Paranoia

I just went in for what I thought would be a routine dental check up and cleaning. Surprise! I have 2 cavities. Considering that I've only had cavities twice before in my life, I was pretty surprised. (The first one being a super surprise to me as the dentist at the school clinic did not bother telling my 9-year old self or my mother about them. I only realized that I had had cavities when I looked in the mirror at my teeth a few days later and discovered that I had fillings in the sides of 2 molars. Jerk dentist. Then again, I don't think he was in a good mood at the time anyways cuz I distinctly remember that he was complaining to a fellow dentist about how little they were paid during my entire visit. Needless to say, that was my last visit to this paragon of dentistry).

So what was my first reaction to this current report of cavities?

"Crap! Will the local anesthesia go into my milk and harm Noelle?! FREAKING 32 YEARS of almost perfect teeth and I get cavities NOW so that I get to worry about how the drugs I will be injected with will affect my baby! F*%$!"

Even though the dentist said it was fine for breastfeeding, I called my pediatrician to check. And just checked on-line. Yes, I'm a very paranoid mother. And yes, I feel bad for my pediatrician, too, who has to deal with my questions. =P But hey, I've gotten better. The first 2 weeks, I left him messages left and right. I now usually wait to go through my list of questions during her visits. And this one time. A ha ha ha...*nervous twitter*

Yet another thing for me to be paranoid about: organic baby food or no? On one hand, I tell myself that my friends and I grew up fine on regular old baby food. On the other hand, why not take advantage of organic products? I already use Seventh generation baby laundry detergent on her clothes. (Mostly because I don't like that the usual standard of baby detergent- Dreft- has such a heavy scent). We also got an organic mattress and bedding set. (Cuz I got lulled by the organic baby book that touts why not use an organic product on the surface that babies spend so much time on). We also recently switched to a dish detergent that does not contain phosphates and is labeled "non-toxic" cuz I got freaked out when I read the label of our regular dish detergent and it said to not mix with bleach cuz it would cause toxic fumes. Not that I spend my days mixing my dish detergent with bleach just to see what it does but still...scary.

However, we do not put Noelle in organic cotton clothes nor is her infant formula organic. So, obviously, we pick and choose. I feel guilty but part of the reason I don't want to get organic baby food is because they are so hard to find in our neighborhood. Guilty lazy ass mom here. But I plan to give her organic cow's milk when she turns one because I read in Health magazine once that if one were to pick only 2 foods to buy organic, milk should be one of them since apparently organic milk has much more effective nutrients (or something like that) due to the lack of hormones. So, we have only used organic milk since. And I think I will probably use organic baby foods when I want to give her fruits with a thin skin (as my OCD self reasons that pesticides may be more likely in such fruits).

BTW, the other food the magazine pushed for buying organic was coffee since coffee plants are reportedly very heavily sprayed with pesticides. But given that I don't plan on Starbucking the hell out of my kid, I don't think I need to worry about organic coffee effects.

On a related note, we started Noelle on rice cereal on a consistent basis this past Friday. I also started leaving rice cereal with Noelle's daycare today. The owner suggested that we observe Noelle for digestive problems as "rice sticks together". Huh? I don't think that really applies to rice cereal as it doesn't have the texture of regular rice. In fact, we make it as watery as possible. I appreciate the input she offers me since as a first time mom, I'm open to learning all I can about ways to increase my baby's comfort level but this comment really made me scratch my head.