a peek inside the fishbowl

In prenatal classes, many moons ago, there was a discussion about why babies cry. There are the obvious reasons: hunger, thirst, diaper, fatigue and/or pain. It is up to the parent to find out why the kid is crying and resolve the issue. What freaked me out at the time was the litany of things that could possibly be making our child cry: the mattress might be too cold, or too warm, the room might be too cold, or too warm, the kid might be swaddled too tight or too loose, the room might be too dark or too light … you get the picture.

A lot of this can be chalked up to the temperament of the particular child. Some kids don’t care about the cold mattress, others do. So if you’ve made yourself one of the sensitive kinds you might as well buy some ear plugs and get used to wearing them.

I remember wondering if babies ever get itchy. And if they’re itchy, do they cry? How are we supposed to know that this flailing body is itchy and needs to be scratched?

I also remember someone telling me about her infant daughter, who was crying and crying and the mother could not figure out why she was so upset. The baby wasn’t hungry, or tired, or in need of a fresh diaper. Mom racked her brain and double and triple checked the diaper and tried to feed her and then tried to burp her and then tried to put her down. Nothing worked. It wasn’t until much later that she discovered some tiny threads from the baby sweater had gotten tangled around her fingers. She snipped them off (the threads, not the fingers) and peace was immediately restored to the household.

Emma woke up yesterday with sore toes.

Sore toes? I thought perhaps her foot was asleep, but she assured me that it wasn’t a pins and needles kind of feeling. I couldn’t quickly look at her toes because she was wearing tights under jeans and it would have meant that she had to get undressed right before she had to leave for school. Toe pain is way past my maternal diagnostic skills. I asked her to finish eating her breakfast and get ready for school. “It’ll probably go away,” I suggested. And then I promptly forgot about it.

Most things do go away, and that’s why I was surprised to learn that her toes were still hurting after school. In fact, she was grimacing and practically limping. I asked her to take everything off. I had to look. Upon closer inspection I saw a slice across the top of her two middle toes, right where they connect with the foot itself.

“Did you hit your foot on something?”
“No.”
“Did something fall on your foot?”
“No.”
“Did you cut across it with scissors or a knife?” I couldn’t believe I was asking if she’d cut her own toes because it’s so out of character for her to do something like that.
“No!”

It was obviously hurting because she would hardly let me touch it. I looked a little closer. There was no blood. I suddenly wasn’t so sure it was a cut. I turned her foot around in my hand. She grimaced. I poked at it a little. (“OW! MOMMMY!”) And that’s when I noticed it. It was a HAIR. A hair had figure-eight wrapped itself around her toes. TIGHT. In fact, it was so tight it was cutting off circulation and had made a deepish cut-like indent in her skin. I broke the hair, had her wash her feet in the tub and all was well. My baby could walk again.

My god. I hope you parents out there have learned something today. Because I sure have.