Cavities

Long time no blog!  We've been busy... but the craziest thing is we had to go to the operating room a couple of weeks ago with my oldest to get her cavities fixed.  I was a nervous wreck because my "baby" was going to go under general anesthesia and having seen it on the other side, I know too well what "could" go wrong.  Thankfully... other than a really horrible "waking up" all went well.

So honestly, the first question that came to my mind when I was told that my four year old has a bunch of cavities was whether it is worth fixing since she will lose them anyway.  The dentist looked at me as if I was crazy, but hey... I was just thinking out loud.  Plus, has anyone really done a randomized control trial to see if the treatment actually does decrease morbidity/mortality/quality of life and if all the trauma leading up to the treatment worth it?  Okay okay... so since no one will probably perform that study, I suppose it is better to be on the safe side.

I truly was surprised at the number of cavities because we had been brushing her teeth twice a day and she does not really eat that many sweets.  Plus, she had been seeing a dentist and getting regular cleanings since she was one year old.   So after doing a little research I realize that the reason lies in a combination of factors and circumstances.

• First of all... cavities is contagious and I likely passed the bug to her.  I had a root canal this past fall so I definitely had the cavity forming bacteria and it is easy to pass through occasionally sharing utensils or even kissing.  I read that 80% of all cavities are found in only 25% kids!  Here are a couple of articles I found interesting:
• from American Dental Association

• from everyday health.com

• So once you have the bacteria (like Streptococcus mutans), it feeds on the foods you eat.  So common preschool favorites like apple juice, fruit snacks, goldfish all are things the bacteria will feed on and produce acid as a result.  The acid eats away at the tooth.
• Finally... fluoride and good dental hygiene with brushing and flossing is key.  Though we brushed my daughter's teeth twice day we were not so good with flossing.  Therefore, all her cavities were in between her molars.. the hard to reach places with the toothbrush.

So now what?

• We're trying to be better with dental health and hygiene with everyone in the family... especially caregivers
• Trying to be better at avoiding sharing drinks or utensils
• Offering more water and less juice to the kids
• Brushing three times a day now after every meal instead of just twice a day
• Flossing!
• And of course...  regular dental check-ups!  I actually need to get my other two kids to the dentist... I'm just having a hard time finding a good pediatric dentist I like in this area...

Bottom line is if the adults or caregivers have cavities themselves, your kids will be more high risk of getting cavities and may have to be more vigilant in prevention than those lucky folks who are not colonized!

Lyme Disease

I just read a great article about Lyme Disease.  This is very common in this area where live and we see deer in our backyard all the time!  I'm dreading the day I have to pull out a tick off my one of my kids.  I do it enough in the office... like I said, it is pretty common where we live.  Now unfortunately, this article is saying that 2012 will be the worse summer ever in the northeast for Lyme!

Click here for the full story.

So I found the article very interesting because the treatment of Lyme has always been a very controversial issue.  There are the "Lyme Literate" doctors who will put folks on antibiotics for months and months and even send patients home with IV antibiotics... then there is the "standard of care" where medical societies argue there is no benefit to that type of plan.  This article featured treating patients with refractory symptoms as if they have an autoimmune disease (like rheumatoid arthritis) rather than persistent infection.  It appears to be promising!


So quick 101 on Lyme...

How do you get Lyme?

• infection is caused by bacteria (Borellia Burgdorferi) which is usually found on mice
• Ixodes ticks (or deer ticks) feed on these animals and transmit to humans via tick bite

What are the symptoms of Lyme?

• some folks get the typical circular "bulls eye" rash about 1-2 weeks after the bite (but many folks do not get this rash)... it resolves on its own in about 1 month

• may also get rash in other places not where the original bite was
• some get flu-like symptoms:  fever, joint and muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes, fatigue
• some get irregular heart beat or chest pain
• some folks get Bell's palsy (where one side of your face is paralyzed)
• some get numbness and tingling
• some get headaches and neck stiffness

What happens if Lyme is not treated right away?

• late Lyme symptoms can occur weeks to years after the initial bite
• in children, it often presents as arthritis in knee or some other large joint
• slew of other symptoms affecting different organ systems especially neurologic can also occur (which I will not go into detail right now but can refer to link below in the comments or this cdc website:  http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/signs_symptoms/index.html)

How do you treat Lyme?

• antibiotics for usually 3-4 weeks

How do you prevent Lyme?

