Home remedies and a BIG Thank you!

First off, thank you all everybody for your support. I was really upset initially more so because the big fan I am of home remedies, it meant that I would have to toughen up and get immune to her cries for them to work . And yes I managed to do both... time, patience & a stone of heart. Damn why did parenting have to be so hard! now that will make for a totally different post...

So here is what I did..

For the Cyst in her eye: Rinsing eyes with Meethi Seeds decoction is a good remedy for all eye related problems. rinsing the eyes of a toddler, was tough. After a lot of debate, using it as eye drops was the best. And after a lot of trial and error, its best to use it when the are asleep! Just pull down the lower eye lid, and voila its done. No cries. No pleadings nothing.

For her ears: Turns out that the supposed gold plated earring was made of inferior quality material and hence the infection was going bad to worse. So it was Kari pata (fresh) to the rescue. The stems have medicinal properties. Seeing is believing they say and within 6 hours there was a noticeable difference. And in 24 hours, I could actually see her pierced ear lobes without any pus or blood. The sticks would turn black, it was as though it was pulling/sucking all infection into itself. The sticks have to be replaced everyday, they shrink in size and dry out. Neem sticks cannot be used, since they rot the ears, making it a whole lot worse.

The whole operation, was done when she was sleeping. Removing, cleaning & oiling. Used Entrops on the ear lobe and the sticks too. The cyst took about a week to clear more so because, I could put those drops only during the afternoon and though her ears look ok now, have been advised to keep it going for another month.

The worst, she has sworn off earrings. She does not want to wear them. Period. Even though her ears don't pain now, I'm still not allowed to change the sticks when she is awake. I'm planning to take her to the jeweler, to shop for her new earrings, hopefully then she'd be interested again. And yes she has also become very alert during her sleep. If she feels any pain and is woken up, she looks every few minutes to see if I am in the room or not and so I am not supposed to be sleeping next to her, if I touch her eye or ear.

The Ear Piercing Saga

Finally! Its done at 2.5 years, the third year of her birth. And for those wondering I should have asked her...she is the one who has behind me to get her ears pierced.

Imp has always loved jewelery, is fascinated by it. And for the longest time she has wanted earrings. She would always look at my ears and want to wear my earrings too. This Tuesday, we suddenly woke up to realise that Navratri was on us and with Imp being in her third year, this was the day to get her ears pierced. The question now was how? the traditional method or the Gun Shot method. My ears were pierced by our family doc's compounder and now he is quite old and not a feasible option. A few phone calls later decided to go to a Jeweler. Getting his number took another day.

I was still in doubt, since I would have to be alone with Imp and she feeds of my anxiety in seconds. Plus stranger anxiety. She has tons of it. So I did some checking on the gun shot method. Spoke to my beautician, turns out she does piercings and has done for kids younger to imp too. Speaking to her helped. And blogs came to my rescue. Read a lot of posts. Esp by Poppins and Priyanka. Both their experiences scared the shit out of me. And then I read this which gave me some hope. Also checked with the pead, and realised that the doc's don't give any anesthetic simply cause they don't see any reason! So beautician it was.The decision was the easiest part of the whole day, I was to realise later.

Before going I decided to mark her ears, and she wouldn't let me. She howled like no mans business. i even let her mark my ears with the marker, but to no avail. I fed her lunch and we left with her fav teddy in tow. And to my luck the AC is switched off, power cut or an energy saving exercise? Getting her to sit on my lap was a BIG task. The earrings she was to wear came to my rescue. She starts crying the sec I hold her head to put the anesthetic cream and then there was no turning back. And of course in between all this the mark conveniently disappears and we have to mark her ears again. I wasn't even sure if her ears were marked properly! SO finally I'm holding her head, one lady with the gun, one lady to pull the ear lobe, one to hold her hands and one to pin her down on my lap. Took us about 10 min to get this combination right. And then the earring kept falling off that gun. Holding her down was bad enough, and I was so wrong in thinking that it would be easy with the gun. She just refused to sit tight, kept fighting to get off and me feeling guilty as hell. Finally we get her right ear done. The left one, the earring refuses to detach itself from the gun. And that woman gets it from me. Should I have kept quiet? I do not know, but my daughter is crying from pain and I could see her ear lobe being pulled/stretched by the gun, not a pleasant sight. Miraculously it is done. Check both the ears and no bleeding, just red. She refuses to have the anesthetic gel applied again and I don't push her.

Then it is my turn. yes I got my ears pierced again. Simply cause my left one was not done correctly, was crooked. And majorly to know what it feels like...esp the after effects. And that woman goofs up on mine big time. My right bleeds a bit, and even after 24 hours they are still paining. Watching me go through the same procedure calmed imp to some extent. And plus she is fascinated & thrilled that we are wearing the same studs. She cant wait to get out of the beauty parlor and I know the staff there is also waiting for us to leave. No body likes to hear the cries of a baby, esp a baby in pain. She smiled only when we pick up dad from his office to go to the Ice cream parlor ( yes they have lactose free ice cream, called Sorbets) as I had promised her. By the time we reach there she is fast asleep. She wakes up as I am applying Entorps to her ears and remembers that she has not had her ice cream. She polishes half the box of Forest Berrie Sorbet.

And there end our ear piercing saga. Thank god it was me they goofed up on. If I had to do it again, I would go for the Gun Shot, Its smoother and quicker. And get it done in the first year, the older they are the tougher it gets.