Dental health 2023/When to see the Dentist?/Toothbrushing Hacks

 

Dental Health/When to see the Dentist/Toothbrushing Hacks

Parents often ask about when their child needs to start seeing a dentist. Those questions are commonly accompanied with follow ups about toothbrushes, toothpaste, brushing hacks etc. I asked my favorite SF pediatric dentist, Dr. David Rothman, to weigh in. When is the best time for your child to establish a relationship with a dentist? The current official recommendation is that your child should have his or her first dental visit by age one or roughly six months after the eruption of that first tooth. Dr. Rothman says that for him, that first early visit is less about the actual exam and more for reviewing the current science of oral hygiene and getting you and your child set for a cavity free future. It’s a great time to ask questions and up your knowledge. Surprising things are often shared! During subsequent visits, along with checking your child for dental decay, the dentist will talk to you about cleaning your baby's teeth. They might also talk to you about tooth friendly diets and proper nutrition for keeping baby teeth healthy. If you have any concerns about the manner in which the teeth are erupting, having a dentist who is familiar with your child will be very useful.  One extra perk about routine dental care is that you might walk out of the dentist's office with a new toothbrush!  FINDING A DENTIST There are plenty of good general dentists out there, but my preference is to find one that specializes in pediatrics. Often their waiting rooms, offices and equipment are designed to put your child at ease. As you start your search, knowing how they handle after-hours emergencies is important. Kids have accidents! (somehow these things wait until after standard office hours are over for the day.) Over the years I have had countless frantic parents reach out to me about chipped or loose teeth after a fall. I usually suggest that they contact their dentist on those occasions, and the folks that already have an established relationship with one are way ahead of the game. If there is a dental emergency, early intervention can be the difference between saving the tooth or losing it. One more consideration is If you have a child with sensory issues or any special needs, ask about what accommodations they have. What about covid? Having regular dental checkups should not be put off due to COVID or flu season. Good dental offices are on the front lines of practices who deal really well with infection control. They have been using masks, gloves and face shields long before this pandemic. There are still some special requirements for hospitals, medical and dental offices including mask wearing. If your child has a compromising medical condition please let the dentist’s office know before you show up and special accommodations can be made. Why is it so important to have routine dental care? It is much easier to prevent decay in toddlers' teeth than to fill a cavity in a young child. Tooth decay is the most common chronic childhood disease and it can be prevented.  People not going in for their routine dental visits corresponds with an increase in cavities and gum disease. This became apparent during the several years of the pandemic when many folks skipped these important appointments. At the same time, many healthy diet routines went down the drain. The number of kids with cavities went way up. The numbers are improving now that we are slowly getting back to normal but 18% of school aged children still have cavities.    As parents, we may think, "baby teeth fall out, so we don't need to worry about them." This sounds logical, but unfortunately is not true.  Dental science has found out many new facts about how to prevent dental decay. We now know that bacteria causes tooth decay. This "bad" bacteria can find its way into your babies mouths in many ways.  Eating foods high in sugar is one of the most obvious offenders. Germs love sugar to grow and make their colonies in dental plaque on all surfaces including between teeth (here’s winking at you, floss). In order to prevent decay in our adult teeth, baby teeth have to be kept healthy as well.  