The dentist told me that Caitlin's tooth enamel were badly formed, that is why she gets cavities easily. Badly formed enamel already has lots of pits that trap food. Sigh.
What we can do now is to brush her teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste and at night, we let the toothpaste with fluoride remain on her teeth, and dap a bit of fluoride toothpaste on the cavities. And also, we have to wean her off the night feeds (she can't have fluoride on her teeth and then drink milk right?) which I have already done when I found out that she has so many cavities. Fluoride therapy, the dentist said, would delay the progression of decay until she is old enough to go through the procedure for filling. The brown spots will not go away but will not get deeper, and some beginning decay may remineralise.
Badly formed enamel... that never happened to Kieran. He has nice teeth although two of his molars had decay which were filled. Being experienced with dealing with tooth decay with my older child, I was very diligent with brushing and cleaning of teeth for Caitlin, my second born, so why does the decay still happen? Why was her enamel so weak and badly formed? I'm agonising over these questions. So I did some research.
Breastfeeding mothers does not need to rush to wean their babies off night feeds to prevent decay. In fact research has shown that breast milk can protect baby's teeth from decay. Unfortunately, research has also shown that night nursing exacerbates decay if baby already has cavities. A lot of factors goes into baby tooth decay. It could be genetics, medications mother took while pregnant and affected the formation of baby teeth, mother's health while pregnant with baby, presence of bacteria that caused the decay (the sugar bugs) and of course parents' diligence in brushing and taking care of babies' teeth. I've read that antibiotics caused weak tooth enamel. I'm avoiding antibiotics for my kids unless absolutely necessary. I had a very serious episode of stomach flu that required hospitalisation and strong medication while I was 8 weeks pregnant with Caitlin and I thought that might be the reason for her badly formed enamel. Every time I brush her teeth, or see her smile, and see those cavities, I say sorry to her. I'll take extra good care of her teeth now. I hope she won't have to go through too extreme restorative dentistry work that requires GA, and I certainly pray this won't affect her permanent adult teeth.
Read more about weak tooth enamel here.
Showing posts with label nursing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nursing. Show all posts
Friday, August 21, 2015
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Caitlin's First Step!
As of today, Caitlin is 15 months and 24 days old. Today, she just took her first step! She has been trying to stand and walk by herself since last month and today, she has finally done it! Hurray! Baby steps but our guess is that before the end of the week, she'll be toddling around the house!
We went to Changi Airport Terminal 3 to see the Disney installations. Here's Caitlin at the T3 Kopitiam (where there's vegetarian food stall! Yeah!) drinking from her sippy cup by herself.
Caitlin looking cute!
Kieran looking cute!
Enjoying home cooked kway teow and mee, cooked with love by daddy. Even when going out, we make sure the children have healthy home cooked meals. We bought a good tumbler (保温壶) to keep the food warm.
Little Caitlin is also developing well speech wise.
Here's some of the milestones reached.
Motor skills:
- Great hand eye coordination. She picks up tiny objects from the ground with great expertise. We just have to make sure she don't put them into her mouth.
- Can cruise around the house.
- Crawls well and now learning to walk. Can take a few steps unaided!
Speech skills:
- Calls mama, ah mah, papa, gor gor (calls him da da)
- Tries to vocalise "ah gong" but can't say out.
- Recognise and says bear as "Bah"
- Recognise many objects like apple (she makes a eating gesture), rabbit (she jumps), lion (she roars), cow (she moos), goat (she says baa!), fish and bird (she makes kiss gesture to shows she loves them), flowers (she says "hua"), stars (makes twinkle twinkle gestures with hands), sun (sings ah ah ah because I sing 太阳公公 whenever I point to the sun), moon (she tries to say "moon").
Although Caitlin's speech development isn't as fast as her gor gor's, she's quite on par with children at her age. Jia you, Caitlin! It's such a joy to hug this little angel close to me everyday, smell her pleasant scent, kiss her soft cheek and feel her soft hair everyday! And she's so loving. She will kiss my cheek and daddy's cheek. She's not as milk milk addict as Kieran was before but she definitely loves her milk milk. She still nurses a few times a day and every time to sleep. She wakes up several times at night to nurse. But I'm not complaining. Co-sleeping helps very much in getting enough sleep for me, and she soothes back to sleep easily with nursing. Her favourite person is mummy! Who else can provide food (milk), comfort, fun all in one?
One thing I notice about play in Caitlin that is very different from Kieran, is that when she is given an object like a ring, she will put it over her arm and wear it like a bangle. Kieran will never attempt that! It's a girl thing, I guess? Haha. Children never cease to amaze me :)
Friday, August 15, 2014
Injured Nipple! - Nursing My Fierce Girl
I was dozing off while nursing my little girl when she suddenly got frustrated and gave me a vicious bite!
