The Missing Teeth

Chart compliments of ADA

When Joseph came home from Ethiopia at 22 months, he had 14 teeth.  He seemed to be right on track as far as teeth except that he didn't yet have lower canines.  We figured, though, that they would be popping through at any time.  Well . . .  a year later, when they still hadn't come in we started to wonder what was going on.  We had heard rumors from some online adoption communities of cultural practices in Ethiopia of removing these teeth in infants, but we were still thinking that they would just be coming in late. 

Fortunately, we were able to visit with Joseph's birthmother again on our last trip, so we had the opportunity to learn what happened!

And what we found out was VERY interesting.  We explained to his sweet, sweet birthmother that some of Joseph's teeth never erupted and we asked her if she knew of any reason why.  She said that when he was about 8 months old that they removed his canines!! We asked how this was performed and what we got through the translator was that some sort of "hook" was used.  She then preceded to tell us that the teeth were removed because this prevents diarrhea in the infant period.

And there we had it - our suspicions were confirmed. . . .

Further research on the subject has revealed that this is actually a common practice in a lot of areas of Africa, particularly in the region of Ethiopia where Joseph is from.  Tooth eruption is sometimes associated with the onset of diarrhea, leading many mothers to assume a causal relationship.  They, therefore, feel that the removal of these teeth will prevent infantile diarrhea.  The procedure is most often performed on children from 4-18 months of age (depending on what source you look at), typically without anesthesia, and with a sharp instrument such as a hot needle or knife.  It is usually done by a traditional practitioner known as yetirs awlakiy (tooth extractor).  As for long term consequences of this procedure, it appears that he may have a higher chance of needing orthodontic work, but we plan to discuss this further with our dentist as well.

For my friends in the Ethiopian adoption community, here are a few links to articles that discuss more about this procedure.

Dental injuries due to African traditional therapies for diarrhea

Tooth follicle extirpation and uvulectomy

Clinical Topics — Canine Extraction
 

Ahl-geh-bah-gnim

Ahl-geh-bah-gnim or for those of you (like us) who don't speak Amharic "I don't understand."  This is a phrase that we have practiced over and over as we are sure that it will be used quite often in the first few weeks that our son is home! :) 

We've had many people ask us if our son speaks English or if we speak Amharic?  Well, unfortunately, the answer to both is No.  On a positive note, though, we are both making attempts from opposite sides of the world to learn a few basics in each other's language.  We were able to set up private English lessons for our son at the orphanage for 3 hours per week, and we have recently begun a few Amharic lessons of our own!

Our son's progress seems to be decent.  The orphanage said he is now able to count to 100 and write the alphabet, and from our experience with him, we are guessing that he has maybe 50-100 vocab words.  He was not able to understand much (if any) of what we said to him in English or form sentences while we were there, but we think he still has a good start.

As for our progress, well. . . . we are trying. . . but this language is HARD!  Our Amharic connection and lessons have come through an Ethiopian refugee in St. Louis who a friend introduced us to.  Meeting this man and his sweet wife (who just came to the US 3 months ago) has been a true blessing. We have learned just as much about the Ethiopian culture as we have about the language.  When we went for our lesson last night - they had a traditional coffee ceremony for us - what a great surprise!  And our progress with the language you may be wondering . . . well we can count to 10 and have learned several important phrases like - Are you hungry?  Don't do that! and Do you need to shint?**  We are slow.  :)

So between us learning a little Amharic and our son learning a little English, plus a LOT of charades hopefully we will survive the first few weeks at home.  We have talked to several families who have had to overcome a similar language barrier and they have told us that the children catch on VERY quickly.  We know that their will be lots of frustration, though, in the first few months so we will covet your prayers when we embark upon that part of the journey!

For those of you in the Ethiopian adoption world - we have found this book to be particularly helpful.  We bought it on Amazon.

**  Sidenote on "Shint."  So the Amharic word for urinate is "shint."  I know - interesting, right?  When Joseph came home from Ethiopia he used a handful of Amharic words and one of them used regularly was "shint."  One day after tireless efforts at potty training, while standing in the checkout line at Target, Joseph starting YELLING, "Mommy, Daddy - I need to go SHINT!"  Oh my - can you imagine the looks we got from everyone standing around us!  That was certainly a hard one to explain. . . .

A sneak peak

Well - we are home, over our jet lag, and finally getting caught up on things after being in Ethiopia.  We've had lots of requests for more pictures from our trip so wanted to post a few.   Unfortunately, we can't post any revealing pictures of our son until he is back home, but we'll give you a sneak peak today since there isn't anything identifying about him in the picture.  :) 



Building under construction in the capital Addis Ababa (notice the scaffolding)



The road to Hosanna







More countryside on the way to Hosanna



 

Rural Ethiopia - Lining up for water at the well



Water being transported from the well



Rural famer

Meeting the child my mom sponsors through Yelezelam Minch



Our son's room!



Your sneak peak!! (Measuring his foot so we can figure out shoe size!)



  

And we can't forget Joseph - he celebrated his 3rd birthday while we were gone!



We are still praying that we will be able to go back to Ethiopia within the the next 6-8 weeks to pick up our son.  We learned last week that they have secured his new birth certificate with our last name on it and hope to hear soon that they also have his passport.  After that our file will be submitted to the US Embasssy in Ethiopia so a Visa can be assigned.  Thanks for praying with us!