Saturday, February 11, 2006

The Lesser of Two Evils, or something like that...

Evil number ONE: The terrible pain a child feels in the middle of the night when he/she is teething. You know the kind... where they wake up shrieking and crying inconsolably because a razor sharp pearly white is ripping through their tender gums... The kind that scares you so badly that it has you sitting completely straight up in bed because you think your child has been beaten half to death by the dust bunnies under his crib ... and you go running into his room in a state of shock, banging into the, um... heater in the middle of your floor, and stub your toe, as you walk into the door jam because you're so disoriented by the horrible screams coming from your child's room ... and he doesn't calm down until you DO. SOMETHING. ABOUT. IT. STAT. Yeah... that's number one.

Evil number TWO: The terrible shriek of shock and disgust and wails of pure torture that comes out of your child's mouth ... in the middle of the night ... when they taste that baby orajel you're trying to shove into their mouth ... in the dark ... half asleep ... in the middle of the night ... two-ish in the morning, to be exact. And three-ish. And four-ish. And six-ish. And ... oh, why bother sleeping at this point.

So, a mother has to decide in a split moment... Decision # 1: just give the baby Tylenol, and hope he goes back to sleep ... because that's what I did first, and trust me... it really didn't work. At all. Hence, the three-ish, four-ish, and six-ish am wake-ups. Decision #2: Rub the foul and horrid tasting orajel on his precious gums, and listen to about 10 more minutes of frantic wailing and spitting as he tries to rid himself of the horrid taste in his mouth.

Either way, my heart breaks for him. He's just too little to suffer like that. And, I'm a bit of a vain-ish mom, in that... I want him to like me, not run from me in terror when he sees me coming with my finger extended towards his little mouth!

Do the makers of this stuff actually taste their handy work before they market it as "cherry flavored?" I can't imagine anything tasting any more bitter and, just plain FOUL than the "cherry flavor" they use!

Isn't there something better out on the market?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't remember it being that bad for them, I'm sure it was but I just don't remember it. God is good isn't He, the way He makes sure we forget the bad parts of our child's first years. Wish I could help. Maybe someone with little ones now will be able to give you answer. Wait, I can help, I can do is pray for the little guy. :)

Christa said...

thanks for the comment on my blog! Congrats on your blessing, I had some major disagreements with my fertility but nothing like what you've been through. Suffice it to say God makes sure we appreciate the gifts of our children, huh? For the teething, I learned somehow that my kids loved frozen washcloths for soothing those gums. If you put some drinking water in a bowl, ad a drop of mint extract, and then dip a washcloth in it, then freeze the washcloth. My kids loved it. I think the mint was soothing as well. It never made my kids sick or anything but that may be something to run by a ped if your son may have allergies, etc.