Toothbrush options and considerations Training your child from an early age that teeth get brushed is a good way to create good dental habits that will last a lifetime. For young babies, there are little flavored towelettes specially formulated for wiping baby teeth. Spiffies was the first of these that I was familiar with. Now there are several brands available. You can also use a soft piece of gauze or a wet washcloth. Not only are you cleaning off the teeth, (breast milk does have sugar) but you are getting the baby used to a routine. As a transition to a toothbrush, some parents find success using a soft finger brush. These fit over your finger and if your baby will let you, this option allows you to get in there and do a nice thorough job.   When you graduate to a regular toothbrush, there are lots of choices. I asked Dr David if he has a favorite. His answer? The one that you actually use is the winner, whether powered or not! Make sure the one you pick has soft bristles. When you brush, brush very gently. The bristles should barely bend. Brush in circles to prevent damaging the sensitive gums.  Regardless of which brush you use, replace it when it looks like the bristles are getting worn. It is also a good idea to run all the family toothbrushes through the dishwasher every once in a while especially after the child has a cold or strep. Younger children will have an easier time handling a toothbrush with a thicker handle. Perhaps you can let your child be in charge for one brushing a day and the parent be in charge of the other; that way you know you are doing a more thorough job at least once a day.  Some people use a two toothbrush approach. Toddler gets to hold one, but so do you. Both of you can be in there at the same time or take turns. Ideally, try to brush twice a day and floss once a day (for teeth that are touching). Brushing is supposed to last 2 minutes. That might feel like a long time, but that is how long it takes for the fluoride to have a real effect. Consider putting a little tune on while you brush. This can act as a timer. Seriously, music makes a big difference.  Brushing can be a little more fun and interactive nowadays with some fun toothbrushes and apps. Sonicare-for-kids-sonic-electric-toothbrush   brushdj   brushupgame   DisneyMagicBrushTimer   TinyDentist Chomper chums Some of these apps are pretty high energy. Make sure you don’t let things be too active. Running and jumping around with a toothbrush in the mouth could cause injury. It happens. Focus on positive attention. “Mommy/Daddy are going to help you get rid of those silly tooth germs. Let’s chase them off the teeth with the brush” “Ooh look at how bright and sparkly your teeth look!” On days where they don’t seem to be as cooperative, sometimes a 15 second brushing is going to be all you get. I would try hard NOT to give a lot of negative attention. A small drop of toothpaste with fluoride is better than nothing.  In any case, do the best you can. It is quite normal to have good days and bad days. Toothpaste considerations It is important to use a toothpaste that is non abrasive: Most kids' brands are specially formulated to be gentle. Some adult ones are fine. Some toothpastes will have the abrasive rating noted on the package but it isn’t always easy to find. Please remember to use an ADA Seal of Acceptance toothpaste to verify safety and efficacy. Be wary or questioning of ones that don’t.  The American Dental Association recommends using a tiny amount (just a little dab) of fluoride toothpaste. It is important to note that too much can be harmful so keep the amount as small as a grain of rice. Once kids get to be over two and can spit it out after brushing, you can increase to a pea sized amount.  While there may be some discussion over whether or not fluoride is safe, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention clarifies that fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral. When applied to teeth, fluoride strengthens enamel and prevents cavities that can form after eating sugar and other refined carbohydrates. It has been added to some toothpastes and water systems since the 1950s and has tested and proven benefits. Be aware that most water filters remove fluoride to some degree. Bottled waters have little or no fluoride.  Xylitol is another recommended ingredient for dental health. It is found in some toothpastes. While it does not have the same positive impact on the enamel that fluoride does, this natural sweetener is found to help reduce bacteria and strengthen tooth enamel. It is also toxic for pets, so make sure your dogs and cats don’t have access to any xylitol products  Flossing is important too Once your kids have teeth that are close together, flossing is an important part of dental hygiene. This may not actually be an issue until they are 2-3 years old. Just as an aside, our grandson Elliot is delighted by floss. If you aren’t watching him carefully he can pull out yards and yards of it in the blink of an eye. However once he has a piece, he actually lets me get in there and do a little flossing. Elliot also likes to use the little hand held flosser picks. Is he actually accurately flossing in between every tooth? Probably not, but again, it's about habits. I hope he keeps it going! What can you do to keep your child's teeth healthy right from the start?  