Dealing with a mouth injury of my daughter

It is always so tough to keep an eye on a busy naughty toddler, accidents can happen even in a blink of an eye! It was few months back, on a Sunday winter morning when my daughter, her dad and i, we all were soaking up the warm sunshine in our terrace, little Raima was running around all over the terrace. Her dad and i were chit chatting and also observing Rai’s activity from a distance, when suddenly within a fraction of a second while running she fell down and started crying. I ran to her to hold her up and was shocked by the sight of blood running down her lower lips! She had injured her lower lips with her sharp little teeth. She was bleeding heavily and crying aloud. Her dad quickly brought water and pour over the injury first and then tried to apply a little press with a clean towel so that the bleeding stops. Of course frightened little Rai was not allowing us to touch her swollen paining lips but we tried our best to distract her and finally the bleeding stopped after a while.

Swollen split lips were irritating little Raima, we took her to a health center where i came to know many new facts about child’s mouth injury and was very relieved with little medication. Mouth injuries can be of many types like cut lips, bit up tongue, bit up inner cheeks while chewing etc..

First aid of mouth injuries:

There are many tiny blood vessels in the mouth region and even a small cut causes lots of bleeding making the parents think its a really serious accident! But most of the mouth injuries are not that serious as they look. It is very important to be calm so that the little one gets calmer fast. The first thing to be done is to stop the bleeding, for this wet a little piece of clean cloth and apply slight pressure on the bleeding spot. Of course my little Raima was not allowing us to touch her lips but the second thing which we did was to distract her by showing her favorite birds flying up there, little cats playing down there and what all distraction devices are available. The longer the child is distracted the more quickly bleeding will stop with the pressure treatment.

Medication for mouth injury:

I was not prescribed any medicine for my daughter’s injury. Doctors asked me to apply ice packs to reduce the swelling and numb the pain, and apply an anticeptic ointment on the wound. After about an hour of the accident, Raima started playing like her real self, as if nothing has happened to her. I gave her frozen carrot slice, frozen cucumber slice to lick on so that her swollen lips are relaxed. Since my daughter didn’t showed any sign of pain doctor gave no any pain reliever but in other cases, acetaminophen or ibuprofen is given to ease the pain.

Meal time care:

When the wound is fresh, it is but natural that the wound will sting if any salty or spicy food comes in contact, so for few days give your child bland foods. The day Raima was injured, i gave her rice mixed with milk and sweetened with sugar in lunch, cornflakes and mashed fruits in the evening and a light porridge made up of dalia (broken wheat), but the next day i tried to give her a light khichdi in the food didn’t sting. In the case where injury is in the inside of the mouth, i suggest to continue bland food for few more days.

Apply medicine when the baby sleeps:

It was not possible for me to apply medicine on my busy toddler’s lips while she was playing as she would lick it unknowingly. I made it a point to apply a thick coat of the antiseptic ointment on the wound as soon as she falls asleep. I used an all purpose boroline or boroplus antiseptic cream which is very common in household of India. Continued it for a week and my daughter was fine after that.

Although most of the mouth injuries are not so serious as they seems to be but there are few things which should be checked and calls for an immediate doctor visit. Those situations are, if the child was injured with any rusty material (which causes tetanus), the cut is very deep or more than half an inch which would need stitches, the bleeding doesn’t stop even after applying pressure for more than 3-5minutes, there is dirt in the wound which you are not able to wash off with water, the injury is deep in the roof of the mouth or tonsil area, any bone injuries or signs of infection like pus etc needs serious attention.

It is not always easy to keep a constant eye on a busy toddler, and at the same time it is very disturbing to see the apple of your cheeks injured, as a parent we always have to use a presence of mind and act swiftly in any kind of emergencies. God bless.

Potty Training My Daughter

For a 1st time mom, everyday brings new challenges and everyday we learn new lessons. I fondly remember every milestone my baby reached and also those hard work behind their success. I also remember about potty training my daughter. It took almost 6 months to be patience and train her!

image source: here

It all started when my daughter began to stand up around 12 months of age and took her first step. As she started get going...
it was not possible at all to stop the busy toddler. When she was a baby in bed, crawling and playing, all her pooping activities used to be in bed, in her nappy (in laying position) but now when she realized the enjoyment of walking and moving around, even while pooping, she didn't have the patience of standing in one place and finish off the job! I was so tired running behind her and clearing off the messy poop!!
I brought a portable potty seat for her, but she thought mommy has brought a new toy!! she would play with it, keep her small toys inside it, beat it like a drum etc etc, but when i tried to make her sit on it, she would scream and stand up. Full 1 month it continued! But as doctors say, we should never force our child to do or learn anything, every child is unique and every child learns in his own pace, so i kept waiting and trying...

