#7 Fangs! Some Do and Some Don’t . . .
Further Confessions of a Baby Vampire #7
Long,
sharp pointed fangs? Some biting babies have them, and some don't.
I don’t “tell” what I’m writing until I've written a solid draft. With VAMPIRE BABY it was different. For some reason—even when all I knew was the title—I needed to say it. It may have been my way of claiming it. “Dibs! Vampire Baby is my title! Mine!”
To my surprise, folks—lot of them—started sharing stories of their “vampire babies,” ie babies who cut their canines first. Which got me thinking about fangs:
Sweet Baby James is definitely NOT a Vampire Baby--although he does play one in the VAMPIRE BABY Story Hour Kit!
Which got me thinking about Mike Smith.
Mike was a nice guy. Cute, too,(even if he was a head shorter than
I ever was). Except for his teeth. . . They were tiny, pointed and needle-sharp.
Don’t bother looking for a man named Mike with teeth like that. You won’t find
him. (At least not that Mike). Rumor has it, between junior and high
school he had all his teeth yanked and got dentures.
And my 2-month-young, adorable grandbaby, Bennett. We do have that photo of him biting his dad. . . Could Bennett turn Vampire Baby? Is it hereditary???
Barely 2-days-new and Bennett's displayed Vampiric characteristics
Trying to keep a level head, I did a quick Internet search on fangs:
I discovered that "Genes are estimated to account for about 70% of the variation in primary tooth development" (from 23andme.com).
So I kept clicking around. And while my internet search turned up a kazillion articles on teething and the order in which baby teeth "usually" erupt, I couldn't find anything about a genetic link.
And, I learned about a frightening genetic condition that can cause vampire fangs. It's called Congenital Ectodermal Dysplasia and results in "minimal to no growth of teeth in the mouth." (From Tech E Blog). There were slews of articles on the subject. And photos:
Simon Cullen, 13, and his brother George, 11
Further clicking turned up an article in Knoji Consumer Knowledge entitled "The Genetics of Vampires": which explains how Vampires are descended from a "genetically older form of human that had a higher DNA count from the beginning. . . at some point the human acquired an exogenous piece of DNA from a virus or another source. This piece of DNA could have then become the vampire DNA" who were, due to a hostile environment, forced to live underground and thus isolated evolved into Vampires.
Run-of-the-mill "stock photo" of a vampire--maybe one of those who was born and not turned
Now totally freaked, my laissez faire attitude squelched, I did what I should have done from the start and went to the real experts: Moms!
With centuries of experience who has seen more teeth errupt? Who better to ask about the emergence--or not--of fangs?
A search on Circle of Moms blog turned up a strand of mom comments longer than a double-helix discussing the order in which baby teeth erupt.
The consensus: "Relax. Don't worry about it. Fangs happen!
The "I Vant My Vampire Baby" Book Trailer Contest--is NOW!!!
Here's how: View the Vampire Baby by Kelly Bennett book trailer on Youtube. Leave a comment. You're entered to win you're very own authographed copy of the book. It's that easy!