It has been forever since I have posted... sorry! Things have been crazy around here and I have not felt like blogging. no excuses... just 8 months pregnant and exhausted! 7 more weeks... I'm not counting though! 50 days..... who's counting?
Baileyanne has been putting EVERYTHING in her mouth! It has been a constant battle on both of our parts. Last Spring, we bought her a brand new white picket fence bed. GORGEOUS little bed that was perfect for her. well, we noticed some teeth marks... thought nothing of it until we noticed the SAME thing on her bookshelf that Dan made for her when she was born. We moved the bookshelf into her closet because she had chewed it up so bad it looked horrible... well, two weeks later, she was still knawing on her bed, so we moved the bed into the garage. I loved that bed though we needed her to stop chewing on the wood. The bed went in to the garage and the bookshelf went into the closet.... Two weeks later, I was making her bed and I noticed some teeth marks ON THE WALL! She had been biting the wall! She knawed through the paint down to the sheetrock. We talked to her doctor and had her tested for Pica... the disorder where children are iron deficient and crave things like paint and dirt, etc. She tested negative and the doctor told us that she was exhibting this behavior as a coping mechanism to get to sleep at night. Knawing on the bed and sheetrock was not okay... not in my house. In recent weeks, this has become a problem again and I don't know to do to stop it. It is very frustrating because she is tearing up her room. She is being caught at school with mouthfuls of sand or dirt. She doesn't understand that this is something that she is not supposed to do. We actually had a dentist appt last week and I asked the dentist about it and she said that she hasn't done any damage to her teeth yet though if it does continue and she happens to bite on a rock or something hard, she could do some serious damage to her little teeth. She suggested something like a teething ring to chew on to help her get to sleep at night... we meet with the developmental pediatrician in May so I will ask him then what we should do. Last night I walked into the bathroom and she had a mouthful of white sheetrock. She had biten through the wall next to the potty! We slapped her mouth for a while though that wasn't working. If you have any experience with this... PLEASE let us know what worked for you all!
1 comments:
Did your ped check her iron levels? My son went through a similar period where he was eating paper - not nearly as concerning as your daughter's situation, but concerning enough. And not small bites of paper. We're talking almost a full sheet. I would definitely check further into the Pica. The first thing on the list of substances people eat with Pica/low iron was dirt. We had our son's levels checked every two weeks, because the level of iron in the blood fluctuates and our ped didn't think one test was reliable enough. Good luck -- it's so frustrating as a parent when this goes on. I hope you can find a solution!
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