Pay attention to habits that may or may not be good for your teeth. Children who are “grazers” tend to have more cavities than those who eat less frequently. Saliva neutralizes the acids in the mouth and actually ‘washes’ the teeth, but it needs about 2 hours in between meals to work. If someone is constantly snacking, the saliva isn’t getting a chance to do its job.   It will come as no surprise to anyone that foods that are high in carbohydrates and sugar are not healthy for our teeth or general health. A daily intake of 60 grams of carbs or higher more than doubles your chance of getting caries (and all that sugar can lead to type II diabetes in kids!) Carbonated, acidic drinks can be hard on the enamel even if they aren’t sugary.   Regular dental care can actually save you money Some parents avoid taking children to the dentist to save money, yet studies show that the dental costs for children who have their first dental visit before the age of one are 40 percent lower in the first five years of life than for those who do not see a dentist before their first birthday. Consider this when deciding whether or not to add your child to your dental plan (if you are lucky enough to have one.) Is your child one of the many who has never seen a dentist? Don't waste your time feeling shame or guilt. You can’t manage the past. Do your best starting now to change that. If you are overdue for a dental check up, or realize that your family tooth hygiene regimen could use some improvement, take a step in the right direction. Identify one little baby step that you can take to change that and start today!   Extra tips from the Oath community Andrea shared, What I started when my little one was 2 months old was running a wet washcloth on my son's gums once a day, then when he got teeth I just started brushing them with baby friendly toothpaste. After I brush his teeth, I then let him "brush" his teeth as well Amina likes the Frida Baby toothbrush. She also thinks that having her little one watch the parents brush every night helped establish a solid habit. Being a good example doesn’t stop when they are toddlers. Lindsay says that her 5 year old watches and imitates his parents when they are brushing. This is a great way to show them the right angles and directions. Don’t forget to brush the tongue. Arianna shared: My 19 month old was fighting tooth brushing for a bit. Firstly I made sure to brush her teeth even if she cried or complained about it. She stopped fighting it after a few days. Second, we’ve been practicing words and sounds so we both go “Aaaaahhh” and I brush sections at a time. I give her lots of high fives and positive reinforcement when we’re done. Then I let her suck on it and play with the toothbrush if she wants. Jody V, Oaths speech and language specialist shared At our home we do 2 brushes, one that my son gets to do, and then I get to "double check" and sing the ABC's while brushing his teeth. It allows for some independence while also making sure those chompers get the right scrubbing. He's absolutely loved it since he was a little one...plus side is learning his ABC's while brushing his teeth :). Megan added When my kids were little and had a hard time reaching the sink - it was most fun to let them spit in the tub! They thought it was silly and I could spray the tub down easily! Sometimes adding something novel and fun will help keep the tooth brushing habit easier to maintain. Pauline added  We love Hello Toothpaste for kids! My little one likes to play pretend with me being the “dentist” when she is having a hard time with brushing. I make all the sound effects possible to entertain her (when I'm not tired of course) . We also alternate between two different colored brushes and toothpaste flavors so that I can give her a choice of what color and flavor she would like…it keeps it much more interesting for her. Oath’s Pediatric Nurse Alice really likes the  Banana training toothbrush Thanks So much to Dr. David Rothman for being my go-to pediatric dentist!

