‘Teething troubles’ is a phrase I find quite apt, as both the literal and symbolic senses of it gel with ‘motherhood’ so well, just the hand in glove way. ‘ Amin right from the day your baby comes in your life , with every step of the way where you get stuck, the words, “oh…these are just teething troubles darling..” are thrown in your face by whosoever finds you stuck and whosoever is or is not able to help.
The troubles you face however, keep multiplying to move on much beyond the actual teething days of your child, right till the days your own teeth become one of the extinct varieties.
Teeth, motherhood and kids are what we are going to talk about today. You must be wondering why I am so obsessed with teeth this time. Well no prizes for the right guess for, it’s as simple as it can be – my younger one is teething! And believe me, because I for one, am a completely bruised and harassed mom with all my lovely crochet pieces being chewed apart and I, myself am being inflicted with those skin piercing bites, every time the irritation sets in.
It was after one such attack from my baby, which almost drew a shriek out of me that I realized our struggle with teeth is lifelong. Remember the day you got your piece of good news. Along with it was also the piece of advice that said – “take care of your teeth and gums”
Well all through the pregnancy you can actually feel your gums going loose and if it’s the second time around, expect half your enamel coated set to be full of cavities if nothing else. You pray all along that your child doesn’t get your bad teeth genes, almost scrubbing and cleaning them well each night and each morning, to somehow slow down the damaging effects of pregnancy hormones on your dental health. Needless to say you end up with at least one crown, by the time your pregnancy ends in the ‘teeth wrenching’ labor and your baby arrives.
From then on it’s the teeth(your’s), teethers (baby’s) and calcium supplements(for both), which become centre stage discussion topics in the house. Sometimes its you loosing a tooth and the baby getting one and then you getting a tooth (an artificial one of course!) and the baby loosing one (the milk tooth of course!).
Since we are talking of teeth, how can I forget to mention the numerous free flow of advises, one contradicting the other, suggesting the path one should follow as far as calcium supplements for both mom and baby’s teeth are concerned. Some suggest taking a regular dose of calcium to make teeth and bones of babies strong, while there are others suggesting calcium intake only in food form. No extra supplements – “that would make the milk teeth so strong, they wouldn’t budge for the permanent ones to come!”
For me however, the discussion ended when my dentist told me that teeth absorb calcium only for the first four years of our lives. I knew then, it was too late for my teeth anyhow and if it’s a matter of four years only, then just the right time for my kids’, finally putting an end to the confusion.
I guess as my children grow my set of teething troubles would keep changing until finally they have their set of permanent teeth in place and I have my set of artificial ones all fixed up well.
As of now, I’m enjoying my son’s two toothed bunny smile.
