More teeth please

At sixteen months my little one is still cutting teeth with only eight peeking through. We thought another nasty ear infection was looming, but no just new choppers. She has been awful fussy, low-grade fever, no appetite, sucks on her fingers, and bites my shoulder when I hold her. After some string cheese, a dose of Ibuprofen, and a stint with a frozen turtle teething ring, the clock struck 10 pm. And she still wasn't asleep. I was on the edge of loosing it...got desperate and grabbed an ice cube for her to munch on, a Popsicle to chew, and a teething biscuit. I finally found the baby teething gel and this was the icing. I put some on my finger and rubbed her gums for a couple of minutes and she cooed and sighed and was dreaming in seven minutes. The picture of her here is clearly a cute non-teething moment.

Evil mineral oil

It's in baby powder, baby wipes, lotions, aftershave, makeup, shampoo, detanglers, wall paper strippers, stain removers and the list goes on. Propylene Glycol is a colorless, alcohol based mineral oil. Skin contact has been linked to liver abnormalities and kidney damage and cancer . Good news is there are alternative products without PG. Scroll down to the bottom of this page but here are a few links:

Propylene Glycol-free Children's soaps / shampoos -Natural shampoo
Propylene Glycol-free Tooth paste - Natural Toothpaste
Organic beauty lines for the whole family - Kaia House and Futurenatural
Baby wipes - Seventh Generation and Home made

Kiddie Swaps

Forget what you might be thinking. Kiddie Swaps are for parents to swap out unwanted, gently used kid stuff for some other kid's items. We have held four of these at my work and all have been relatively successful. We have one coming up at the end of July but we are letting people bring their children's stuff in over the next two weeks to an empty office set up with labeled boxes. All the unswapped items are going to a local charity for low income women and kids. Knowing this makes it all the more fun when I am sorting through two and half years worth of toys and clothes.

Drum Roll

I should have known by the 2am screams and fever but I had no clue...I thought my 15 month old was teething so I kept loading her up with ibuprofen. Last Friday, her fever spiked to over 100 and I knew something wasn't right. I took her to urgent care the next day and sure enough she had an ear infection. Look for crankiness, difficult sleeping, tugging at ear, and fever. And if you take her/him to urgent care, make sure they thoroughly check the ear. I made two visits on the first ear infection and the doctor's were too timid checking the ear and gave up before seeing the redness and yucky stuff.