How loud is too loud? 2023

 

I had a few parents recently reach out with questions about the safety of white noise machines. I decided to update my ‘how loud is too loud’ post. As I was doing a deeper dive to check on any updated research and data, I found out that next Wednesday, March 3rd, is World Hearing Day. Who knew?! The worthy goal is to raise awareness on how to prevent hearing loss and promote ear and hearing care across the world. Perfect timing!

How Loud is too loud?

Ear and hearing basics A baby's hearing actually starts to develop between 24-28 weeks of gestational age. It is thought that the noises they hear are slightly muffled (imagine what it feels like when you are under an inch or so of water). They can certainly hear well enough that they seem to recognize the voices of those who have been talking to them while they were in utero. I am certain that both of my babies knew my voice immediately. Mammals are born with lots of very tiny and delicate hair cells in their inner ears. These cells help to amplify sound. Your baby's ears are more sensitive than those of an adult. Not only do they have thinner skulls, but they also have a full complement of these little hair cells, so sounds will have full amplification.  So yes, we need to make sure that we protect our baby's hearing but all of us need to pay attention to loud noises that can lead to hearing loss. Exposure to loud noises over our lifetime damages these cells. As we get older the higher frequencies tend to be the first sounds that we lose the ability to hear. Sounds are measured in decibels.  The decibel scale is logarithmic, which means that loudness is not directly proportional to sound intensity. Instead, the intensity of a sound grows very fast. This means that a sound at 20 dB is 10 times more intense than a sound at 10 dB. To give you an idea of how loud various sounds are, take a look at the following list: Whisper                     30 decibels Normal conversation           60 Snoo at blue level            70 Telephone dial tone            80 Traffic noises from inside a car  85 Snoo on Orange level          86 Bart train                    90 (range from 73-99) Power mower                107 Stereo headset               110 Baby shrieking                100-120 (really? Sounds louder!) Emergency vehicle siren       110-120 Sand blasting or rock concert   125  Gun shot                    140 Here is a much longer list from Noise Navigator There are a number of free apps for your smartphone that measure sounds and tell you how loud they actually are. For Android For I Phone The longer the exposure to loud noises, the more damage that can be done. OSHA has guidelines set for safe exposure on the job. (Obviously infants are not at a workplace, although they do have a job, which is letting you know when they are hungry or uncomfortable) 85  decibels for 8 hours 88  decibels for 4 hours 91  decibels for 2 hours 94  decibels for 1 hour 97  decibels for 30 minutes 100 decibels for 15 minutes 103 decibels for 7.5 minutes    For those of you who recognize a pattern, good for you! For every 3 decibels over 85, the safe exposure time gets cut in half. How close you are to the noise is another X in the equation. The closer you are, the more of an impact it will have. Noisy Planet is a fantastic NHI public education program that has tons of great resources, including how the above three factors (loudness, distance, time) contribute to hearing loss.  Okay, so what do we do with the above information?  Make sensible choices. Make sure that all earbuds or headphones that your kids use are turned down to a reasonable level. For personal listening devices, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a volume of no more than 80 dBA for adults and 75 dBA for children. Keep in mind that sounds at 70 dBA are considered safe, even for a long time. Hold your sound meter up to the source to get a rough sense of how loud it is Avoid environments where your child will be subjected to PROLONGED long noises (That BART platform is probably not going to cause any trouble unless you spend a lot of time down there.) If you know in advance that you will be in a super noisy place, consider some of the new baby friendly volume limiting headphones...see below for some choices. Check out noisy toys before you buy them. If you happen to have a favorite one that seems loud, you can take out the batteries or put some duct tape over the speaker to muffle the sound. I have actually had parents call me to ask if it is okay to take their baby to a rock concert. My "NO" possibly reached 100 decibels. So, How loud is too loud? As noted above, the answer for the workplace is 85 decibels for 8 hours. But for communities and the home, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends that you limit exposure to noise levels above 70 decibels.  