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As if I didn't have enough troubles feeding my family
Fiona got braces on her teeth yesterday.
Yeah, yeah, they hurt, but we expected that. What we didn't clearly understand beforehand, however, frankly, is much more serious.
Except for her two front upper teeth and two front lower teeth, her teeth literally do not meet anywhere in her jaw. The line of her upper teeth curves up from the front teeth, and so up until now, she's been chewing by drastically overbiting. The brackets on her teeth now keep her from doing that; in fact, there are stop-guards ("turbos") on the upper two front teeth that prevent it.
What this means is that she can't use her molars at all. She can't chew her food. My goodness, how the hell is she supposed to eat anything?
And, of course, Fiona being Fiona, some of the obvious alternatives are off the table. She won't eat eggs. She won't eat oatmeal. She won't eat cream of wheat. She won't eat mashed potatoes. And, being that Rob has been too busy to go to the grocery store for the past week, there is no bread in the house. Her dinner tonight consisted of rice and a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese.
She's been eating soup. But that's going to get really old, really fast.
She leaves Saturday on a servant trip with our old church and will be gone for a week. So for a week, it won't be my problem. But when she comes back . . . argh.
She's going to have them on for about a year and a half. I wonder how long it will be before she can use her molars again.
Edited to add: We sent an email off to the orthodontist, who replied as follows:
Yeah, yeah, they hurt, but we expected that. What we didn't clearly understand beforehand, however, frankly, is much more serious.
Except for her two front upper teeth and two front lower teeth, her teeth literally do not meet anywhere in her jaw. The line of her upper teeth curves up from the front teeth, and so up until now, she's been chewing by drastically overbiting. The brackets on her teeth now keep her from doing that; in fact, there are stop-guards ("turbos") on the upper two front teeth that prevent it.
What this means is that she can't use her molars at all. She can't chew her food. My goodness, how the hell is she supposed to eat anything?
And, of course, Fiona being Fiona, some of the obvious alternatives are off the table. She won't eat eggs. She won't eat oatmeal. She won't eat cream of wheat. She won't eat mashed potatoes. And, being that Rob has been too busy to go to the grocery store for the past week, there is no bread in the house. Her dinner tonight consisted of rice and a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese.
She's been eating soup. But that's going to get really old, really fast.
She leaves Saturday on a servant trip with our old church and will be gone for a week. So for a week, it won't be my problem. But when she comes back . . . argh.
She's going to have them on for about a year and a half. I wonder how long it will be before she can use her molars again.
Edited to add: We sent an email off to the orthodontist, who replied as follows:
All of the things Fiona is experiencing is to be expected. The first couple of days to a week are going to be the toughest to get through. The teeth are moving so it's similar to when you workout, the next day or so your muscles are very sore and tired, the same is happening with the ligaments and tissues that surround the teeth that are moving. The bite turbos are placed to allow the lower teeth to move, if they weren't on she would be hitting the braces and potentially have many loose brackets. It is normal that her back teeth do not hit right now; each day it will get easier and easier to eat, as the bite begins to adjust and align. Even if the turbos were not on, when she would eat her back teeth would not hit because they would hit the lower braces. Tylenol works great to ease any discomfort she may be experiencing. Also, if she eats/drinks cold things that will help relax the wires and ease some of her discomfort.
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;)
That is going to suck. Looks like you'll be making a lot of homemade ice cream for the summer?
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On the bright side, you may get to test the theory that she'll eat {insert undesired food here} if she just gets hungry enough...
Have you...
Re: Have you...
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And a heads up to you, Peg, if her orthodontia involves those little rubber bands at any point? You will be finding them for years to come. I've had those stupid braces off for fourteen years now and I still find bags of those things everywhere. (They actually make very good stitch markers for knitting.) Also very convenient for surprise attacks on unsuspecting classmates, but I think I'll take the Fifth again.
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You could also try mashing up/blenderizing fruits she likes and freezing the puree into popsicles. (Cantaloupe makes a surprisingly good popsicle, as does banana-with-peanut-butter.) She doesn't have to chew them, and they'd meet the ortho's suggestion about cold things.
From the other side of the age-feeding gap, there's also Ensure.
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If she likes smoothies, they're fairly easy to make with a blender: fruit, yogurt, maybe a bit of milk or juice, and you can throw in a little soy powder for extra protein. (Not too much, though, or it makes the texture odd.)
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Also does she eat bananas? Bananas and custard is a stock favourite of mine when I cant chew.
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I have a recipe for homemade pudding that maybe I can get her to eat.
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It's a tough adjustment when they first go on, and again every time she goes in for an appointment. The servant trip is probably the best thing that could happen for Fiona, as it will mean that she'll have to eat what's available and figure out how to get it down. Making too much of a fuss over it doesn't fly with a busy group, and there will be distractions galore. The more she works on it, the easier it will be, and I'd guess that she'll be able to eat more or less normally by the time she returns.
That said, there will be more times when soft food is necessary. Erika loves cottage cheese, so that's a lifesaver when her mouth is sore. It's cold and soothing. Cold cereal, left to get a little soft is gross in my opinion, but something else she'll eat. Applesauce and other pureed fruits are also a winner. Her "pity party" treat (her words, not mine) is rainbow sherbert.
I know it's a total bummer, but a beautiful smile and a healthy bite will be worth it in the end. Hang in there!
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Will she eat "smashed" potatoes--cooked in chunks, then just smashed with a fork and butter or gravy over them? Lund's/Byerly's has several kinds of frozen soups (in boxes, in the freezer case) that aren't hideously pricey--I don't know if she'll eat any of those.
Are the folks running the servant trip going to be able to accommodate her?
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How about protein shakes?
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My brother had jaw surgery in high school, once he'd finally stopped growing and we could see what had to be done. This was after a couple rounds of braces, headgear, RPE.... He didn't end up wired shut, which was good, because then you're talking meals through a food processer and a turkey baster, but he couldn't chew. My sister's going through post-tonsillectomy not-chewing, and the same things work for her. Macaroni and cheese, overcooked. Shells and cheese, similarly soft. Pudding-- JM won't eat pudding any more-- and cream soups and stuffing. Rice-a-roni. Honestly, our eating habits didn't change that much. We are not adventurous diners.
At some point, my parents realized that they had three kids who couldn't or wouldn't (that would be picky me) eat corn on the cob. JM's then-braceless front teeth didn't meet at all and Baby Sister's braces got in the way.
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She probably will need the Tylenol. There's a lot of discomfort. At least this is an orthodontist who seems aware of that!
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Of course, for school lunches, we transfered the contents of jars into unmarked leftover dishes. Much more discreet that way.
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Good luck with Fiona.