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Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Oh for that gap-toothed smile..

I cannot tell you how much I was waiting for it.. kept asking every parent I knew who had older kids about when their kids milk teeth started falling(anytime after 5 years I was told), looked it up on the internet of course and so on and on.. Was thrilled when D told me a few weeks back that her lower incisors were "shaking" :). So I waited.. and waited.. and waited.. for so long that I nearly forgot all about it.

Until last week when we were driving to Chennai and she was lying down on my lap I suddenly had this urge to ask her to open her mouth and look inside - only to find that her older teeth (or atleast one of them) was literally attached by a thread, nearly fallen but just staying in there!! And her new teeth had started growing at the back of the older ones!!! I was horrified and having visions of a grown daughter with uneven lower teeth asking "Amma how could you not realize?!"

The next two days were spent in persuading D to shake the older teeth, and hubby dear's expert extraction of the same!! She fussed a lot for the first one, but then realizing it wasn't too bad went along quite docilely for extraction no. 2 :).

How was I to know? I'm one of those people who don't have very vivid memories of my childhood especially pre-8 years or so. Some stuff here and there about friends and family and school, but nothing whatsoever related to falling teeth!! I always thought it was simple - they got loose, they fell and new ones grew!! No clue that so much assistance and drama could be involved :(. Wonder how many more of these parenting googlies are lying in wait out there for unsuspecting parents like me! Please if anyone reading knows of any, don't fail to enlighten me :).

PS: On the bright side, the teeth which looked horrendously inside are looking better positioned as they grow out completely :).

4 comments:

  1. I had NOOOO idea that we as parents needed to get involved in this! Thanks for sharing :) I thot they would just plonk out one day and all I'd have to do is pick up the pieces :) Hmmm...I'll keep a lookout. Ads was toothless until he was 15 months old and there's no sign of any teeth being loose even tho he is more than 5.5 years old. I think there are a few more months left.

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  2. whoa! such things happen??!!
    I am very touchy about the set of teeth my son would have because I have been cursed with bad ones that are prone to decay right from childhood and I pray with all my might that my son develops a healthy set. So, I totally understand your shock and horror when you discovered something like this..glad to know they are spanning out well..

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  3. Goodness! Another thing to worry about. *goes off to look in the brat's mouth*

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  4. @Aparna, Published your comment through my email but noticed just now it didn't work, sorry for the delay. Thanks for reading and hope it helps :). I also believe that kids who are early with their first teeth will be a bit early in all teeth related categories :). My daughter was one of those who got 2 teeth at 7 mths, but got through the entire teething process quite painlessly, so fingers crossed for that to happen again!

    @Uma, we have a similar discussion at our place with hubby and me hoping the kids get both our best features, so every event like this can be scary !!

    @Rohini - sorry didn't mean to add to your list! Just wanted to warn unsuspecting parents like me out there just in case :). Hope it helps to know before the fact.

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