SO what about the white noise and bassinets such as the SNOO?  A recent study found that: Excessive white noise exposure has the potential to lead to noise-induced hearing loss and other adverse health effects in the neonatal and infant population.  So, to no one's surprise, if the white noise is blasting for a prolonged period right near their ears, that could in fact cause damage. But, can we add an element of common sense? If you keep the noise level at 70 dB or less, and make sure to not have it right next to the child’s head (try a few feet away), then white noise at a safe level can be very helpful at creating a soothing sleep environment. The SNOO’s white noise is considered safe for babies’ little ears if you have it on the ‘blue level’, which is 68 to 70 decibels. The Snoo can be set to get louder when the baby fusses and quickly reduces when they calm. The sound on the orange level—when the baby is crying hard—is ~86 decibels. That feels a bit too loud to me, so my preference is that you keep it set on the quieter setting. Another common nursery noise is the Hatch. I had Lauren measure the sound of the one in Elliot’s room. When she turned it up to the maximum volume it measured at 77 decibels. Elliot sleeps with it at the 20% which measures at 47 Play around when the baby isn’t in the room and see how loud the different levels actually go. It is easy enough to measure the various sounds with one of the many apps available. Simply test it! Don’t rely on your own hearing as a guide. Hearing tests Even though most babies in this country are given a hearing test before they leave the hospital, it is a good standard to have your child's hearing tested annually once they are over the age of 3 or 4 (sooner if you have concern.)  When hearing is assessed, there are two different factors that are measured - the frequency and the loudness. As mentioned, the loudness of the sound is measured in decibels.  The frequency is measured on the Hertz scale. The lower tones are the lowest numbers. People with the sharpest hearing may be able to hear frequencies ranging from sounds with tones as low as 20 hertz and as high as 20,000 Hertz. A sound higher than 20,000 is known as ultrasonic. Some animals, dogs for instance, can hear much higher frequencies than humans. Human speech tends to fall between 1000-5000. A patient passes the basic office hearing test if they can hear a range of frequencies from 500-4000 at the level of 25 decibels. Any in-office hearing test has the risk of being inaccurate, especially for patients under the age of 4. When I was working in the pediatricians office, I had plenty of patients who flagrantly failed the standard test. Then I would tell them I had a secret question. I would stand behind them, and whisper, "would you like a sticker?" More often than not, they answered, "yes please." This is a good reminder that there is a great big difference between hearing and listening. On the other hand, some enterprising kids are also really good at “passing” the screening if they can see when the examiner pushes the button or if they can figure out the rhythm of the test presentation. So, if you are at all concerned about your kids' hearing, reach out to your pediatrician or visit an audiologist for a much more accurate exam and/or a visit to the ENT specialist. Hearing Protection Options Sometimes you know you are going to be someplace loud. It is great to be prepared. Thanks to Dr. Melissa from Sound Speech & Hearing  for sending information about the following options for hearing protection: We recommend volume limiting headphones for all ages. Puro Sound makes excellent ones which are consistently rated #1 by the NYT Wirecutter. Here is the Puro Sound volume limiting collection. These are also good for teens and adults who are into really loud headphones (like the popular Beats by Dre, which can hit 110 dB, and become unsafe quite quickly).  Best hearing protection for babies - earmuffs that have a stretchy headband. We recommend Em's 4 Bubs: ems-for-bubs-baby-earmuffs There are lots of good hearing protection options for toddlers and school-aged children. We like products by Em’s 4 Kids, Muted, and Alpine.   Older kids or teenagers exposed regularly to loud sound (example, playing in a band) can invest in something like Westone TRUs, which are custom earplugs with special filters. They also shared this excellent link https://www.asha.org/public/hearing/noise-and-hearing-loss-prevention/ For more information, the CDC recently updated their page on this important topic CDC hearing site Giant thanks to Dr. Melissa Wilson for her valuable input!