• know where to expect ticks
• moist humid environments near wooded or grassy areas
• near leaf litter or shrubs
• low tree branches
• edges of woods and forests
• old stone walls
• best to wear long sleeves that are tucked in and enclosed shoes
• girls should have hair in ponytail or tucked inside a cap
• use repellant that has 10% to 30% deet and apply to exposed skin areas as well as clothing (click here to read more about applying repellant)
• light clothing helps you see tick more clearly
• check for ticks daily especially:
• under the arms
• in and around the ears
• inside the belly button
• back of the knees
• in and around hair and body hair
• between legs
• around the waist
• check clothing and pets for ticks as well

So if you suspect Lyme or discover a tick... go to your doctor.  This is a tricky disease to diagnose because the symptoms are so wide and varied and there is not a very good blood test to detect it.  Nevertheless, the sooner treatment is started the better chance of a good outcome and full recovery. 

Happy Father's Day

Just wanted to dedicate this post to the dads out there!

Last fall, I blogged here about why dad's are great.  Here's a few more reasons off the top of my head why my kids are thankful for their daddy:

• they get to see the world from up high riding on his shoulder
• they can be carried for a longer period of time when their legs get tired from walking
• they get beautifully cooked sunny side up eggs for breakfast on weekends
• they get cut up mangoes and pineapples... and honeydew and watermelon for that matter (mommy is not as good with the big knife and hard to cut fruit)
• they get bugs calmly removed from their presence (a "non-shrieking or panicking" response)
• they are more likely to get a second ice cream treat if the first ice cream treat falls on the ground
• they get more freedom to pick out their own clothes without argument... even if it is clothes for the wrong season
• they get a real live "prince" to dance with before going to bed at night

New stroller baby carrier system!

So this article caught my eye because this may be a potential hit with moms who have little ones.. and it is invented by students from my alum (Go Tech!).

You can read about it here.

Basic idea is a sling that will help a mom who lives in the city get around while having to lug stroller, bags, and baby up and down steps and other non-stroller friendly areas... without having to ask a stranger for help!  It will be interesting to see how well it works once it comes out.  Right now, it is still under construction.

We use the baby bjorn (which looks a lot like this.. at least the carrier part) because that was what was on our registry when we had our first.  It definitely helps to have our hands free while carrying the baby in certain situations.  However, it does hurt the back after a while.  Not sure whether I can visualize how I can strap a whole stroller to the carrier and carry all of it up some stairs... so I'm curious.

Don't think it will work for double strollers though...  They'll have to come up with more inventions!

Disney's Magic Kingdom With a Preschooler, Toddler, and Infant

Alright... back to Disney to finish off the series!

So of all the parks.. Magic Kingdom is the park that my kids were most excited about.  My girls love everything princess related... therefore, this year we made it to Cinderalla's Royal Table (you have to book it pretty much 180 days in advance) and even indulged our oldest by being pampered at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.

Since we did a lot of character dining, we did not stand in line this year to get autographs like we did last year.  Therefore, I think we got to go on more rides.

Favorite rides we repeated this year included:

• Peter Pan's Flight  (use a fast pass for this)
• It's A Small World
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant
• The Magic Carpets of Aladdin

New rides we loved included:

• Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh  (good one to fast pass as well)

Our oldest was tall enough to ride her first roller coaster, The Barnstormer and she even did it twice.

She also surprised us by wanting to ride Snow White's Scary Adventure over and over again!  I totally thought it would be too scary for her.  In fact, I went with her a couple of times because I knew they were going to get rid of this ride.  There's going to be a Princess Fairytale Hall in its place.  Here is a nice tribute to this classic ride.

Now a couple of times when we got fast passes, we got bonus fast passes for Mickey's PhilharMagic, which is a fun 3-D movie to watch.  I loved watching my two year old reach for objects during the show because of the visual effects.

All in all, there is a ton to do at Disney so having some sort of plan helps.  Aside from the rides, there are always shows and parades which my little ones just loved.

Finally... I read online about the Dole Whip Floats and so made it a point to get one to try.  They were pretty good!  Probably need another post just to write about the food...

