Marta Pires

In another e-mail I sent to the list some weeks ago, I wrote this introduction (it applies to this discussion too): 

-=-A few weeks ago, my daughter Constança (5 years old) had an abscess on a tooth that has a cavity. We took her to the dentist, who just took a look, and she was medicated and it went away. Last weekend, she complained about the tooth again, and it looked like it was infected again (swollen cheek and pain). This time we gave her a pain killer/anti-inflammatory medication at home (the dentist said we could have done that in the first place, when we went there, so we decided to try) and she was ok the next day. She's doing ok now.-=-

Up until now, she has always been a very sensitive kid and one that I believe also gets scared when she doesn't feel good or something happens to her (like when she falls and scratches her knee, for instance). She'll ask me "Oh mom, why did this happen to me?" She doesn't like to take anything (her medication was taken in her orange juice the first time round and the pain killer was a suppository that I gave her while she was sleeping, at her request), doesn't like to put any sort of ointment/cream if hurt and will react immediately if someone tries to force anything on her, I believe. I remember being like that too; I still don't like to take medication, if whatever I'm feeling is bearable. We've always let things heal themselves at her request, because the situations haven't been life-threatening or anything close.

This whole situation with her teeth has brought up some anxiety and fears in me (which I have already addressed in that other thread) and I want to work my way through this as best as I can, which to me means focusing on ways to be her partner. I think that part of my anxiety has to do with the fact that there's something I can't control happening and with the fact that I anticipate my daughter's own anxiety and distress if we eventually need to do something she doesn't understand/want to her teeth.

She's probably got some more cavities developing now in other teeth and her gums are a bit swollen (they bled easily when I touched them tonight, as I was trying to clean her teeth with a gauze with water and xylitol, while she was sleeping; they don't bleed when she brushes them though...). We went to the pediatrician this week and she pointed out that her teeth were in bad shape. I forgot to mention that she already has a loose tooth that might fall anyday now, and I don't know if that can affect her gums.

I've already collected some ideas I've read on Joyce's site or that Alex Polikowsky gave me (thank you Alex, for helping me out!) and that have already been working out for us, one way or another. ;-) I thought it would be useful to list some of them here (other people might need some ideas too); on the other hand, I still have some questions and needed some input, because I don't want to read whatever's out there on the internet -- it just makes me even more anxious.

- Chewing xylitol gum during the day
- Eating apples (especially before going to sleep, since it helps to clean the teeth)
- Eating hard cheese (especially before going to sleep, since it's good for giving the teeth a calcium boost)
- Buying different kinds of cool tooth brushes (with animals on them or electrical, etc.)
- Trying to brush teeth at different times of the day (at least once a day)
- Swishing with water or water+xylitol
- Eating mints/lollipops/candy/chocolate with xylitol
- Baking cakes or cookies, etc., with xylitol
- Goofing around with teeth cleaning moments (we do spitting contests and who's-the-fastest-teeth-cleaning-girl-in-the-room contests)
- Brushing teeth in different parts of the house (we've been washing our teeth in bed for the past weeks)
- Eating strawberries (since they contain natural xylitol)
- Making strawberry ice cream
- Using xylitol in the orange juice (or other juices)

From what I've gathered on what I've read about xylitol, the mouth should be in contact with it at least five times a day. It hasn't been easy getting xylitol in our daily routine once a day (lately, I'd say it's been impossible), let alone five times a day. I haven't been able to have xylitol in the mix yet because she doesn't like it, and she doesn't like gum and rarely eats lollipops or chocolate bars. I'm not stressing about it (and I think I owe this in large part to what I've learned here, so I've been able to let go and not stress if we don't brush our teeth one night because we're tired) but I'd like to have more ideas to help her out, regarding her teeth and using xylitol. Are there other ways to use xylitol that I haven't listed yet and that might help?

At the moment the only thing that has been working is brushing her teeth at least once a day (we have skipped a day or two, because she was really tired and fell asleep). But she brushes her own teeth and doesn't want me to brush them, so I think that they might not get very clean in the end. Oh and we've been swishing a lot with water too. For a while there we were having an apple before sleeping, but then she got tired of apples.

