August 18, 2004

Belch = Good

As practically everyone knows, babies need to be burped after being fed, to help them get the gas out of their stomach. If they're not burped, they're much more likely to spit up (which is just a euphemism for "vomit"), since they don't have perfect control over the stomach sphincter muscle.

Sometimes Dorothy can eructate in a manner reminiscent of a uniformed mariner (you could also call it "belching like a sailor"). But at other times, it's a real fight to get any burps out of her. Sometimes when I'm burping her, I'll wind up producing a little burp myself, which I always point out as an example of what I want her to do. In fact, even at random times when we're not burping her, if Elizabeth or I produce our own eructations, we proudly exclaim to Dorothy that she's supposed to do the same thing.

So now a socially indelicate noise has been turned into a shining example of encouraged and expected behavior. Ahh, parenthood.

Posted by Tom Nugent at August 18, 2004 07:08 PM
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