I have never had such a bad bite from nursing Kieran! She literally bit down and pulled! I screamed in pain while she cried in fright, and thereafter, I stopped nursing her on the injured breast. In fact I developed such a fear of latching her!
The nipple hurts terribly and I stopped latching her on that side, only latching her on the other, and hand expressing the injured breast when it got too engorged. At night, once, I latched her on the injured side as I did not want the supply to go down too badly, and that latch was excruciatingly painful! I took care to unlatch whenever I felt baby was fussy, or when I felt her teeth. Caitlin was definitely teething and very often, she would attempt to bite me.
I got so demoralised that I contemplated stop breastfeeding her altogether. Caitlin refused bottles since she was four or five months old, but I refused to nurse her and gave her a bottle, and she actually drank 30ml of breastmilk from it.
Later, I realised that Caitlin was not only teething but developing a fever. That explained her crankiness and her likeliness to bite while nursing.
Now, it is two weeks since she recovered from her high fever and roseola (fake measles) and she has resumed her lovely, nice, non-biting self, albeit a little fierce when she's refused the things she wants. Oh yes, she bites you when you snatch her toys. It's almost like a reflex action from her. She instinctively lunge forward and bite your arm if you snatch her toys. She reminds me of a puppy! Haha! But she has stopped biting me when she nurses. Thank goodness!
I have never had such a bad bite from nursing Kieran! She literally bit down and pulled! I screamed in pain while she cried in fright, and thereafter, I stopped nursing her on the injured breast. In fact I developed such a fear of latching her!
The nipple hurts terribly and I stopped latching her on that side, only latching her on the other, and hand expressing the injured breast when it got too engorged. At night, once, I latched her on the injured side as I did not want the supply to go down too badly, and that latch was excruciatingly painful! I took care to unlatch whenever I felt baby was fussy, or when I felt her teeth. Caitlin was definitely teething and very often, she would attempt to bite me.
I got so demoralised that I contemplated stop breastfeeding her altogether. Caitlin refused bottles since she was four or five months old, but I refused to nurse her and gave her a bottle, and she actually drank 30ml of breastmilk from it.
Later, I realised that Caitlin was not only teething but developing a fever. That explained her crankiness and her likeliness to bite while nursing.
Now, it is two weeks since she recovered from her high fever and roseola (fake measles) and she has resumed her lovely, nice, non-biting self, albeit a little fierce when she's refused the things she wants. Oh yes, she bites you when you snatch her toys. It's almost like a reflex action from her. She instinctively lunge forward and bite your arm if you snatch her toys. She reminds me of a puppy! Haha! But she has stopped biting me when she nurses. Thank goodness!
Friday, December 20, 2013
Breastfeeding, the second time round
Well, I didn't write much about my breastfeeding journey with Caitlin before because its really so easy. There aren't much ups and downs, and the previous breastfeeding journey with Kieran has already proven that, yeah, I've got milk, and much more than I could ask for, so I don't expect many changes this time round if I follow all the rules I did before, except to over pump as I want to avoid over supply.
To prevent over supply
I belong to the lucky group of mummies who get lots of milk, fast milk flow and an over supply problem very quickly. Or maybe its not because I'm lucky but because I breastfeed my bubs diligently ever since they are born. Latch on within an hour after birth, breastfeed baby by latching on demand, not afraid of sacrificing sleep, rest, other activities etc, just feed and feed, and eat lots of food, and drink lots of fluids. The rule of breastfeeding is simple to me. Don't think. Just feed. Many mummies sabotage their own breastfeeding initiatives by doubting their supply, and went on to pump out milk to check how much they are feeding (inaccurate measure by the way), stress over how little they pump out, attribute almost all baby's symptoms to "not enough milk" like baby cry after feeding = not enough milk, baby tummy too hard = not enough milk/ my milk not good enough/ my milk is very gassy/ etc, baby don't take long naps = don't drink enough milk/ milk not fatty enough. I'm not saying these cannot be the reasons but there are just too many things wrongly blamed on our breastmilk. By adopting the "just feed" idea, mummy gets relaxed, baby get lots of milk, and both are happy.
I'm also lucky this time round really because Caitlin is second born. She gets 2 advantages. Firstly, mummy is more experienced. Secondly, nobody really bothers to fuss over every little detail of baby and nobody questions whether mummy can breastfeed because after all, mummy has breastfed the older one for 20 months.