1. I kept an eye on the signs of readiness for her to use the potty seat.

2. I made a routine to make her sit on the potty seat (with her cloths on) everyday which she supposed to be "her new TOY" and sing songs for her, make her play and mean while at the time of her pooping i used to hold her thighs up in my lap and asked her to poop. In this way she learnt to poop in one place quietly and not running around!

3. Till she was 14 months old, she was able to hold and inform me that she wants to poop. She would say aaa.poti and make facial muscles tight which gave me signals she wants to poop.

4. I started to take her to our washroom along with me and literally demonstrated how mommy use the toilet and how you should too try it.

5. I also started with the exercise of asking her to pee in the potty seat after every an hour, it saved my many cloths dippers and slowly and gradually she learnt that her "New Toy" is basically a place to pee.

6. Then she completed 15 months of age and i started asking her to poop in her potty seat. Yeah she started to poop in the potty seat, but after 30sec she used to get up and say "potty ho gaya" (means potty done) but while wiping off, again she used to poop!! That was another few challenging weeks when i couldn't make her sit for a long duration patiently.

7. I gave her toys to play with while sitting in the potty seat, started to play with her, attracted her attention towards some home video of her in my mobile and this is how by the time she completed 19 months of age i managed to keep her sitting in her potty seat till she completely finished pooping.

Trial and error method, and learning from every experience, finally made by baby potty trained. Raima's potty seat remains in a fixed place and today when feels the urge to poop, takes the  potty seat and sits herself on it ( i just only have to take her pants off which she can't at present). Even some times, after 5-7 minutes when she doesn't gets up and i ask her to get up, she says "potty isn't over yet" !!
Being portable, i take the potty seat along with us in long journey, it is very useful as now my daughter nags she wont poop in dipper even when out of home. Once she completes 3 yrs of age i will slowly start to teach her to use the public toilet as she will be going to her play school then.
so, this is my journey of potty training my baby. What is yours?

When my Daughter turned two years old...

Mom and me

Its said that time flies very fast, it is so true. I feel like it was yesterday that i brought baby Raima from hospital and was happily raising up her and the next moment felt, how beautiful and bubbly my little darling has grown up. We celebrated her 2nd birthday on 8th Feb in her grandpa's home, it was a close friends & family and homely affair which Raima enjoyed a lot..

Raima cutting the cake

Ear piercing experience of my daughter

Recently in our puja vacation i got my 18 month old baby's ears pierced. It was a well thought decision taken in advance, before we left Allahabad for the puja vacation in our hometown Jalpaiguri.  I could have got it done it a few months later also, but then i would have missed the comfort of getting it done at a friends ladies parlour in our hometown !  I had to come back to Allahabad immediately after Durga Puja.

After 2 weeks of ear piercing

IS 18 MONTH AN APPROPRIATE AGE FOR EAR PIERCING ???

In my childhood, my parents got my ear pierced at home when i was around 5-6 years old. It was a painful experience for me at that tender age, i still remember the experience! Elders in my society say ideally it should be done at around 2-3 years age of the child - the more you delay, the more painful is the experience. 

Doctors believe ear piercing is safe any time after the 2nd dose of DPT as the vaccine can fight the signs of tetanus. Somewhere i read that in Spain and Latin america, ear piercing in girls are done right at birth, as its a custom to do so in their culture. So i would say there is no specific age for ear piercing  - it is done in varied age group as per parent's choice, culture and convenience.  

WHERE TO GET IT DONE - AT HOME OR AT BEAUTY PARLOUR ??

Even in today's generation, majority of us relay on at-home-piercing practice usually done by the elders of the family. Most of us prefer it as it is often found a tried & tested method followed by generations after generation. However, many parents are now preferring ear piercing at ladies parlours as there, it is done through gun shots within a fraction-of-second and it is absolutely a pain-free less experience for the child. No matter wherever we do the piercing, we should ensure that the piercing material is sterile.

EAR PIERCING DONE - WHAT NEXT ??

After piercing, one can tie a thread in the earlobe. However, i would personally prefer a thin thread like gold ring or pin shaped ear ring. Actually whatever material we put into the newly pierced ears - we should ensure that it is not removed at least for a month, otherwise the thin whole in the earlobe may again fill up. During this period, antibacterial ointment prescribed by the doctors should be applied twice daily and the earring should be twisted slowly slowly everyday. After bath the earlobe should be wiped properly so the area doesn't remain damp. Any signs of infection like discharge, swelling, redness, bleeding, pain should be checked up regularly. When changing over the earring, try to opt for gold earrings, because gold never react with skin to create allergy.

baby's earrings should be small, round and flat as dangling earrings can hurt the earlobe if it is caught in cloths, mom's jewelry or the baby herself has a habit of pulling her earrings accidentally.

