One of us Needs a Sedative.

Last weekend I noticed one of Seth's front teeth was wobbly. It was a reminder that he's growing up! I wanted to try to explain to him what was happening. So when I put him to bed Sunday night I sat and told him that his tooth was wobbly because he was growing up into a big boy and that once it had gone he would get a new, adult tooth. I felt a bit silly doing this because really, what was the point? He barely looked at me whilst I was talking and probably had no idea what I was saying. But then again, maybe he took some of it in. And if he was a 'normal' child I would have explained to him what was going on - losing his first baby tooth is a big deal.

I talk to Seth, in that I've always told him what I'm doing as I'm doing it, to help him understand his world and in the hope that repetitive, spoken routines will help him do things for himself one day. So, I talk through dressing and cleaning and feeding. But we don't talk. I can't ask him 'how was school?', for example. In fact I read somewhere that you should only ask specific questions such as 'did you enjoy such and such activity?'. Something to do with open-ended questions like that are difficult for a child with learning difficulties to get their head around. However, most of the time I don't know what Seth actually did at school that day so I can't ask be specific in my questioning. So maybe I'll talk and get an 'ugh' or a 'boo' back which is as close to a conversation I'm going to get. And actually that's pretty cool because for a very long time we got nothing back at all.

But this whole wobbly tooth thing has moved on dramatically and we are now re-living the nightmare of Seth teething. On Tuesday evening, Seth spent from 8 until almost 11 screaming the house down and nothing we gave him calmed him down. He finally cried himself to sleep. Surprisingly, he slept through the night (or at least he didn't wake us up) and was fine, albeit tired, in the morning. So he went to school. I arrived at my parents house after work on Wednesday (they pick him up from school for us) to find him in the same state. This time I called the out of hours number. By the way, can you believe that whilst giving your name and contact details they then ask you for your ethnicity. I'm completely stressed with a screaming child in the background trying to get to through to someone who might be able to help me and they waste time asking about ethnicity. I completely bit the guys' head off for that. Anyway, after some time on the phone answering questions, waiting most of an hour for a call back and then an hour or so at the out of hours clinic it was confirmed that there was nothing wrong with Seth. Except of course for the screaming. He was very flushed so we all agreed it must be his tooth.

Today has been mostly the same and if in the morning there is no change then we're going back to the doctor. I don't know about Seth but I can't take much more. Are we going to go through this for every tooth he loses? Previous experience suggests that he seems to experience pain acutely, maybe because he is so 'within himself' and also we can't distract him with toys or television.

Has anyone reading this who has had kids old enough to lose their baby teeth found it a difficult time?