teeth are finally through and the next ones are on the way, the sharp little things will be sinking into ME.
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