Hema A. Bharadwaj

I'm new to unschooling in a way... so perhaps i'm not yet getting the idea
here. So bear with me...
My now 5.5 year old son developed caviities at age 4.5. We had respected
his need for brushing his teeth himself... i did not realize that he had a
cavitiy till the morning he awoke with tooth pain. We had to get 2 molars
extracted almost asap... as he had developed an infection in the gums (just
by waiting for 2 days for a good child-ped-dentist to give us an appt.) He
had to undergo full body anesthetic as he could not have tolerated local
injections at that age. etc... bad experience all around... made good only
by the fact that it put the fear of cavities in him... so he woudl brush his
teeth regularly and ask us to brush for him every other day... also woudl
chide us for not reminding him to brush on nights that he was too sleepy.
All this lasted about a month... then....

Well ever since.... I have been ensuring that he rinses his mouth out after
meals/snacks.... becuase brushing so regularly has lost its charm/importance
etc. Usually he will happily rinse his mouth out but will get annoyed by
the brushing suggestion. So now his compromise wiht me (we have had several
discussions and have shown him his cavity ridden molars that were
extracted... to remind him of the ordeal... getting rid of food residue esp
every night is important) has been that i should brush his teeth every night
and he will brush them every morning.

Also 'we' have been brushing every night with him...all 3 of us (ds loves to
brush.. so she is always ready) whether we are done with dinner or not... so
we can support him.... as the dentist told us that his teeth seem to be
weaker... and to try adn protect his teeth until the adult teeth grow in...
as any more removed at this stage means he will need spacers so the teeth
do'nt grow in awkward.

and also dentist told us that his teeth seem to have a tendency to develop
cavities very quickly... i think true of any milk teeth... so at the very
least rinse after every snack (on the spot... no sink required... just slosh
water around teeth... kids love this ususally... and then swallow.)

Well no questions in this post... but just that this was our experience wrt
milk teeth, brushing issues and yet staying out of the way.
Dh and I have even accepted that if ds is unable to keep to the
rinsing/brushing etc and he does develop cavities... we will be patient and
help him thru it. I dont' wnat my fear/issues with inconvenience to us
etc/cost etc.. to make me make him brush... wrong in so many ways....

i wish i could have more time to write online... but thoguth i'd say this to
those with kids with milk teeth


--
Hema A. Bharadwaj
Pune, India


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hema A. Bharadwaj

I tried posting this a while back.... never saw it online in my daily
digests... so thought i'd try posting again before i ask for help with my
access?
best, Hema

On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 9:08 AM, Hema A. Bharadwaj <hbonda@...> wrote:

> I'm new to unschooling in a way... so perhaps i'm not yet getting the idea
> here. So bear with me...
> My now 5.5 year old son developed caviities at age 4.5. We had respected
> his need for brushing his teeth himself... i did not realize that he had a
> cavitiy till the morning he awoke with tooth pain. We had to get 2 molars
> extracted almost asap... as he had developed an infection in the gums (just
> by waiting for 2 days for a good child-ped-dentist to give us an appt.) He
> had to undergo full body anesthetic as he could not have tolerated local
> injections at that age. etc... bad experience all around... made good only
> by the fact that it put the fear of cavities in him... so he woudl brush his
> teeth regularly and ask us to brush for him every other day... also woudl
> chide us for not reminding him to brush on nights that he was too sleepy.
> All this lasted about a month... then....
>
> Well ever since.... I have been ensuring that he rinses his mouth out
> after meals/snacks.... becuase brushing so regularly has lost its
> charm/importance etc. Usually he will happily rinse his mouth out but will
> get annoyed by the brushing suggestion. So now his compromise wiht me (we
> have had several discussions and have shown him his cavity ridden molars
> that were extracted... to remind him of the ordeal... getting rid of food
> residue esp every night is important) has been that i should brush his teeth
> every night and he will brush them every morning.
>
> Also 'we' have been brushing every night with him...all 3 of us (ds loves
> to brush.. so she is always ready) whether we are done with dinner or not...
> so we can support him.... as the dentist told us that his teeth seem to be
> weaker... and to try adn protect his teeth until the adult teeth grow in...
> as any more removed at this stage means he will need spacers so the teeth
> do'nt grow in awkward.
>
> and also dentist told us that his teeth seem to have a tendency to develop
> cavities very quickly... i think true of any milk teeth... so at the very
> least rinse after every snack (on the spot... no sink required... just slosh
> water around teeth... kids love this ususally... and then swallow.)
>
> Well no questions in this post... but just that this was our experience
> wrt milk teeth, brushing issues and yet staying out of the way.
> Dh and I have even accepted that if ds is unable to keep to the
> rinsing/brushing etc and he does develop cavities... we will be patient and
> help him thru it. I dont' wnat my fear/issues with inconvenience to us
> etc/cost etc.. to make me make him brush... wrong in so many ways....
>
> i wish i could have more time to write online... but thoguth i'd say this
> to those with kids with milk teeth
>
>
> --
> Hema A. Bharadwaj
> Pune, India




--
Hema A. Bharadwaj
Pune, India


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]