Toddler Fears

A few months ago, we noticed that our son, Keyan started being afraid of loud sounds. All of a sudden from one day to the next. It was difficult for us to understand as he had been sleeping with us in the lounge with the TV on for the first few months after he was born and was used to my husband, Gunther playing war games on the Xbox in the background. Noise should not be an issue for him! The hairdryer, vacuum cleaner, lawnmower....

After some research on this topic, we realized that this was normal behavior and nothing strange. A stage, just like the separation anxiety and tantrums we had already started experiencing. So for me this meant that vacuum cleaning was officially a challenge. And who minds that right? Well one has to clean at some stage! The same for my husband mowing the lawn. Each time either of us now does want to do either activity, we have to make a big thing out of it. Introduction of the vacuum cleaner or lawnmower, giving time to get used to it, see it and touch it and slowly switching it on and off. Letting him switch it on and off until we are all finally at a stage where we can go ahead and complete the task.

Then about 3 weeks ago, a new fear developed. The fear of Bath time. Oh NO! Can you imagine what this is like? Each night when I would put Keyan into the bath, he would scream and automatically one leg would come out of the bath and he would grab at me trying to pull himself up. I read into the topic and everywhere I found this is normal behavior and toddlers can develop fears such as this one for no apparent reason. I received advise from numerous sources, friends and family and tried them all. From bathing in a different bathtub, a different room, outside in the garden, new toys and games, to even trying in the sink and so on and so forth and just as I was about to become truly frustrated, I tried one last thing that was apparently recommended by doctors, and it WORKED! The solution was to add an inch of water into the bathtub at a time and slowly increasing this by a single inch each day until back to normal. I started off as instructed by placing him in only shallow water, and each day would increase this a little as he would become more and more comfortable with the idea.

And today, four days in, I struggle to get him out of the bath again from all the play and fun. The joys of Toddlerhood...

“Your kids require you most of all to love them for who they are, not to spend your whole time trying to correct them.”

― Bill Ayers

Photo 1 Attribution: by  Kristian Thogersen

Photo 2 Attribution: by Till Westermayer, tillwe

Toddler Fever

We have been very blessed the last 13 months and Keyan has never developed a serious fever. We have had an instance or two with a bit of a raised temperature at 37.5 degrees (99.5 Fahrenheit) in the past, but nothing too serious and nothing that Panado for Infants could not fix at the time. This all changed last week when we experienced for the first time what it feels like to really worry!

As a mother, one instantly knows what your child's forehead should feel like and when it is time to get out the thermometer to check. Even a slight 0.5 degree temperature increase that would push it over the 37 degree (98.6 Fahrenheit) mark can be felt instinctively. So when I fetched Keyan at daycare the one day, sometime last week, I could see his eyes were red and swimming with water and his forehead was on fire with a temperature I had not felt before. I rushed home and the dreaded thermometer returned a terrifying 38.8 degree reading. (101.8 Fahrenheit) As it my nature I have done some reading up on this topic online and have come to learn that in the States, the golden rule for a temperature reading above 100 F is, that this should be considered high, but I had no idea about degrees Celsius and what exactly to do.

I froze and my mind drifted off as I was rushing through my thoughts, trying to find the answers of what to do next. After a little while, my husband Gunther called me back to reality. In most circumstance when I panic or get a shock, my husband is always the one to act as I just freeze up. Especially when our children are hurting and this extends to our two doggies. I immediately gave Keyan Neurofen, the strongest fever and pain medication we have in the house, as I know the Ibuprofen that comes in this is what is needed to decrease the temperature. While Gunther played with Keyan {{yes, no matter what, our toddler continues to always want to play and run around}} I "Googled" what else can be done. {{How did anybody do parenting before the internet??? Here I can't help but giggle, imagining mommies rushing to libraries with their heads buried in books reading up on things like these in days gone by}}

Little did I know that fever can also be perceived to be a "good thing" because this meant our little one's immune system was now finally starting to work. Woohoo, a new milestone. 

