15 Months

In the world of high stress parenting, where well visits are planned months in advance and developmental charts are the rule book by which we guide our lives … children are supposed to visit the dentist at 2 years old.  If you remember, at two years old, I could not fathom taking him to one more place, and asking him to sit still for one more thing.  For one more doctors visit.  So I didn't.  At 3 I had a 6mo old and a heart patient at home.  There just wasn't a good time.

Now, he's almost 4.  He needs to have his teeth checked.

I sort of dreaded taking him.  I knew he would do great.  I explained what would happen and G loves an audience.  He loves pleasing people and making them smile.  He loves telling stories and this was no exception.

But I have to fill out all those forms.  What medications are you on?  What medical conditions do you have?  Dentists want to know things now.  It's annoying.  (I'm not a fan of dentists, sorry dentists).

So I tell them the medication I tell them the name of the condition.  The hygienist looks in his mouth and says, mom I can see the inflammation around his top teeth you mentioned.  (his upper gums have been bleeding slightly.)  I told her we'd just recently gotten to a point where we were brushing regularly, so I think they will adjust with time.  And also, his whole system tends to be inflamed, but I'd ask the specialist if she thought it was an issue.  She said no that made sense.  But she did notice his tongue seemed really red and like it might be sensitive too?

Ya think?

The dentist came in and asked me more questions.  Asked about what kind of foods he was eating.  I smiled politely.  I don't remember what I said.  Something innocuous.  He said now that his teeth are touching we need to try to floss the back teeth.  At one point they asked me to explain EE.

To hear the specialist talk there's a pandemic and everyone has EE.  To go about in the world is to feel like the only person in it who even knows what an eosinophil is.

He did great at his appointment.  He let her clean his teeth and use toothpaste and even floss.  He can be picky about things in his mouth so I was curious how he would do with her twirling tooth brush.  Plus I hate it - a lot - so if he did too I wouldn't say that I'd blame him.  So yet another check off the list of things to do as he grows up; teeth cleaned.  Check!