But one of my problem is over supply. That tormented Kieran and I for many months. I was determined not to get this problem this time. For the first and second week after child birth, I breastfed by latching baby totally, no pumping at all. This worked well as Caitlin was just getting used to latching and there shouldn't be bottles introduced to prevent nipple confusion. I had milk since before child birth as I was breastfeeding my older child, so baby latched on and could be satisfied with lots of milk immediately. I felt engorgement by end of first week. This happened because of 2 reasons. Newborns are sleepier and thus she didn't drink as much as my breasts could produce. She finished with 10-15min on one side and then went to zzzz until about one to two hours later and I latched her on the other side. I allowed my breast to engorge without pumping and make use of cold cabbage leaves (only once a day) to relieve it. I use this sparingly and only with very painful engorgement because over using can result in reduction of milk supply. Other times, I applied cold compress. By third week, baby was drinking on both sides of breasts instead of one, which means my supply has dropped such that she required both breasts to satisfy her demands. She took about 15-30min one side, and fell asleep after latching 5-10min on the other side. It was about the end of third week that I felt baby might feel that the breast milk wasn't enough because she was fussing more at the breasts and I did not feel engorgement anymore. My breasts felt soft but when I pressed, there are still lots of milk. I decided to pump once a day, to bring up supply slightly and also to train baby to feed on bottles. I used Tommy Tippee and Pigeon (yellow wide neck type) and baby preferred Pigeon so we stuck with this. It was also during this time that baby got fussy evenings and growth spurt, so this was a really cranky time. Luckily we survived that ordeal! Phew!
I stored only very minimal amount of milk a day when I do pump. That is because over pumping will bring up too much of my supply, and I only need to store a few packs of milk as emergency. When I go back to work, I still prefer to give my baby fresh milk so I will pump enough to feed baby for the day. As for why I pump at all to bring up the supply, that is because I don't want my supply to be "just right" for baby. If I have it just right, by the time I go to work, work stress, traveling and the lack of latching may reduce my supply and "just right" can become too little milk. Call me kiasu but I just want to be sure baby gets enough milk. Haha.
To teach baby to take both bottle and breasts
My older child refused the bottle when I introduced it to him at 3 months. We tried a few times at 3 -4 weeks and he was ok with it but we didn't offer it anymore for 1-2 months and gave it to him at 3 months. No matter how we tried, he just refused it. Remember I had an over supply problem? So all the frozen breastmilk I stored had gone to waste. The only way he will take breastmilk was from my breasts. But that's ok coz I'm a stay home mom. Problem is, I couldn't leave baby to go anywhere more than 3 hours. Stuck with the babe! This time, I must let Caitlin learn to drink milk from a bottle because firstly, I intend to go back to work soon, and secondly, I do need to bring Kieran out or go out to run errands which may take longer than 3 hours. So, we took care to feed Caitlin from a bottle at least for one feeding a day. The daddy is happy though. He gets to feed his precious little girl. In fact sometimes he would insists on feeding her. We continued to give her a bottle a day to ensure she can continue to be used to bottle feeding. Few months later, we relaxed it a little and gave her bottles only when I needed to be away. That added up to about a few times a week. In the beginning, when she was fussy, and refusing bottle feeding, we gave her bottle feeding after a bath when she is both happy, alert, and thirsty. She drank up. And now she could drink from the bottle no matter whether its grandma, grandpa, daddy or mummy feeding her. But still, she drink from the breasts most of the time, because I still jealously guard this precious moments of bonding with her.
That's about all for now regarding breastfeeding.
Caitlin is latching very well and she's a very smart little girl. We just took her for a photoshoot. Can't wait to show the pictures here!
Update on 23 October 2014: Little Caitlin is now 14 months old and she hates the bottles. She giggles when she sees the breast and excitedly crawls over for a snuggle and milk milk time. She can take the bottle though. When I was away, caregivers managed to get her to drink from it but she hates it. Wise choice, I think.
To prevent over supply
I belong to the lucky group of mummies who get lots of milk, fast milk flow and an over supply problem very quickly. Or maybe its not because I'm lucky but because I breastfeed my bubs diligently ever since they are born. Latch on within an hour after birth, breastfeed baby by latching on demand, not afraid of sacrificing sleep, rest, other activities etc, just feed and feed, and eat lots of food, and drink lots of fluids. The rule of breastfeeding is simple to me. Don't think. Just feed. Many mummies sabotage their own breastfeeding initiatives by doubting their supply, and went on to pump out milk to check how much they are feeding (inaccurate measure by the way), stress over how little they pump out, attribute almost all baby's symptoms to "not enough milk" like baby cry after feeding = not enough milk, baby tummy too hard = not enough milk/ my milk not good enough/ my milk is very gassy/ etc, baby don't take long naps = don't drink enough milk/ milk not fatty enough. I'm not saying these cannot be the reasons but there are just too many things wrongly blamed on our breastmilk. By adopting the "just feed" idea, mummy gets relaxed, baby get lots of milk, and both are happy.
