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Some Things Even I Can't Control!
Vivian, a mother of this beautiful boy, has a very personal, and very scary story to share. Fortunately, it has happy ending. Sometimes the most important thing any of us can do is simply talk with one another and share our thoughts, our feelings, and our experiences. It helps us all. And it's the beauty of this online Safety4Kids community where we hope our bloggers and our audience alike, will get much helpful information.
Vivian's Story.
I have a love affair with what some people like to call control. I like to call it planning ahead. I have dinner planned at breakfast. I always carry an umbrella. I may or may not even have a perfectly filled out "in case of emergency" card in my wallet.
You won't be surprised to know that I also planned to have a baby. I didn't plan but hoped to have a boy and luckily Benjamin Thomas was born a healthy little guy on December 1st, 2004.
While reading every baby book on the planet (again, not controlling, just thoughtful) I anticipated every problem. Fever? Infant Tylenol. CHECK! Teething? Homeopathic teething tablets, Motrin, cold chewy toys. CHECK!
I was going to be a great mom. Observant and pro-active, but also laid back and cool. Our pediatrician would love and admire me. Other mothers would ask me how I did it. It was all under (dare I say) control until my son Benjamin turned 1, and my hearty eater suddenly started to dismiss food he once loved, and began to not just gag but actually choke on an almost daily basis.
Mercifully, being a control freak (uh, I mean planner) I had taken the Red Cross infant/child CPR class. I cannot stress highly enough the importance of that class. I have to tell you, when I signed up I never ever thought I'd have to use it and then all of a sudden I had to administer CPR on my own son almost every day.
To make a very long story short, it turns out that my son had low muscle tone, which applied even to the muscles in his jaw. This was something that none of the many books I read talked about. Benjamin needed to go to speech therapy where he learned to chew properly, and eventually stop choking. It was a long, difficult and expensive process, but I'm happy to say that although my 2 1/2 year old son is still a picky eater, he hasn't choked in over a year (knock on wood.)
I'm not sure I have a moral to this story except to say that if you do one thing as a parent, please take infant/child CPR. You have no idea when it might come in handy. The CPR rules are different for babies than they are for adults, and even if you are certified in adult CPR, you don't necessarily know what to do if God forbid your child chokes. I think the other moral of the story is no matter how much you plan, and read and study, being a mom is full of surprises. Most of them good, some of them bad, and we all need to learn to roll with them. I'm not saying I'm good at that yet, but I'm trying.
For more information on Infant/Child CPR please visit the American Red Cross.
Please leave a comment if you've experienced this. And if you have, I hope, like me, you had a happy ending.
Photo credit: Vivian Connolly
Vivian's Story.I have a love affair with what some people like to call control. I like to call it planning ahead. I have dinner planned at breakfast. I always carry an umbrella. I may or may not even have a perfectly filled out "in case of emergency" card in my wallet.
You won't be surprised to know that I also planned to have a baby. I didn't plan but hoped to have a boy and luckily Benjamin Thomas was born a healthy little guy on December 1st, 2004.
While reading every baby book on the planet (again, not controlling, just thoughtful) I anticipated every problem. Fever? Infant Tylenol. CHECK! Teething? Homeopathic teething tablets, Motrin, cold chewy toys. CHECK!
I was going to be a great mom. Observant and pro-active, but also laid back and cool. Our pediatrician would love and admire me. Other mothers would ask me how I did it. It was all under (dare I say) control until my son Benjamin turned 1, and my hearty eater suddenly started to dismiss food he once loved, and began to not just gag but actually choke on an almost daily basis.
Mercifully, being a control freak (uh, I mean planner) I had taken the Red Cross infant/child CPR class. I cannot stress highly enough the importance of that class. I have to tell you, when I signed up I never ever thought I'd have to use it and then all of a sudden I had to administer CPR on my own son almost every day.
To make a very long story short, it turns out that my son had low muscle tone, which applied even to the muscles in his jaw. This was something that none of the many books I read talked about. Benjamin needed to go to speech therapy where he learned to chew properly, and eventually stop choking. It was a long, difficult and expensive process, but I'm happy to say that although my 2 1/2 year old son is still a picky eater, he hasn't choked in over a year (knock on wood.)
I'm not sure I have a moral to this story except to say that if you do one thing as a parent, please take infant/child CPR. You have no idea when it might come in handy. The CPR rules are different for babies than they are for adults, and even if you are certified in adult CPR, you don't necessarily know what to do if God forbid your child chokes. I think the other moral of the story is no matter how much you plan, and read and study, being a mom is full of surprises. Most of them good, some of them bad, and we all need to learn to roll with them. I'm not saying I'm good at that yet, but I'm trying.
For more information on Infant/Child CPR please visit the American Red Cross.
Please leave a comment if you've experienced this. And if you have, I hope, like me, you had a happy ending.
Photo credit: Vivian Connolly