Milestones/Shmilestones

 

Parenting a new infant is terrifying (you think this is scary, wait until they get their driver's license!) Everything feels so new. Many parents are looking for an instruction manual. Spoiler alert, there isn’t one.  But lots of parents get some comfort from careful monitoring of developmental milestones. There are plenty of books telling you what to expect and when to expect it. While the thirst for this knowledge is completely understandable, it can have the consequence of adding unnecessary stress. We live in a hyper-competitive world, exacerbated by the internet, social media, and grandparents who compare your child to what they remember about raising their own children. Milestones have become a rubric for parents to grade their children and themselves by. The successes are posted with a flourish, while the many parents who are waiting for the milestones are quietly angsting. If one believes what they see online, then every kid out there is a well behaved genius. I didn’t pay too much attention to any of this with my first daughter. She was pretty early with all of the milestones. When I had my second kid, I got a dose of reality. Alana was in no hurry to do anything within the ‘normal’ windows that we pay so much attention to. When she was a newborn, my astrologist sister predicted that she would wait until she was good and ready to do most anything, and then master it almost instantly. That turned out to be remarkably accurate. Not surprisingly, that prediction also did not stop me from fretting over the 15 month old who wasn’t walking independently (her first independent steps involved her carrying a chair across the room). But I think my biggest ‘aha’ moment about milestones came when Lauren was in Kindergarten. My mom happened to be a retired kindergarten teacher. She couldn’t help herself and taught Lauren how to read when she was three. I remember going into our first parent teacher conference. I was all set to have them spend the session telling me how impressed they were by my little prodigy. I think that they likely did acknowledge her verbal and reading skills, but instead of highlighting those, they focused on areas where she could use a little assistance. It turns out that she wasn’t so good at managing scissors. That was such an excellent (and admittedly humbling) lesson. Now as a Grandma, I am right back in it. I think we just can’t help ourselves. Elliot is like his mom when it comes to verbal skills, but took his time with gross motor. He didn’t mind tummy time, but was past his 9 month birthday and he wasn’t crawling yet (for the record, crawling is no longer a milestone). Lauren was following an app called Milestones and Motherhood, that she found very helpful. She had just purchased a little module on helping your child crawl, but hadn’t had a chance to look at it yet. I happened to be over there. Elliot was on his tummy. Suddenly he noticed a nasty, chewed up piece of his dog’s toy several feet away. He locked onto his target and took off. He crawled right to it. Who needs a module when you can tempt them with nasty little nuggets that you would prefer they don’t put in their mouths. We cheered and checked off one more milestone.  Little did we know at the time that official new milestones were about to be released and crawling was no longer even on the list! While I want to offer reassurance, and ask you to be patient, it is also important to have a rough sense of what to expect. Noticing areas where kids can use a little support can be a good thing. Every single child has an area where they can use a little help. This is where routine child exams are very important. Being evaluated by a healthcare professional on a regular basis makes it much more likely that a true medical or neurological condition will be recognized in a timely manner. Early intervention can be a game changer for children who are behind in milestones, and has been shown to help kids catch up to their peers. While most doctors have their own little checklists, if you are worried about something, bring it up at the beginning of the appointment. Oath’s Dr. Ted fields these concerns all of the time.  He did some digging into how common milestones are measured. What he shared with me was fascinating. There are plenty of rules and guidelines out there, and most of them don’t agree with each other.  Old Milestones The CDC used to use milestones to guide parents about what to expect the average child would do by a certain age. They used studies to guide this, plotted out average ages for milestones achieved, and then published the age by which 50% of children will have achieved that milestone. For instance, 50% of children were thought to crawl by 9 months of age. This missed half of all children, and caused those parents to freak out. What’s worse, we later realized that 25% of children skip crawling altogether. Old milestones, perhaps because they were trying to capture the average with a specific time, rarely agreed across different milestone trackers. One study that compared trackers from the AAP and CDC found only a 4.7% rate of complete agreement across all milestones. That leaves plenty of room for confusion and disagreement. New Milestones: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/index.html Clinicians want to use milestones to determine who is eligible for early intervention. This is a really good intention. With that focus in mind, the CDC moved the needle on developmental milestones from the 50% to the lower 25%. Now, each milestone represents the age by which 75% of children are meeting it. The truth is, there is a wide range of normal. Not every child does things on the wonder weeks schedule. Most kids will crawl and then walk, they will end up reading just fine, just as they will all learn to cut properly. However, there is also NO downside or stigma in identifying an area where your child can use a little support. Early intervention is a publicly funded program or service to support children who are not meeting developmental milestones. Referrals from doctors aren’t necessary, simply call to ask about eligibility for an assessment: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/parents/states.html#textlinks.