I'm also lucky this time round really because Caitlin is second born. She gets 2 advantages. Firstly, mummy is more experienced. Secondly, nobody really bothers to fuss over every little detail of baby and nobody questions whether mummy can breastfeed because after all, mummy has breastfed the older one for 20 months.
But one of my problem is over supply. That tormented Kieran and I for many months. I was determined not to get this problem this time. For the first and second week after child birth, I breastfed by latching baby totally, no pumping at all. This worked well as Caitlin was just getting used to latching and there shouldn't be bottles introduced to prevent nipple confusion. I had milk since before child birth as I was breastfeeding my older child, so baby latched on and could be satisfied with lots of milk immediately. I felt engorgement by end of first week. This happened because of 2 reasons. Newborns are sleepier and thus she didn't drink as much as my breasts could produce. She finished with 10-15min on one side and then went to zzzz until about one to two hours later and I latched her on the other side. I allowed my breast to engorge without pumping and make use of cold cabbage leaves (only once a day) to relieve it. I use this sparingly and only with very painful engorgement because over using can result in reduction of milk supply. Other times, I applied cold compress. By third week, baby was drinking on both sides of breasts instead of one, which means my supply has dropped such that she required both breasts to satisfy her demands. She took about 15-30min one side, and fell asleep after latching 5-10min on the other side. It was about the end of third week that I felt baby might feel that the breast milk wasn't enough because she was fussing more at the breasts and I did not feel engorgement anymore. My breasts felt soft but when I pressed, there are still lots of milk. I decided to pump once a day, to bring up supply slightly and also to train baby to feed on bottles. I used Tommy Tippee and Pigeon (yellow wide neck type) and baby preferred Pigeon so we stuck with this. It was also during this time that baby got fussy evenings and growth spurt, so this was a really cranky time. Luckily we survived that ordeal! Phew!
I stored only very minimal amount of milk a day when I do pump. That is because over pumping will bring up too much of my supply, and I only need to store a few packs of milk as emergency. When I go back to work, I still prefer to give my baby fresh milk so I will pump enough to feed baby for the day. As for why I pump at all to bring up the supply, that is because I don't want my supply to be "just right" for baby. If I have it just right, by the time I go to work, work stress, traveling and the lack of latching may reduce my supply and "just right" can become too little milk. Call me kiasu but I just want to be sure baby gets enough milk. Haha.
To teach baby to take both bottle and breasts
My older child refused the bottle when I introduced it to him at 3 months. We tried a few times at 3 -4 weeks and he was ok with it but we didn't offer it anymore for 1-2 months and gave it to him at 3 months. No matter how we tried, he just refused it. Remember I had an over supply problem? So all the frozen breastmilk I stored had gone to waste. The only way he will take breastmilk was from my breasts. But that's ok coz I'm a stay home mom. Problem is, I couldn't leave baby to go anywhere more than 3 hours. Stuck with the babe! This time, I must let Caitlin learn to drink milk from a bottle because firstly, I intend to go back to work soon, and secondly, I do need to bring Kieran out or go out to run errands which may take longer than 3 hours. So, we took care to feed Caitlin from a bottle at least for one feeding a day. The daddy is happy though. He gets to feed his precious little girl. In fact sometimes he would insists on feeding her. We continued to give her a bottle a day to ensure she can continue to be used to bottle feeding. Few months later, we relaxed it a little and gave her bottles only when I needed to be away. That added up to about a few times a week. In the beginning, when she was fussy, and refusing bottle feeding, we gave her bottle feeding after a bath when she is both happy, alert, and thirsty. She drank up. And now she could drink from the bottle no matter whether its grandma, grandpa, daddy or mummy feeding her. But still, she drink from the breasts most of the time, because I still jealously guard this precious moments of bonding with her.
That's about all for now regarding breastfeeding.
Caitlin is latching very well and she's a very smart little girl. We just took her for a photoshoot. Can't wait to show the pictures here!
Update on 23 October 2014: Little Caitlin is now 14 months old and she hates the bottles. She giggles when she sees the breast and excitedly crawls over for a snuggle and milk milk time. She can take the bottle though. When I was away, caregivers managed to get her to drink from it but she hates it. Wise choice, I think.
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