Weaning Tommy
"It's okay Tommy," Dr. Ned said gently, the baby sitting in a special booster seat to make him more comfortable. Tommy though didn't think this was 'okay'. Not okay at all! This was a strange place… it reminded him of the hopsickle, when he'd been stuck in the fish tank. He really hoped his mommy wasn't planning to make him stay in one again. He didn't like that at all.
Though… Dr. Ned seemed nice enough.
"Tommy, I'm going to have your mommy sit beside you and hold your hand, okay?" Dr. Ned said softly, Didi moving to do just that. Tommy squeezed her finger and she began to murmur softly, rubbing the back of his head. "All I want to do is look in your mouth… like this." Dr. Ned opened his mouth wide and slowly reached in, touching one of his teeth. "That's it, okay? Promise."
Tommy wasn't for sure, but with his mommy holding his hand he felt a bit braver and finally relaxed his mouth, letting it open up. Dr. Ned, sure enough, barely poked his finger inside, running it along his gums. It felt funny and Tommy wiggled a bit but then he was done.
"He looks perfectly fine," the dentist assured Didi. "Perfectly normal baby. First tooth coming in good. You'll want to begin brushing it and any other teeth he gets in. Just a tiny bit with a baby toothbrush. I'll include some in the grab bag I give you."
"Thank you so much, doctor!" Didi said with a sigh of relief. "My husband was really nervous about all this."
"I completely understand. Going to the dentist can be scary even for adults. And for little guys like this?" Dr. Ned reached over and playfully wiggled Tommy's toes, causing the baby to giggle even as Didi lifted him from the booster seat. "Very strange. Doesn't help there are some real quacks out there."
"Oh yes. I thought about going to Dr. Homer… he is closer to us… but I asked around and didn't hear good things about him."
"The man's a nut," Dr. Ned stated flatly. "He thinks babies should be weaned before one. And he says you should go cold turkey!" He rolled his eyes. "And he's always coming up with some new ailment… he gives dentists a bad name."
"Now that you mention it when should I think about weaning Tommy?"
"You can try now but it doesn't have to be until 18 months at most. If you want to start now I'd go slow. Give him a sippy cup sometimes so he can get used to it. Slowly increase it over the bottle until he doesn't even notice he isn't using one anymore."
"Thank you, Doctor!" Didi said, carrying Tommy off. Where he went home, had a bottle (but also began trying out a sippy cup) and did not have oddly sexual dreams about a muscular bottle spraying white stuff on him while saying Tommy was "so big".