Wendy E

When Lucas (now 5yo) was just under 2yo I noticed some brownish
spots on his teeth. Up until this point we had just been sort of
playing around with tooth brushing. I was not looking forward to
going to the dentist because I had read that dentists blame early
cavities on night nursing. Lucas was still nursing frequently, day
and night, and since I am committed to child led weaning (he still
nurses once in the morning at age 5) I did not want some dentist
telling me this was wrong. Well, I was referred to a great dentist
by our wonderful pediatrician (both BFing advocates and the latter a
frequent LLL speaker) and she (the dentist) did not question my
night nursing and attributed the decay more to genetics. She felt
he got cavities in spite of the nursing...not because of it. She did
say that dental hygiene plays a part in getting cavities and the
progression of decay and was very important...and we knew that it
was important for our child to start taking care of his teeth. We
had to have several teeth worked on and we used IV sedation to do it
(recommended for a child this young...and he couldnt' have sat
through it w/o it). It was a really big deal, and something we did
not want to go through again but we ended up going through it again
just last month...another IV sedation and $3000 later.... You hear
all sorts of scenerios...we flossed and brushed every day and never
got a cavity, we flossed and brushed every day and still got a
mouthful of cavities, we never brushed and never got a cavity and so
on..... But, it makes sense to me that trying to have good dental
hygiene is helpful in preventing cavities. I also feel it is a
matter of cleanliness as well....and I do believe kids need a bit of
facilitation in this area. Modeling is the best way to go...but I
personally feel this is too important of an area to just let them
figure out on their own. It has been somewhat of a stuggle for
us...getting the brushing done, finding a toothpaste that he will
tolerate...chasing around with a toothbrush etc.....I do not feel
that we have done the best job with it (sometimes it was like
pulling teeth! LOL) and having to go in again for more work sort of
shows that. This time around Lucas realized what was going on...
(when he was 2 he just woke up and his mouth felt funny and forgot
about it the next day...and of course he didn't connect it to tooth
brushing). Now he has made the connection, he know that he needs to
take care of his teeth to prevent cavities and keep himself from
going through that again. But he will not do it on his own....so,
it's a Catch-22 situation, KWIM? In other matters, he can make his
own choices about. But he only has one set of teeth and I feel I
need to do the best I can in helping him to take care of them, even
if he is resistant to it. All that said, I am still open to hearing
ideas and less coersive ways of getting him to do it. At this
point, he is just reluctant... Since it's been a theme in our house
for awhile and I feel I've tried everything in the book I have
probably heard it before, but who knows, one of you may have some
magical way I have not tried and it might be the answer. So, that's
our story. No real answers...just our experience, and my opinion
that it is really important to have good dental hygiene.

Wendy

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When Cameron was little, I would tell him that I just couldn't be in bed
with someone who didn't brush his teeth or wash his feet (if really dirty). I
would roll over and make a big deal about Ben's breath or Cameron's breath (and
feet); they'd do the same with me. "NO stinky breath in bed!" "I don't want
to sleep with someone with bad breath!"

Worked to get him to brush because he wanted to be in bed with me.

The funny story that goes with though is: Cameron was talking with an old
high school boyfriend of mine. He was down at Cameron's level----right in his
face.

Cam took a big whiff and said, "You have bad breath. You can't sleep with MY
mom!"

~Kelly


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