I also want to add foods that can help (like apples) and not subtract any food that I might think will damage her teeth. I've been reading on this list and learning about the effect of control on relationships for long enough to know for sure that that won't work and that it will only damage our relationship. I definitely don't want that to happen. Are there any other foods that I can try to introduce to her and that might help?

I feel that our trip to the pediatrician this week got me anxious about her teeth again. I believe it would also help me relax a bit more to read some of the stories of how things happened with other children and how moms dealt with these issues.

Marta
Constança, 5 years old

Ali Zeljo

Hi Marta,  

My 3.5 year old son loves to use Xylitol wipes.  They come in flavors.  They are single packets with one wet wipe inside.  I keep stashes in the car near his car seat, in every bathroom, the snack cabinet, in our bedroom.  He often asks me to help open one so he can chew on it.  They are meant to just wipe across the teeth- chewing is not necessary!  ;)

There are many brands.  We use this one right now:

Also I purchased a few mouth rinses to try.  There are nice flavored xylitol-based ones, and also we have a Zinc one and a Neem based one that we found at a health food store.  My kids like to try the strange flavors and spit them out.  

I'll be interested to hear new foods too.  I've heard that grass-fed butter has a special x-factor that really supports tooth health.  That is in the Weston A Price line of research.

Warmly,
Ali

Susanne Roberts

Hi Marta,

Did your pediatrician or pediatric dentist have any suggestions on how to proceed, especially with the ongoing infection? Is there a gentle pediatric dentist your daughter trusts to fix her teeth so this is a good and painless experience for her?
Everyone had a lot of great suggestions here.
Genetics play a big role too.
Don't forget to be gentle with 
yourself!
You are such a loving mom who will help and be there for her through all of it, and this is the most important aspect.

Susanne


Carpe Diem

On Jul 4, 2014, at 1:01, "Ali Zeljo azeljo@... [AlwaysLearning]" <[email protected]> wrote:

 

Hi Marta,  

My 3.5 year old son loves to use Xylitol wipes.  They come in flavors.  They are single packets with one wet wipe inside.  I keep stashes in the car near his car seat, in every bathroom, the snack cabinet, in our bedroom.  He often asks me to help open one so he can chew on it.  They are meant to just wipe across the teeth- chewing is not necessary!  ;)

There are many brands.  We use this one right now:

Also I purchased a few mouth rinses to try.  There are nice flavored xylitol-based ones, and also we have a Zinc one and a Neem based one that we found at a health food store.  My kids like to try the strange flavors and spit them out.  

I'll be interested to hear new foods too.  I've heard that grass-fed butter has a special x-factor that really supports tooth health.  That is in the Weston A Price line of research.

Warmly,
Ali

cathychoo4@...

Vitamins A, D and K seem to be involved in calcium regulation, and they are fairly easy to add in. Vitamin A is in liver, carrots and butter. Vitamin D comes in chewables or capsules with oil or powder (dehydrated oil) and my kids don't mind this sprinkled on things. We have 'superior source' brand Vitamin K microlinguals (ones you can suck on) and we all like them.

Sea salt is nice for brushing too.
Gelatin seems involved in tooth dentin (the stuff under the enamel) so having enough of that in the diet might help - I sprinkle 'great lakes' gelatin on things and mix it in with regular jelly. Cooking meats like chicken drumsticks, ox tail, and so on would have gelatin too.

I bought BLIS M18 lozenges - it is probiotics for the mouth, with bacteria that don't produce much acid and do prevent other bacteria growing (temporarily). When I suck them after eating sweets, my mouth goes from mildly acidic to neutral, it is like brushing my teeth only it doesn't remove plaque. I bought the 'blis technologies' brand, from New Zealand, and the strawberry flavour is very nice, we all like it. 

I found my kids (age 6 and 2) like Barlean's lemonade swirl fish oil, too. It might help with gums and inflammation. 

My 2 year old son has visible cavities on his upper front teeth and other spots too. Since I added these things in, he is putting his fingers in his mouth less and sleeping peacefully - I think the pain has improved. The cavities are slightly smaller and whiter. It has only been a few weeks with all those things added. I haven't changed any other things in his diet.

I too was very stressed, kind of panicky, when I found my son's cavities. It helped to remember Sanda Dodd saying, to other people in other contexts, to not thrash and flail - which I was doing inwardly. Helping my adrenals has helped with stress too.

Cathy