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 weaning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weaning. Show all posts
Friday, August 21, 2015
Monday, June 17, 2013
Made in school
It was Zhong Yuan Jie which is the time when Chinese remembered the great Poet Xu Yuan who gave his life for his country. When I brought Kieran to school, they were telling stories about Zhong Yuan jie and the let the children make dumplings. Kieran brought a small dumpling home and I later let him open it and eat it on his own. I hope he had fun that day :)
Father's Day just passed. We had a great time with dearest daddy. Yun Xuan love daddy so much. He made a nice handicraft for daddy at school! Teacher Lina said he used his fingers to dot the paints onto the tie of the "shirt" and use cotton bud to put glitters on it. I asked Yun xuan whether he did that himself and he said yes. This is daddy's first Father's Day gift from our boy. I told Yilin he's very fortunate. A dad is a son's first hero and a daughter's first love. He is now both a hero and a first love.
By the way, Kieran is officially weaned off mummy's milk milk since 6 June 2013. He breastfed for 20 months. I have the urge to continue to latch him on every time! I love the feeling of latching him and watching his chubby little cheeks as he suck hungrily. It is a way of telling me my baby is still a baby and has not grown into a boy yet. But oh well... I've got to stay firm. Maybe I will reintroduce it to him after Caitlin is born and see if he still accepts it... hehe.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
weaning off milk milk
I'm in my 29th week now, and its really time to get Kieran used to sleep without milk milk (latching on to me for breastmilk).
As my breastmilk supply decreases, Kieran does not really ask for milk milk anytime in the day. He drinks formula milk with a bit of milo for added taste. We added milo so that we can coax him to take it as milo and not a replacement for his milk milk, and indeed he takes to it and requests for milo about 3 times a day, and each time 160ml in the morning and 120ml at other times.
But he kind of already associated milk milk with sleep time, and my nipple becomes his pacifier. They can't supply him much food anymore but it works great as a soother for him before he goes to sleep. That is good for him but not good for me! Imagine after giving birth to Caitlin, I still have to nurse Kieran to sleep! I'll be doubly exhausted! So, its weaning off milk milk for the afternoon naps and for night feeds for now.
Kieran couldn't get used to it and started to say "No no no!" and cried when I told him, "Come. Sleepy time, but you must sleep on your own, no milk milk."
I tried to sleep beside him and pat him to sleep but he couldn't get to sleep despite being super tired, so he tossed and turned and cried angrily, even attempting to pinch and bite me if I tried to comfort him. So we have to try another method. Hubby carried him and calmed him down by telling him he will show him the stars (glow in the dark stickers in our room) and then pat him to him as he carried him in his arms. This is not an ideal case as our intention is to train him to go to sleep on his own on his bed. But since he couldn't yet, we just had to settle with this for now. At least we wean him off breastmilk now, and then try to go to the next step which is to get him to sleep on his own.
Kieran's Childcare centre has 4 cases of HFMD since opening. Its a new centre. I'm glad the principal is very open with us regarding this. I checked Kieran's hands today and was worried to find a blister on his palm. Hubby and I discussed a lot about HFMD, I did a lot of research and reading on it, and we thought about how we should deal with it if it really happens to Kieran. The complication is that I'm pregnant now and we know in 3rd trimester, although HFMD will not cause miscarriage, and will not easily pass on to adults anyway, there may have a chance that the newborn baby will get it. And we are also worried that in future, Kieran may pass the virus to his sister while she's still young. After observing for awhile, we decided that it shouldn't be a blister but a mosquito bite because his usual bites look like that, and if its HFMD, he should be having more than one blister. I checked his feet. They are fine. He's having dry and peeling skin on his palms and feet though. I think maybe the antiseptic hand sanitiser the centre uses is too drying for his skin. I've stopped using Kirei Kirei hand wash for him at home too, and uses his body wash to clean his hands. Hopefully the peeling will stop. I also applied some moisturiser on his feet before he sleeps today.
Poor Kieran had to cry so much these few days. Cry during the morning at the school gate coz he wants mummy, cry during the afternoon when he can't get milk milk for his afternoon nap, and cry at night when he can't get milk milk before he sleeps. Oh yes, he also has a old time habit of waking at about 3-4am at night to suckle on the nipple for a few seconds before he goes back to sleep. So now, he still wakes up at 3am to toss and turn. For the past few nights, he can toss and turn for a while and then goes back to sleep on his own but yesterday he was banging on the door and wanting to find mummy for milk milk! Hubby who now sleeps with Kieran instead of me, carried him until he sleeps and then put him back onto his bed. Let's hope tonight will be better, and he won't wake up in the middle of the night but sleeps through!
Kieran is eating a lot lately and has grown quite chubby at his cheeks. Teacher reflected that he could eat a lot at school, and when he returns home, its non stop eating again!