Those Wacky parental moments

 

Things you never thought you would be doing

A few weeks ago I was browsing through some of the posts in the Oath community when one particular topic caught my attention. The title of the thread was  Things You Never Thought You’d Be Doing. This was posted by one of our community members, Tamar, who shared: I just made a peanut butter and banana sandwich for myself at 3am in the dark with only my left hand (while holding a sleepy burpy lump in the other). “I guess this is my life now?” Tamar got a bunch of “me too” when she added another one. Secretly popping old balloons in the middle of the night and stuffing them deep in the garbage so my toddler would never notice they were gone. It made me think about one of my favorite parenting stories. A long time ago before I moved to San Francisco and became a parent myself, Sandy and I lived in NY. Our upstairs neighbors had just had an infant and this was my first exposure to the raw reality of parenthood. One sweltering August evening when the baby was a few weeks old, the hot and exhausted parents were making supper. Because of the heat, their young son was hanging out with no clothes on. The baby had a little diaper rash, so his bottom was also getting a little air. Dinner was going to consist of the last of their spaghetti. The cupboards were otherwise fairly bare. Sleep had taken precedence over shopping. When the pasta was cooked and dumped into the colander the baby boy peed in spectacular fashion. The stream of urine arced across the kitchen (this was NY, the kitchen was fairly tiny, but still…..) directly into the strainer. The parents looked at each other and at about the same time said, “Rinse and Eat?” And that is exactly what they did. They told me this story the following day and I confess, I did not relate to that decision. Rinse and Eat? That would have been a hard pass. However, once I became a mom I completely shifted into the ‘rinse and eat’ camp. Parents often end up in situations that catch them a bit by surprise.  Others jumped onto Tamar’s thread in the chat, to share their own little moments. Not surprising to any parent, many of these situations include bodily secretions. . Blanka wrote: When my son was younger and still in the “infant spit up” phase- Every morning on my way out the house (while fully dressed in work clothes, dress, heels, blazer etc) he would decide to have a spit up or sneeze snot on my shoulder while I’m walking from the front door to the car (a total of a 45 second walk) huge eye roll! Then I’d have to turn right back around to go upstairs with the baby and find a whole new outfit (as if I had time to do that). I remember getting so flustered ! Luckily that was only a couple of months.  Multiple moms shared that they simply accepted that they would be wearing clothes that were covered in spit up. That was me.Alana was such a frequent spitter that I would have been changing my clothes dozens of times a day if I wanted to be spit up free.  Kareese shared:  During the 3am feeding, my son spit up all over my chest, neck, and hair when I went to transfer him. I was so exhausted that I just patted it dry and went to sleep. I’ve learned that sleep wins no matter what lol So many spit up stories but Carole’s might win: “I remember years ago we were just about to get our oldest dedicated at church, standing all lined up and organized in the back of the stage about to go on. The parents were all dressed up, babies in their cutest outfits (likely put on just before). Just as the pastor was about to call the families out onto the stage, my son spit up .. which I caught in my hand in an attempt to save all of our nice clothes. A staff member quickly grabbed a roll of paper towels (clearly he had kids), I mopped my arm and hand off, and we strolled right onto the stage, hundreds of people none the wiser.” Lindsay shared a couple of memories, both with a poop theme... The other morning, I shoveled poop out of my 2 year old’s sleep sack with my bare hands, then had to strip the pee soaked sheets off the top bunk of my 4.5yo’s bunk bed, then wipe his butt—all before 7:30am. and I remember purposefully putting shit soiled clothing on my son when he was 6mo, because we had only packed him one change of clothes for our cross country flight, and he had two blowouts, and the second one was worse than the first. One of the other things that sets Oathcare apart is our parent guides and specialists. These are real moms who can relate. Here are some of their real parenting moments: Shin yu shared a memory This happened when I was solo parenting while my husband was traveling. Both kids were sick, and both refused to leave my side. Well, nature called, and I really needed to use the bathroom. My exhausted mind could not take anymore screaming or whining so we all went into the bathroom. So while I used the restroom, the baby boy was in my lap, and my older kiddo was holding onto my arm. When I was done, my older kid ripped off some toilet paper and handed it to me. I sighed to myself, and realized this is my life now. Privacy? That is a thing of the past. At least when your kids are little. Betsy shared this I realized that having toddlers/preschoolers means being embarrassed in public to some degree pretty much all the time as they air news of your bodily functions to anyone within hearing range. Especially public bathroom stalls. When you're crammed into one with 3 kids, they have a lot to say about what is going on in there. We were once in a very long line for the pharmacy that went down the adult incontinence aisle. The kids had a loud debate about what was on the shelves and concluded it was "the things mommy puts up her vagina sometimes." At least they used the correct anatomical name! Carole shared, “Surrounded by all of the “boy noises” all of the time — airplanes, dinosaur roars, monsters, blowing up/crashing (if you know, you know) … somewhere in the midst of the loud chaos the other day I realized that this life of boys (I have 3) is my life now — So. Very. Loud.” Alexandra shared Some backstory, our 2-year-old has seemed really frustrated with not being able to communicate his needs and we've been considering getting him evaluated for his speech. Well, he's home sick and won't leave my side, but I had to go to the bathroom, so he's on my lap as I'm on the toilet and he says to me "mama throw up" and then throws up all over my lap. So I start yelling for my husband to come into the bathroom, he's thinking it's because of the throw-up but I was just so excited that he could put those words together. So then my husband and I are high-fiving, meanwhile, I'm still sitting on the toilet covered in vomit. 🙌🏾. Parenting certainly is weird. So Valentine's Day is around the corner. How is this post a Valentine’s gift?  Are you a ‘me too’ for some of the things in here? (you don’t need to cop to eating pee covered pasta.) Real moms (and dads) are muddling through, with spit up on their shirt and a little one keeping them company while they are on the toilet. I think that there is some solid comfort in knowing that you are NOT alone. There are dishes in the sink, you are tired. There are wonderful times ahead. Some might feel easier, but savor the fleeting period when your kids are little. They will be asking for the car keys before you know it If you are not already a member of the OathCare community I would love to see you in there!