Saturday, July 26, 2008

BEWARE OF THE DANIEL

You would think that the animal above is what attacked me and so violently bit me. But noooooooooooooo....... (prepare yourselves..) below is the animal that did the damage. The dreaded "Daniel".


WARNING: When your child does not have proper control of his chompers, and does not know how to release his jaw and tends to panic when there is something solid in his mouth, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT attempt to use your finger to remove a large piece of food from his mouth!


Daniel was eating and he bit off just a little too big of a bite. Because Daniel has oral/feeding issues, this is where I generally am able to get him to spit it out. I could see the panic set in that "Oh crap, there is something in my mouth" so I immediately asked him to spit and he didn't. I couldn't have him swallow it because he would choke and I'd totally freak out. SO, I put my finger in to dislodge the food and he clamped down. There was no scream, there was just the fake calm of...

"Daniel sweetie....open your mouth please" and of course he is freakin' a tad so he locks his jaw.

"Daniel, pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee open your mouth, oh god, please can I see in your mouth sweetie?"

Now I am using my other hand to try to pry his mouth open, plug his nose, and now I'm starting to panic!! After what seemed like forever, he finally let loose. No I did not reprimand him. He did not know he was hurting me and he didn't do it intentionally. Its not like he thought, oooh there is mom's finger stuck in my mouth. So, when he let loose my response was, "Oh thank you punkin, that was good that you opened your mouth!" and he was so happy to be such a good listener! :)

I did think for a brief few second or two thought I would need stitches because of the amount of blood that was pouring out of the wound. The photo was taken about 5 hours after the incident so doesn't look as bad as it previously did. But I will say, it still hurts like a s.o.b.

4 comments:

C said...

Oh, man! I have so been there!! My fingers and forearms and shoulders are aching for you. Q is pretty good about not biting and we've been working on mom getting fingers in and out of the mouth without him chomping down, but sometimes he forgets and just clamps down on whatever's close. And then, when I gasp in pain, he laughs.

It's so not funny. But it is. Even though it really does hurt like and SOB.

In case he ever does it again ;o) try arnica cream or gel on a closed wound. It's the only thing that kept me from crying and swelling up when he turned the nailbed and tip of my forefinger purple. Still, it was hours before the teeth marks went away...

Here, have a virtual head pat. And some chocolate. Or Haagen-Daz. You pick.

Justinich Family said...

Melanie,

You are describing Evan, it is like he has this reflex that if something is in his mouth he just bites down hard. I have had to try to get a hot dog out of his mouth that he snagged before I had a chance to cut it up. Sometimes he will realize that it is too big and open up his mouth to let me get it out or even tries himself, but I have been so scared I will have to do the hemlick on him one of these days. Which is why we love our food chopper from Pampered Chef. Hope your finger feels better soon.

laila said...

LOL-We have defintly been there too!!!Hannah does the exact same thing...the worst though is sometimes she will bite her own finger like that-so when she does bite us real hard we just are so greatful it isn't her finger.HUGE Hugs

Melissa said...

Jeez I bet that hurt!

Daniel is still as cute as ever though!