My heart aches whenever I send Kieran to school. I hope for one day when he will tell me he enjoys school and then my heart will not ache so much. Today he did painting with his hands, and music lessons, and he told me he played with cars (he usual favourite). Teacher showed me pictures she took of him doing the activities. She said he's getting better. I do hope so! This week, he started to accept showering at school which is great. I'm glad to know he's improving much. Just hope to see him tearless when I bring him to school and when I bring him home. Now, I'm keeping him to half day schedule. I don't really want him to stay too long in school as I know sleeping on the mattress which will only be washed once a week, will increase chances of him getting viruses which may threaten my unborn baby, and he hasn't really learnt to sleep on his own yet, so it will be lots of unnecessary tears for him if he has to sleep on his own at the child care centre.
That's all for now... Back to sleep time. Super tired! Tomorrow is another trying day...
As my breastmilk supply decreases, Kieran does not really ask for milk milk anytime in the day. He drinks formula milk with a bit of milo for added taste. We added milo so that we can coax him to take it as milo and not a replacement for his milk milk, and indeed he takes to it and requests for milo about 3 times a day, and each time 160ml in the morning and 120ml at other times.
But he kind of already associated milk milk with sleep time, and my nipple becomes his pacifier. They can't supply him much food anymore but it works great as a soother for him before he goes to sleep. That is good for him but not good for me! Imagine after giving birth to Caitlin, I still have to nurse Kieran to sleep! I'll be doubly exhausted! So, its weaning off milk milk for the afternoon naps and for night feeds for now.
Kieran couldn't get used to it and started to say "No no no!" and cried when I told him, "Come. Sleepy time, but you must sleep on your own, no milk milk."
I tried to sleep beside him and pat him to sleep but he couldn't get to sleep despite being super tired, so he tossed and turned and cried angrily, even attempting to pinch and bite me if I tried to comfort him. So we have to try another method. Hubby carried him and calmed him down by telling him he will show him the stars (glow in the dark stickers in our room) and then pat him to him as he carried him in his arms. This is not an ideal case as our intention is to train him to go to sleep on his own on his bed. But since he couldn't yet, we just had to settle with this for now. At least we wean him off breastmilk now, and then try to go to the next step which is to get him to sleep on his own.
Kieran's Childcare centre has 4 cases of HFMD since opening. Its a new centre. I'm glad the principal is very open with us regarding this. I checked Kieran's hands today and was worried to find a blister on his palm. Hubby and I discussed a lot about HFMD, I did a lot of research and reading on it, and we thought about how we should deal with it if it really happens to Kieran. The complication is that I'm pregnant now and we know in 3rd trimester, although HFMD will not cause miscarriage, and will not easily pass on to adults anyway, there may have a chance that the newborn baby will get it. And we are also worried that in future, Kieran may pass the virus to his sister while she's still young. After observing for awhile, we decided that it shouldn't be a blister but a mosquito bite because his usual bites look like that, and if its HFMD, he should be having more than one blister. I checked his feet. They are fine. He's having dry and peeling skin on his palms and feet though. I think maybe the antiseptic hand sanitiser the centre uses is too drying for his skin. I've stopped using Kirei Kirei hand wash for him at home too, and uses his body wash to clean his hands. Hopefully the peeling will stop. I also applied some moisturiser on his feet before he sleeps today.
Poor Kieran had to cry so much these few days. Cry during the morning at the school gate coz he wants mummy, cry during the afternoon when he can't get milk milk for his afternoon nap, and cry at night when he can't get milk milk before he sleeps. Oh yes, he also has a old time habit of waking at about 3-4am at night to suckle on the nipple for a few seconds before he goes back to sleep. So now, he still wakes up at 3am to toss and turn. For the past few nights, he can toss and turn for a while and then goes back to sleep on his own but yesterday he was banging on the door and wanting to find mummy for milk milk! Hubby who now sleeps with Kieran instead of me, carried him until he sleeps and then put him back onto his bed. Let's hope tonight will be better, and he won't wake up in the middle of the night but sleeps through!
Kieran is eating a lot lately and has grown quite chubby at his cheeks. Teacher reflected that he could eat a lot at school, and when he returns home, its non stop eating again!
My heart aches whenever I send Kieran to school. I hope for one day when he will tell me he enjoys school and then my heart will not ache so much. Today he did painting with his hands, and music lessons, and he told me he played with cars (he usual favourite). Teacher showed me pictures she took of him doing the activities. She said he's getting better. I do hope so! This week, he started to accept showering at school which is great. I'm glad to know he's improving much. Just hope to see him tearless when I bring him to school and when I bring him home. Now, I'm keeping him to half day schedule. I don't really want him to stay too long in school as I know sleeping on the mattress which will only be washed once a week, will increase chances of him getting viruses which may threaten my unborn baby, and he hasn't really learnt to sleep on his own yet, so it will be lots of unnecessary tears for him if he has to sleep on his own at the child care centre.
That's all for now... Back to sleep time. Super tired! Tomorrow is another trying day...
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