Baby Bites the Hand that Feeds Her

Posted on April 23, 2012

Siberian big cat flosses on a nearby branch to stop his teeth decaying — Fingers make nice floss too!

Just shy of her 9-month-birthday, Maddie snuck in her first official bite on her dear old dad. With the recent addition of her top teeth, I knew it was just a matter of time.

Last night’s sweet potato dinner was the catalyst for Maddie’s chewing breakthrough. The sweet potato is much thicker than the other foods she has been working on. So after some fits and starts, Maddie actually started using her top and bottom teeth together in that age-old activity called chewing.

The honey badger downed an entire half of sweet potato. However, this doesn’t mean she has given up her habit of storing unchewed food in her mouth. Sometimes when her mouth gets too packed, I have to use a finger to sweep her tongue clear so she can start again. I always realized that this could become a hazardous activity. But as long as there were no teeth on the top, I didn’t worry too much.

However, when we switched from sweet potato to applesauce, the danger signs were impossible to miss. The little piranha actually began biting her spoon. Clearly you should always wash down the applesauce with bitten off plastic spoon chunks. Once Maddie got the hang of biting her spoon, the meal devolved into a tug-of-war between the two of us.

Once the soft stuff was gone, it was bananas for dessert. Maddie loves to store banana chunks in her teeth for snack time at a later date. As her little cheeks began to puff out, I realized it was time to go in. I gave my index finger a kiss goodbye as I went into clear out the baby’s mouth.

After all the hi-jinks with the spoon, an unsuspecting finger was just what the doctor ordered. Just as I put my finger past those gnashing teeth, she clamped down. Two little teeth on the bottom and two on the top. The bite was surprisingly sharp and I could not help but be impressed with her new skill. But time was running short. I had to extract the banana build up with out losing the finger or hurting her little chompers.

I removed the banana and my finger to inspect the damage. Two tiny impressions of her bottom teeth tattooed the bottom of my finger. This is obviously the beginning of a brave new world during feeding time.