The Toothless Wonder

I guess worrying is what parents do best. The latest addition to our worry list is my 13 month old son's tooth - rather the absence of it.

Over these months Prahlad has gnawed, bitten, chewed everything in sight. Every time he starts on a biting spree, we prise open his mouth and peer into his gums.

We both have read and reread " What to expect- the first year" and have researched the Net enough to write a sequel to above book.

And we have been waiting for anything that can be a teething symptom - late night waking, loose stools etc...

And false alarms not a few.

Once I saw Prahlad biting a few pages off Harry Potter. I retrieved a half chewed piece of paper and looked hopefully into his mouth. And voila - there the little white piece was! The next second I was on the phone, ringing my mother " Prahlad is teething. And guess what? He is getting an incisor first!"
"Are you sure? Normally the molars come first"
Rare? The thought pleased me. "News has just come in from Hyd. For the first time in dental history...."

When Prahlad woke up from his afternoon nap , I peered into his gum and found.....just that- I mean just the gum. How come? Did he swallow his tooth? Then it dawned on me - what I had reckoned as a dental miracle was nothing but the relic of a page of J.K.Rowling!

We have also received several well meaning words of advise from friends.
"May be you should give him teething biscuits"
- We have tried milk biscuits, milkless biscuits, sugar biscuits, salt biscuits, puppy biscuits, multigrain biscuits and we have nothing to show for it except a lengthy bill from the grocers.

My husband's grandmother suggested giving him wooden teethers called "choopan" - The non Tamils may read this as a "chew upon" (Anu! That is a flash of genius!). Wooden teethers being obsolete, we got him a whole set of plastic teething toys - and that only added to the litter in my house.

We put this squarely up to Prahlad's pediatrician.

Fellow smiled one of his "you poor goops" smile and said" Well you know - some babies are born with teeth, some grow teeth and others have to have teeth thrust out of their gums"

Mm .. my sonny was born with just enough skin to cover his bones and no extra fittings.
We are unsure about the idea of making a cut in his gums in order to get his tooth out.

Is it such a good idea?
Will it be painful? And what after that? We will have to brush his tooth daily, make him stay off sweets, no sugary drinks, and make sure he doesn't break his precious tooth every time he falls.
Worst part is we are telling the little fellow that we have lost faith in nature.

On the one hand we have no tooth and a lot of tension because of it. On the other, we could have the tooth and a lot of tension because of it - SO WHAT DO WE DO??