Thursday Thoughts on Braces
All five of our children wore braces. The oldest got his off just in time for our daughter to get hers put on. I tried to talk the orthodontist into recycling our son’s braces for our daughter, but he wouldn’t cooperate (and my daughter thought I was crazy).
Over the years we had lots of interesting experiences with braces, retainers, etc. Our dog ate someones retainer, I can’t remember whose. Probably the child at our house with the most invested in their mouth is Grant, one of our twins. Half his mouth was an over-bite and half an under-bite. Very original. Before he could wear braces he had to wear an expander that came with a little key that we had to turn nightly. I can still visualize the two of us, him lying down on the couch and me with a flashlight and key trying my best to figure out if I was actually turning something or just torturing my son.
I know how it feels to have metal in your mouth. I wore braces twice; once in seventh grade and again when I was 30. I still remember rocking Justin, baby number three, and him raring back and hitting me full force in the mouth with his head. If you’ve ever worn braces and been hit in the mouth you can sympathize with how I felt.
About a month ago I got a request from a lady to review her cookbook and I immediately said “yes.” It’s called The Braces Cookbook and it’s full of wonderful recipes that are easy on the teeth. While all my children are past the age of braces I fully expect I will have grandchildren with overbites (it’s genetic) so I plan on keeping this cookbook handy.
In fact, I’m trying one of the recipes tonight and I’ll let you know how it turns out. Just in case you want to try it too, I’ll post it below.
What a great idea for a cookbook! Please tell all the moms and nanas you know about it. You can read more about the book and the wonderful women who wrote it by going to www.bracescookbook.com
Recipe
Tender Chicken Pot Pie
1 ten oz can undiluted cream of celery soup.
1 1ten oz can undiluted cream of chicken soup.
3/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp. thyme
2 cups frozen broccoli (thawed)
2 cups cut up chicken
2 cups shredded frozen potatoes (thawed)
1 cup cooked carrots (fresh is better than frozen)
2 (8 oz.) cans refrigerated crescent rolls (8 per can)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake for 30 min.
In a 9 x 13 pan, stir together the two cans of soup, milk, and thyme. Stir in the broccoli, chicken, potatoes and carrots.
Bake the pan uncovered at 400 degrees for 15 minutes only. Remove the pan from oven but leave the oven turned on.
Unroll both cans of crescent rolls, and divide each can into four rectangular sections (don’t break them into triangles). Lay all the rectangles across the top of the chicken mixture, overlapping as necessary to fit.
Bake pan at 400 degrees for another 15 minutes until rolls are nicely golden. Makes 10 to 12 servings.
Hi Shelley, I don’t know about the head gear. It’s been awhile (thankfully) since I’ve been to the orthodontist. As for telling them about the pain, I guess that’s a personal choice. Every person and child I know has different levels of pain tolerance. Maybe she will handle it fine (I hope). I always took some Advil or something with me and gave it to them as they left the office. That way if they did get sore that helped. I think Ibuprofen is supposed to be better than tylenol for mouth pain. Sure hope your granddaughter does well! Teresa
What a great theme for a cookbook. I think I could use it for the dietary needs of my aging mother who has trouble chewing.
I had braces myself, All four of my children did as well. I have done the expander with the key and I and my oldest kids were in the era of the head gear. Do they still do those?
I can still imagine the pain the day or two after getting my braces tightened. My oldest granddaughter will be starting her orthodontic work at any time. Do we tell them that there is going to be pain? It seems so unfair to a 10 year old.