Our resident monster

The teething monster has come for a visit. He's not our favourite visitor, even if he does bring a housegift each time he arrives. He also brings weeks worth of finger sucking, dribbling, and night time waking which seem a pretty poor tradeoff for a few lousy teeth. This time he brought molars so he's definitely less than popular. The best you can say for him is that these are the two year old molars* so they'll be the last of his offerings. And after they're in? That'll be it. We'll be done. And he won't be getting a repeat invitation.

* inaptly named, as I discovered after googling, as apparently they can appear any time between 21 and 33 months. Little E is 23 months so they're quite early for her.

A happy footnote to teethbrushing traumas

Hallelujah, Little E is not going to have cavities before the age of two. I whinged at length here about what a tough time we were having with teethbrushing.

The magic solution? She gets to watch two minutes of Playschool on YouTube while we brush her teeth. Everytime she wriggles, or tries to shove away the toothbrush, or yells, we pause it. We only press 'play' when she sits still with her mouth open.

I have to confess that when Lovely Friend E first told me that this was what they do for their little boy I thought it sounded a bit ridiculous. Now I am a sworn convert. It worked from almost the first night. Before I boast too much, I should add that Little E might be wilier than I am confessing to, as *somewhere* in this house, are not one but two toddler toothbrushes. I say "somewhere" as we suspect that Little E has stashed them somewhere tricky. Perhaps we need one of the clever inventions in the picture ...

* Image from http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.outblush.com/get/women/images/2007/04/happy-toothbrush-holder.jpg

The small blue instrument of torture

Little E does not like to brush her teeth. Correction: she does not like to have her teeth brushed. She is perfectly happy to "brush" her teeth, ie, walk around chewing on a toothbrush. She is happy to "brush" her teddy's "teeth." She is happy to use her toothbrush, or Mummy's toothbrush, to smear toothpaste in and around Mummy's mouth. 

But when it comes to having her teeth brushed? It is a two person job. One to hold her hands away from her mouth, the other to hold her still with one hand and brush her teeth with the other, while she screams as though extremely bad things are happening to her. It doesn't make any difference if someone else brushes their teeth at the same time as her, or if she gets to look in the mirror while it happens, or if songs about brushing teeth get sung, or if someone reads a book to her at the same time. She gets cream (moisturiser) on her back and tummy, which she loves, as a "reward" after brushing her teeth, but it doesn't seem to make brushing anymore attractive to her. I laughed when I read something which said toddlers should brush for two minutes as we're lucky to manage 20 seconds.

Needless to say, it is a pretty unpleasant process. I thought about taking a break from brushing to try to defuse the trauma but when I managed to look in her mouth while we were outside one day I could see plaque on her teeth. Obviously the 20 seconds we're managing isn't really cutting it.

Does anyone have any tips? Or know of any picture books that feature children brushing teeth? 

 




Image from http://www.surfersam.com/funny-pictures/brush.jpg