Ten Year Anniversary

Husband and I just celebrated ten years of marriage!  We've been planning for a while to go somewhere without the kids and we did it.  Initially, we were thinking of going somewhere exotic... but given that our kids are still so little and my youngest isn't even weaned yet, we stayed in the country (I needed to be able to call my caregivers without worrying about a huge bill).  So we ended up choosing Key West.  Mainly it was based on a recommendation... but why not... still in the same time zone and yet far enough south to feel like we are somewhere exotic.  In fact, our first time there was ten years ago on our honeymoon, when we took a Bahamas cruise on Royal Carribean.  Funny thing is, the very first thing we can see out our balcony was a docked Royal Carribean boat!

Now, my original thought was that we were going to spend the entire time pretty much sleeping in and lounging around relaxing.  However, the active inner side of us... (ie.  the other part of our honeymoon was attempting to ascent Mt Rainier... different story for another post)... lead us to a day of crazy water sports.  We got thrown into the ocean a few times between trying to water ski for the first time and riding a banana boat where the driver's main goal was to throw us in as many times as possible.  We also wiped out riding the wave runner because hubby was going a million miles an hour and took a super sharp turn without slowing down.  It was all fun but boy... was I sore the next day!

So of all the different places we went to eat.. including some fancy dinner places with great sunset views... the one meal that stands out was at this food truck called Garbo's Grill.  We found it using yelp...

I was totally bummed they were closed for lunch the following two days because one day was Sunday and the next day was Memorial Day.  I'm totally still craving the fish tacos (made with grouper)!  Yummmm!!

So our kids actually did pretty great with us being away.  It helped that they kept to their same routine and was in their same environment.  By now, they were also used to our au pair who had been with us for almost a year.  Plus, they are very familiar with grandma and grandpa.  I definitely missed them and thought of them often, especially when I saw other little kids.  However, it was a well needed break.

So a few tips I have on going away for a weekend if you have little kids...

• have familiar care givers other than yourself start putting your kids to bed on a somewhat routine basis (maybe if you go on a weekly date night)
• keep kids' routine the same as much as possible
• keep them in their same familiar environment if possible (we had our caregivers live in our house while we were away)
• phone calls work with some kids and not with others (last year, phone call made my oldest cry because then she realized she missed me.  However, this year she wanted to talk to us and had no issues.  She even wished us a great time and made several requests for specific souvenirs we were to bring back for her...)

Alright.. will finish up my Disney blog series with Magic Kingdom next post...

Disney's Epcot with a Preschooler, Toddler, and Infant

Ok.. to continue our Disney series, I thought I'd skip Magic Kingdom for now and first talk about Epcot...

As I mentioned before, I still think this is my favorite park.  For the kids... it is not bad.  I think of it as a huge hands on science museum.  There is much more learning and interesting things here than just brainless rides.  We did not have much time and it poured crazy rain on us right after lunch... so in the limited time here is what we were able to hit:

The Seas with Nemo & Friends - We did this last time.  Baby E was sleeping so the two girls went on this with daddy.  They didn't stay to talk to Crush the turtle... but I think that is one of the cooler parts of the ride.

Spaceship Earth - This is a pretty cool ride and it is located in the big ball thing that everyone associates with Epcott.  There is a cool personalized video at the end that they make for you based on how you answer a few questions.  Wish I knew ahead of time, I would have videoed it with my iPhone.

Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros - Read everywhere to do this with little kids and that it is just like Its A Small World.  Yep.  Nothing too crazy to comment on here... pretty much a relaxing boat ride where sections remind you of the Its A Small World ride.

Princess Storybook Dining at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall - We did this last time, too and maybe first time is always more magical somehow.  Girls still love princesses so they like having all the princesses come over for personal attention.  This year, instead of standing in long lines for character pictures and autographs we just did it through different character dinings.  Being 2 1/2 is a great time to go to Disney because they pretty much get the character thing and everything is FREE (including these buffet character dinings) and since our 2 1/2 year old eats more than our 4 year old (who we have to pay for)... it evens out for us!

So some things we did not get to but maybe next time include:

Journey Into Imagination With Figment - I read this is a ride to try with little kids.  They were having technical difficulties when we tried to go so maybe next time.

Soarin' - I totally want to do this next time.  I dream about flying all the time!  My kids were a little too young and this is definitely a ride you should get a fast pass for since it is super popular.

Club Cool - Well, we are not huge soda drinkers but the concept is pretty neat.  You basically get to drink free soda here from different countries.  I kept reading about how this is a hidden gem.  Will have to check it out someday.

The list can go on but I'll stop here for now...  gotta run some errands now that I'm back in the real world...