Fevers are graded as follows:

Low 37.7 - 38.8 degrees (100 - 102 Fahrenheit)
Moderate 38.8 - 40 degrees (102 - 104 Fahrenheit)
High above 40 degrees (above 104 Fahrenheit) 

A fever is activated by the body as this is its way to fight bacteria and infection and is actually helpful. So from this I derived that it is not as important how high the temperature is but rather how your little one is acting because of it. That being said anything above 40 degrees / 104 Fahrenheit should still be treated with fever reducing medication such as Ibuprofen and possibly be treated by professional care! You should ask yourself, is your toddler still eating, playing, acting normal? If yes, then most likely there is no need to stress. What is essential is that he continues to drink liquids and more than usual as he will be sweating and his fluids need to be kept up. If you find that it is a low to moderate fever, there is really no need to worry or treat it extensively as the body should be working its magic.

Nonetheless, when our little one had reached 40.8 degrees (105.4 Fahrenheit) we did stress and it was not a nice thing to see him get so hot but we realized this was brought on by two new canine teeth pushing through at the top. It was around this time that we noticed the fever seemed to start breaking. We made the active decision to keep monitoring him closely and if it did not continue to decrease, that we would rather take him to some 24/7 medical center. However with Neurofen at hand, lots of love, loads of comfort and support, our little family managed to overcome this first fever "attack". It lasted a whole 2 1/2 days where it would go down to normal values again only to return again at night. In the end after all this time, a teething nappy later {{I will write separately about this}} and as little sleep as humanly possible for both mom and dad, we still don't have those two "Vampire teeth" through. 

My colleagues laugh when they see me in the mornings  as one can clearly see when I lack sleep. Those with children tell me it will take many instances like these before all those teeth are finally here. I must always remember that they grow under the gums and push through a whole lot of flesh before they finally arrive. Good luck to us for the rest I guess! There are 12 teeth we are still waiting on :)

Blog Photo Contribution: By Amarand Agasi
Blog Photo 2 Contribution: By Thomas Guignard, timtom.ch

Keyan's First Year Milestones

Ever so often people ask me when our son, Keyan had his "firsts". What is "firsts" you may wonder. Well they are milestones so to speak. These are for example when your baby/toddler grows his/her first tooth, crawled for the first time, had his/her first haircut, taken their first step, etc and while it is so exciting once it actually happens, let me tell you, there comes a time past the 4 months mark where these things happen so quickly and on each other, that one can easily struggle to remember them all. This happened to me and I was scratching my head trying to remeber them all. This is when it dawned on me that we added all our proud moments to Facebook in the form of posts or comments and pictures etc. It just takes long to search and find everything on there again and hence we wanted to create an overview of all of Keyan's big milestones during the course of his first year. ♥

03.08.2012             - Keyan is born

3 months 3 weeks   - First flight to Johannesburg     
                                (after birth :)) 

4 months                - Received his 1st Passport

4 months                - Keyan turns over on his own 
                               (my parents first to witness)

4 months                - First solid food 

5 months 23 days    - Keyan sits up right on his own

6 months 6 days      - Keyan crawls

7 months 10 days    - Keyan says his first word (Papa) 

7 months 3 weeks   - First tooth (bottom, centre)

8 months 1 day       - First top tooth has arrive.

10 months              - First report received. Keyan is thriving.

10 months             - First time Keyan slept through   
                                     (but that did not last long :))
        
10 months               - First haircut

10 months 3 weeks  - Takes his 1st Step!!
                                 (daycare to witness first)

11 months               - Walking towards us - 11 steps

12 months 1 day      - Baptism

13 months               - Keyan joins next class at 
                                daycare

13 months 1 day       - First face painting at daycare



What an awesome and amazing 1st year it has been!! Full of so many proud moments. Parenthood is simply amazing. It is wonderful to create life and see all ones love and heart overflow in the achievements and steps of ones child...Life is wonderful!