HOW WAS RAIMA's EXPERIENCE...

I preferred late afternoon appointment for Raima's ear piercing season in my friends palour, because this is the time when usually most of the parlours remain quite and calm with a very few persons inside the house. The timing had a beautiful effect on my daughter, she was quite and in playful mind. The expert applied a local anesthesia on Raima's earlobe and let her wait for 3-4 mins. Raima was oblivious to what was going to happen. After the wait period was over, she pointed a dot on each earlobe, placed the piercing gun. A small stone stud was there in the ear-ring adaptar, one trigger and the earring was on Raima's earlobe! I was more nervous than Raima thinking how will she react, will she allow to pierce second earlobe or cry hard... but to my surprise she just got little frightened with the "Thak" sound of the trigger but didn't cry at all !! While piercing the second earlobe, the expert gave a toy to Raima to distract her from the activity and the second piercing too got very well.

A piercing gun

Image source :here

When I came back home, Raima was all smiling and telling her dadaji in her sweet baby voice that in the ears she has worn 'dulu dulu...'. So cute.... Well, her earlobes turned slightly reddish when we returned home, so i applied "neosporin" antibacterial ointment and let her play as usual. She was playing actively, no sign of pain or any discomfort, i was so relieved. I continued with the ointment for the next 2 days. On 3rd day, Raima pulled out and removed one earring from her earlobe while playing, may be due some kind of discomfort. After a thought, i removed the other one too. I feared the rear point of the pin shaped ear ring may hurt her while sleeping. I applied little ointment on the ears and was thinking that i've to find an alternate shaped ear ring for my baby. Finally i chose a small round shaped gold earring for her. Through out the first week i noticed pin-dot sized discharge from each earlobe, on which i continued to apply the ointment after careful cleaning every day. From the second week onward, the pierced area showed signs of healing, but i kept applying the ointment once a day to avoid any possible infections.

Note: Information given here are a collective note of self study and personal experience with my baby. Pediatrician should always be consulted before taking any decision regarding baby and her health related issues.

Reading books to babies

Babies and books!!! When a child starts going to school, his study starts and this continues till he is 23-25 years of age, so why put the burden of books before that... let the baby play... this is what many people said to me. But i had a different opinion! Let books be another toy for my baby to play with...

Mom sings lullabies to infants to put them to sleep right from the time when the infant doesn't understand what music is! But every baby enjoys its soothing effect. Something like that, a baby may not understand what are books for? But slowly and gradually she finds interest in the bright and colourful pictures in it.

Somewhere i read that right time to introduce a baby to books is 6-12 months. Best way is to make your baby sit in your lap and show the big bright pictures to her with your fingers pointing towards it. Making your voice tone up and down will raise her curiosity.

Baby learns to communicate

Baby tries to remember many things hence increase memory

Baby tries to know the world around them

learn new words hence increases vocabulary

pics of my daughter's 1st books :

Animal sound book, makes sound when button in the right is pressed

Body parts book

Vegetable book

Animal and number book

Birds book

Number and baby animal book

When a baby listens to words, it builds a network of words in a baby's brain. My parents used to say, the more you talk to your baby, the more quickly she would learn words and start talking. I brought 1 st book for my daughter Raima when she was 8 months old. At that time she didn’t know what i brought for her, the thing she used to love most was my closeness, when i used to take her in my lap and opened a book to show cat and dog’s pictures with different noise, she used to burst out her smile. My husband and i try to make sure that we built a strong communication with our daughter. I also downloaded lots of early educational songs and videos, nursery rhymes from you tube, and when i am doing my household jobs, i let my toddler watch them for some time. It gives immense pleasure when she watches a bird rhyme and starts searching the same crow and peacock she saw in her book, and calls me out in her baby voice “ M’ma, cock-cock, kuku-kuku “....she searches for toma...(tomato) and Bana Ti (Banana tree)..... Now she is 19 months old, and relates everything she sees in the world around with her books.

Raima started to understand pictures and developed preferences for certain pictures, pages and even rhymes. For instance, she loves cats. Every time she turnes pages of her animal book, she finds for “mii-uum” (that is meow which she pronounces Mii-um). When she listens  to the rhyme 'clap your hands', she too starts clapping her hands, stamps her feet and turns around. The other day she was playing with her doll and was chanting “ Jonnyeeeee.....  ha ha ha....” My husband and i smiled at each other and said her brain was recollecting rhyme “ Jonny  Jonny  yes papa”

If you want your baby to be an avid reader when she grows up, ensure that at an early stage itself you have books appropriate to her age all over your house. When your baby is old enough to crawl or run to a basket of toys and pick one out, make sure some books are kept with his toys. After all, there is a saying, habits are made in the childhood...