Over the past several weeks, Levi decided he didn't like the crown that Dr. Moody had repaired his molar with 2 years ago. I looked at what Levi was "picking" at in his mouth so many times, but never saw anything that could be causing a problem. Several weeks later, I walked into my bathroom, and there his crown was laying on top of the sink. I knew it looked familar, but couldn't place what it was right away. But then, Levi's tooth came to my mind, and a quick trip through the house to find the little thing proved me right. He had managed to get it off! So he had been slowly working it off his tooth. It reminds me of a prisoner digging an underground tunnel slowly to freedom, you know, like you see in the movies! I have to think that for some reason, it was really bothering him and he decided to handle it. I would say he was pretty determined!
Back when we had Levi's crown put on, he had other obvious dental work that needed to be done. Because of our inability to be able to reason with Levi and his high level of sensory overload in this type of setting, our only option was to have it all done at the Children's Hospital while under anesthesia. Because of the fact that Levi hadn't had any dental work done since then, I reasoned that we would need to put the crown back on the same way.
And I was wrong.
And the following 20 minutes, after I realized I was wrong, was way more stressful than I would have liked any one of us to go through.
Dr. Moody assured us we could all hold him down, and this is when I had wished I had been more prepared. It took me, Caleb, Rebekah, a nurse and Dr. Moody to hold him down. It was one of those times where I really had to assess if we really had to do this. I had traveled too far and Levi's tooth had already been exposed for 10 days, since it took that long for the office to get us in. It had to be done.
Holding a 9 year old child down, trying to keep his arms and legs from flailing around and trying to keep his entire body from twisting back and forth was not easy, and it definitely was not safe. It really wasn't safe for any of us, but especially Levi. I still can't believe he didn't get punctured in the roof of his mouth with one of those "tooth pokers". I did not like what we had to do at all. It convinced me that from now on, I will always be prepared when going to doctor's appointments.
When we lived in Florida, Levi had to go to the Emergency Room. When they told us that they would need to draw his blood, Trevor and I looked at them and said this would be the biggest challenged they had encountered in a while (to say the least). I was so thankful that the head nurse was a well seasoned older nurse that had a whole bag full of tricks, and the one she taught us that night has saved us from many more experiences like the one we had at Dr. Moody's office a few days ago.
She taught us the art of swadding a child that needs to be restrained. It is much gentler than any other form of restraining that we've come across. I wish we had known this when we first started having little ones. One of the awesome things about swaddling, is you can do this with older children. When I swaddle a child, I explain to them that it will keep them safe and help them to feel safe.
An oversized baby blanket works well for infants. A twin size, flat sheet works great for a larger child. Ideally, you would want to fold the sheet so that it is about as wide as the child is long from shoulder's to feet.
Here I am using my Mobi Wrap and I am swaddling Alyssa as if she is getting her blood drawn. Just leave the arm out that they will draw from. In the case of Levi getting dental work done, I would have wrapped both arms, making sure his arms were straight down while swaddling so that he couldn't pull them up and out during the procedure.
If you get the first wrap right...snug, and with the arm(s) straight down against their body...it makes the rest of the wrapping much easier.
As you wrap, make sure that it is snug enough around the legs. It will make it much easier to control kicking if the child is being super resistant and struggling a lot.
Here, the swaddling is complete with legs close together. This is much safer to restrain the child than simply holding them down. I hope this helps the next time you have a little one who needs be restrained at the doctor's office.
We'll be leaving for the ATCA for our Son Rise Start-Up in just two weeks! We are very excited, and we're so much looking forward to what we'll be learning, and then coming home and starting Levi's program. We are still raising money for Levi's therapy room building. If you would like to make a donation to Levi's Mountain, just click on the "donate" tab at the top of the screen. We're so grateful for all of the people who have been so supportive and caring through this year as we've been campaigning for Levi's Mountain. It has been such a blessing to our whole family!
Angela, Levi's Mommy
