Tuesday, May 7, 2013

trick: getting baby to swallow.

I never in my life imagined I would need to know this trick, but it just so happened when Arlo was getting his tongue tie released that the doctor wanted to give him some baby Tylenol before the procedure and he wasn't having it. Why would he? He had only ever had breast milk up to this point and medicine is weird and sticky!

"Just blow on his face," the doctor said.

"Whaaa?"

I wasn't sure I had heard him correctly, but sure enough it made him swallow! It's a reflex babies have. It is effective and it is adorable.

Since that day we have used it to help them swallow gripe water, to help them swallow that last bit of milk left hanging out in their mouths, to help them swallow when they start coughing and to help them swallow when they are just tasting their first bit of solids but forget the next step. It works like a charm.

It is also an integral part of teaching a baby to swim. Before you dunk their head under the water, you first blow on their face and they suck in a huge breath and then hold it. We haven't tried it for that purpose yet, but we have given it a go for pure entertainment.


I would say that we're horrible and mean except that he loves it! Fun for the whole family! Like I said, pure entertainment!

3 comments:

  1. Good to know that I'm am not the only "mean" person out there. However, instead of this helping an infant swallow, I was told it suffocated them. Ahhh! I'm glad to know that is not true.
    So cute!!

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    1. Oh my goodness! Suffocate?!!! No way!

      That sounds like something someone told us at our baby shower. They asked if we were getting rid of our cats, and when we said no they told us we needed to be careful not to let the cats in the same room as them while they were sleeping because they would suck the breath out of them!

      I thought it was totally crazy at the time! Who would ever think such a crazy thing?! Then I read somewhere that cats like the taste of breast milk and some have been known to lick it off a sleeping baby's mouth! I don't think any cat licking up residual milk has ever resulted in an actual death of a baby, but I can see back in the day how needing to find a cause for something like SIDS could lead to such an old wives' tale.

      Luckily our cats don't seem to share an affinity for my milk, so no breath-sucking for us! Glad to have proved your old wives' tale wrong!

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    2. Haha, that is so creepy to picture a cat sucking the breath out of a baby. Like an 80's horror flick!

      In other news, I love reading about your new lives, and I miss you guys. When can we come see you/hang out?!

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