drool

excessive drool

it’s been the elephant in the room

the reason for the ‘too many too count’ bibs drying on chairs; waiting in the laundry room to be washed; linked each morning to the school bag; stuffed into my purse day in and day out; and the source of many “wardrobe” changes a day

when we leave our house, we don’t ask “did you lock the door?” or “did you turn off the lights?” or “do you have the keys?” we ask “do we have enough bibs?!”

as the last of leo’s teeth have made their way out of the gum and into their final position, i have realized that the “he’s teething” defense to all his drool just doesn’t cut it anymore.  and, to be honest, i am quite certain that defense was not believed by many.  even kids who are teething don’t drool this much.  i kid not when I say he drools more than a bulldog or a st. bernard.

leo goes through…and when I say goes through, i mean soaks…multiple bibs each morning before noon.  and another whole set in the afternoon and evening hours.  there is not a moment throughout the day that there is not a bib around he neck…from as soon he wakes up to the time we place him in his crib and say good night.  well, unless he’s taking a bubble (that’s Krekelberg terminology for a bubble bath). he even ”gets” to wear a bib when he goes outside to play in the snow…which is super cool to see turn into a solid piece of ice fabric by the time it is time to go inside.  and, there is nothing better than when leo runs toward me to give me a big leg hug…and my pants get to act like a bib and it seriously suddenly feels like i peed my pants.

i am also quite certain “the bib” has been a significant reason for the decline in my picture taking frequency.  how pathetic is that?! i have this completely adorable and funny (bib wearing) kid…but after all these months, i just cannot taken another picture of him wearing a bib.  i cannot do it.  it’s embarrassing.  i mean, really, a kid his age should not be wearing a bib and nor should he or she have drool being constantly wiped off their chin.  i am done.  i need a reason for all this drool…and, more importantly…i need a solution!

at leo’s latest check-up, i was desperate for answers. i gave the doctor every single detail i could about our “situation”…shared information i discovered on the web and even talked myself in circles about why i didn’t think it was the worst and most severe diagnosis (he can say lots of words, he is coordinated, he can drink through a straw, and he can blow bubbles).  i am sure she thought i was crazy.  and then i got the good ole “let’s wait until his next check-up to see if it gets better”.  she obviously did not understand how DONE i am with these slobber rags…and my facial expression must have clearly shown i was not pleased with that response.  that was not an answer i could be satisfied with.  thankfully, she saw that we had not gotten the standard hearing screening the international adoption clinic recommended and quickly said “why don’t I refer you to a ent…have leo’s hearing screening and the doctor can look at his tonsils and adenoids - since his tonsils look a little big. maybe that’s causing the drool.”

i wasted no time and got leo an ent appointment.  the appointment was last friday.  leo hates having his ears touched or looked into so this was not exactly a pleasant visit.  since this is a post without numbers or counting (you have no idea how hard it’s been to not write any numbers…like the number of bibs we own or how many bibs leo goes through in a day or what month check-up we were at and his stats from that appointment or the number of days from check-up to ent appointment…but I made a promise of no number and i am sticking to it) i won’t get into the details of exactly how much of leo’s nasal passage is blocked by his adenoids (more than half, less than completely), how big his tonsils are (not small, not normal, but large), or how blocked his ears were and how much ear wax had to be removed from his ears while he was strapped in a straightjacket board so the doctor could actually see the inside of his ears afterwards (same percentage as the adenoid blockage).  what i will tell you is that by the end of the appointment we learned that our best option is to have leo’s adenoids removed.  unfortunately, this probably will only reduce – not eliminate – the number of bibs we use due to the fact that the size of his tonsils will most likely contribute to some drooling.  why not take them both? because adenoids and tonsils actually serve a purpose in young children (they provide lots of immunity! who knew?!) and therefore it is not recommended that we remove both at this time.

since this is an outpatient surgical procedure in which leo will be under anesthesia and it is not completely curative, i keep finding myself thinking “it’s just drool!!” should we really do this? but, no…it’s not just (a lot of) drool.  it’s that leo cannot breath through his nose and therefore always has his mouth open and is mouth breather, which is not healthy.  it’s that drool is bad for your skin.  it’s that toddlers should not snore so much.  and, it’s that one’s nose should not be runny more than it is not runny – which has not been our case since leo’s been home with us.

so…adenoidectomy here we (leo) comes!

(just as soon as we can coordinate this procedure with another ‘below the belt’ procedure…which, my friends, will have to be a whole other post.)

oh…and another thing i learned by the end of the ent appointment…leo and i are bonded…no attachment issues here.  the whole time leo was in that awful, blue, Velcro, boarded straightjacket/papoose thing he screamed and cried with a beet red face.  that sight made me want to cry just as hard with him has he clinched my finger with all his might as i tried unsuccessfully to soothe and calm him.  but, the fact that he was screaming “peez, peez mommie!!!!” really made me realize *again* that he knows I am his and he is mine…which made the screams almost music to my ears.

until next time…how many “drool bibs” do you think we currently own?!? closest guess wins a chocolate treat. have your guess in by thursday 5pm eastern!