Open Up

On Saturday I took Elijah to the doctor. Needed some mommy assurance that he was okay. His cough is still hanging on! He started his cough on the 17th of October, so after 2 and a half weeks I expected it to fizzle out. Nope. We're at the 3 and half week mark now and he's still coughing! Once he hits four weeks, I can call them again. In any case, at the doctor appointment they listened to his heart and lungs, and everything was clean. They even tested to see his O2 stats, and he was at 97%, which is good. Now if someone can explain to me how that device works, that would be awesome! They clipped it to his toe to see that his body was getting enough oxygen (the finger one wasn't doing the trick). Isn't modern medicine neat?

This week we took Elijah to see the dentist for the first time. He was so excited to get up in the chair. He was friendly enough to everyone. But once the dentist wanted to touch his teeth, game over. But they only deal with children's teeth, so having a kid cry and thrash was nothing new to them. Once it was over, Elijah calmed down (what can I say? He doesn't like people touching his head). The dentist said his teeth look good. The spaces are excellent for the adult teeth to show up. It will save us having to floss. All his teeth are in or have broken through.

The dentist told us about snacks Elijah needs to give up, like raisins (at least between meals), and that juice is only for meal time. Why? Saliva production. He can only have juice and chewy foods when he's eating a meal, when he is producing the most saliva, and able to wash away the sugars. Makes sense, but it means mommy has to find new snacks. We also have to change up his brushing habits, which Elijah hasn't had a problem with. He can still brush his teeth, but then we need to go over his mouth afterwards, and he needs to be lying down.

Because Elijah was wearing his Avs outfit, and he's such a good boy, the dentist gave him a hockey puck he had on his desk. Elijah loved it! He also got to go pick out a toy from the toy cabinet. He chose "pink guy", a stretchy toy.

He will now start visiting the dentist every 6 months, but they won't do a cleaning until he is more comfortable. They said kids can start visiting the dentist at 18 months (can you believe that?). Well, we would have brought him in sooner, but he wasn't ready for it. It wasn't until the last 6 months Elijah started to let us brush his teeth. So yeah Dr. Dentist, you show me a kid who is ready for the dentist at 18 months!