Trip for Two: Recap - The First Day

Jude did not sleep very well that first night. He woke up the next morning with the tip of a new tooth poking out (still not those two front teeth - but he officially has the two side teeth). I'm not one to really buy into the whole teething-makes-kids-miserable thing, but he did squirm quite a bit which kept me awake. We were both a little tired for the rest of the day - but nothing terrible.

By the time we got out of bed, my mom and Curt were already off to work, so we had the house to ourselves to eat breakfast and just enjoy the morning. My mom had stocked the cabinets with some of Jude's favorite breakfast foods and so I took him right downstairs to eat. This first morning was a foreshadowing of the rest of the week. I'm going to say he threw something like 85% of his breakfast on the floor. First his cantaloupe (he loves cantaloupe!), then his waffle.

Frustrated with his lack of eating, we showered and went to visit my mom at her work. Like I said she owns a coffee shop. She currently is getting ready to close down the location she's currently at and move it to a new store a couple of months from now, so she went ahead and closed the store during the day while I was there.

The first day was GORGEOUS! 75 degrees and oh-so-sunny! Before leaving to visit my mom and I had discussed a few possible options for things to do while Jude and I were visiting. I had found information about a children's museum, a science museum and the North Carolina Zoo. In addition, my mom wanted to take Jude shopping for some new spring/summer clothes. Being the little shopper that she is, we headed towards some outlets for the first day. We hit up the gap outlet and a few others, getting Jude the basics for a super cute summer look!

The drive was about 45 minutes, which was lovely. We put the windows down and just soaked up the beautiful weather. I had wanted to do the zoo - and in hindsight ... it would have been the perfect day for it.

We got back to my mom's shop in the late afternoon while she did some closing up and then went out to dinner.

Hanging around mommom's coffee shop...

As I had said earlier, Jude and I were both pretty sleepy, so I fell asleep with him around 7:45 - and we both slept soundly.

Out of Order - a story about teeth.

When Jude was about 3 months old, my family swore he was teething... He got his first tooth when he was almost 8 months old. Second tooth a week later... and he JUST got his third tooth at almost 10 months. The typical child cuts one new tooth at about the rate of 1 tooth per month from 6 months on. So... Jude's a little behind.

Typically babies get their bottom two front teeth, top two front and then the ones on either side of the front teeth. (so, central incisors and then side incisors)

Well, for weeks now, I've seen Jude's top gums BULGING. I thought that at any second his two front teeth would bust through his gums. Instead... he got one of his top side incisors. As i detailed above... this is not the norm.

Leave it to me to be that parent who can't help but wonder "oh geeze... i hope every thing's OK". As luck would have it, Ryan and I had our 6 month cleaning tonight. All of the women were swooning over Jude. One women asked how many teeth he had and I figured that was my chance. As nonchalantly as I could I mentioned "He's 10 months old and only has two teeth! Well he just cut his third... but it's not the central incisor - it's one of the side ones." I really didn't think it was anything too bad... but hey, why not throw it out there. She completely shrugged it off. She had no interest at all in WHICH teeth had come in. Instead she started a conversation about whether Ryan or I were late to get teeth (I was).

So much for worrying about it.

Oral Care

Yesterday, I finally took the time to call my dentists office. Jude has two teeth (as you all know) and before long will be getting more... and more... and more...

I had read once that when they start getting teeth, some dentists like to see them, just to check them out and pretty much introduce themselves. Not being sure if this was my dentist's procedure (or if my dentist even took children), I decided to check. In addition, I had some questions about what they would recommend as the proper way to care for Jude little friends.

They told me they do not normally see children until they are about 3 years old. If there is a problem before then, they recommend that we take him to a pediatric dentist and that in the event we need to do this, they have one they recommend.

They advised me at the 3 year visit, Jude would be introduced to the office, he would get to play with "mr sun" (who is really the light that they shine in your face during check ups), etc. It really sounded like they were used to dealing with kids. It made me confident that when the time comes, there's no reason to see a separate dentist for Jude.

In addition, they answered a few questions about early oral care.

Up to this point, Jude had one of those nubby gum brushes that he loves. In the morning while I'm holding him while brushing my teeth, he gets his little brush and chews and plays. I know that he's not being very effective, but I liked that he was getting the idea that it is routine and something that mommy had to do too.

The dentist said this was great and that at this point we should be gently wiping his gums after meals and nursing, with a small piece of gauze, a paper towel, etc.

Finally, she said when Ryan and I go in for our next check up, she would send us home with a toothbrush they recommend for babies. Around the 1 year mark is when she suggested we should get a tube of children's toothpaste and actually start brushing his teeth. She did not recommend one over the other and said they're all effective at doing the same thing.

I feel like this is all stuff I could have figured out on my own, but of course, it's nice to hear it from someone who specializes in these sorts of things.

Baby Teeth

So I have this theory... what is it you might ask? I think that after talking to other mothers that breastfeed babies get their teeth later than formula fed babies. You may think I'm crazy, but I honestly am noticing a trend among the people I know!

Everyone I know in my family all say that their children got teeth a t 3/4 months - they were all convinced when Jude was only a couple months old that he was teething. Now, when I look at most of the women I know who breastfeed, they're kids all seem to be getting their first teeth around 6/7 months.

Noticing this, I decided to do some online research just to see. I found no real related studies or anything that indicated one way or the other, but I came across chat boards and stuff that left me undecided. One chat board was a conversation started by a mother asking the same question as me. She said she too noticed a trend among breastfed/formula fed babies. Some mothers who argued that it made no difference said that they breast fed for X number of months and their kids still got teeth on the younger side. But for some/most "x" number of months was around the 3-4 months... so not really a good indicator for this argument.

I'm talking about the mothers who seem to BF longer - like 7...8... 12 months... whatever.

The only information I found that even seemed to semi-support my theory was an article saying that babies begin to get their teeth on average around 5 months (I could be wrong on that exact number, but we'll use that for the sake of what I'm getting ready to say). He said that 5 months is when the maternal stores begin to 'wear off' and so there's some sort of hormone adjust that takes place and they begin to teeth.

Now, I'm no scientist, but one could assume that if you're breastfeeding your child might be getting extra of those 'maternal stores' and thus taking longer for them to teeth.

Secondly, I found some information about how there are steroids in cow's milk that may encourage children to get teeth more quickly also... but I'm going to hope/assume that this doesn't apply to my theory as 3-4 month olds shouldn't be on cow's milk.

I think this deserves more research as it seems like it might be a credible theory - to some degree.

Question: I would love to hear your feedback on this! When did your child/children start getting teeth? Were they formula or BF? Not just your kids though... but other mothers you may know...