Our household has been a teary one this week; Boo’s cried, I’ve cried. To be honest it’s not been a pretty sight. So what’s to blame? Illness? Upset? Nope something much more challenging: adventure and frustration!
Boo is something of a wizz on all fours now. Whilst she may have taken to crawling rather late you couldn’t tell as she manages to cover a good ten metres in less than a minute! She’s also pulling herself up on anything and everything and to top it all she’s developing a rather unhealthy obsession with radiators!
Seeing Boo discover her new role as intrepid explorer is wonderful and I am in no way trying to restrict her in any way but with the fun and amazement also comes the lumps and bumps; and lots of them.
It seems we can’t go more than 30 minutes without hearing THUD, “WAAAAA”
I know this is all very normal as everyone I speak to smiles when they see my distress as if to say welcome to the club. However blood is not the norm so when Boo thudded her way to a certain wail and spluttered blood out of her mouth I was worried. In fact I was more than worried I was bricking it. What the heck had happened to my baby girl had she lost one of her pearly whites? Had she cut her tongue or worst I imagined was could she have bitten through her lip?!
She was too upset and probably hurt to let me have a look so I headed out to the front garden where I could see my neighbor and between us we managed to pin Boo down (in the kindest and gentlest way!) while I had a good old root round in her mouth.
I was relieved to discover that the blood was in fact coming from the top of her tooth and we later saw a dentist (oldest Stinky was having his retainer tightened) who confirmed that no harm had been done and it was simply a shock bleed so nothing to worry about.
Less than an hour after the accident Boo was tucking into a fish lunch and didn’t have a care in the world.
While Boo was napping I sat and whittled away to myself: Why did I panic? Surely I should know what to do in an emergency like that, after all I am a mother and shouldn’t mothers know what to do no matter what.
The truth is if an adult were to drop in front of me I would know what to do, thanks to my first aid training; but with babies and young children it’s different, least not because of their size and development but also due to the type of accidents they are involved in.
That’s why I’ve decided that by the time we turn the radiators on in the autumn (I can’t even begin to think of the horrors that will come with hot metal at Boo level!) I want to have completed a first aid course specifically for babies and toddlers. I also think it’s time I reevaluated our ancient first aid kit to include some bits just for Boo. At present I’m ashamed to admit that my first aid kit is shoved at the back of the bathroom cabinet and is in an ancient carrier bag, oops!
I don’t even know if there is such a course as baby first aid but I’m determined to get in the know for the future as I’m sure Boo has no plans to slow down her big adventure.
