The Loose Tooth Child: My Failed Attempt at Pulling Teeth
If you’re reading this you have probably been there before. Your kiddo is about to hit a milestone and lose his first tooth. Every day you tell him to move it around with his tongue to loosen it up so it can eventually fall out. One day he eats an apple and then you get to see the excitement on his face when the “Tooth Fairy” leaves some money under his pillow.
Easy Peasy Right?
Well, not in my household….
One day as I was brushing my sons teeth, I noticed a lose tooth and pointed it out to him. We both got excited because we knew it was only a matter of time until it fell out and we could really celebrate. And then a solid month passed and another, when I thought it was lose enough I finally convinced him to let me try to pull it out with the old doorknob and floss trick but that was a major fail.
First of all, he was extremely scared. We had to beg for days before he would let us anywhere near his mouth. Anytime we tried to get even remotely close to his tooth he would start whimpering and almost come to tears. Finally one day, he got brave and at least let me wiggle the tooth with my fingers. I did this for the next several days until he felt comfortable with touching the tooth. Eventually we worked up to the doorknob trick and failed miserably.
Dang Floss!
He already had tight teeth so I had to use extremely thin floss. I must have tried to tie floss around the lose tooth at least 10 times before I got a snug fit. It doesn’t help that his teeth are small either.
Anyway, I tied the opposite end of the string to the door knob and of course, my kiddo started fearing for his life. So we stood there, staring each other down with one of us in tears and the other close to it. Finally we agreed to count to three and pull. I could just picture his tooth coming out in slow motion. 1….2……3….. SLAM!
Nope, it didn’t work, We tried this about 3 more times and each time I would try to add another layer of floss, eventually, he stopped crying because he knew it wasn’t going to work.
Sigh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGWqZvHV1oA
Using Hulk Strength
As I scoured the interwebs I came across a tip article which suggested using a cloth or paper towel to help grip the tooth so you could pull it out.
You guessed it…. It was a major fail…. I could get a good grip on the tooth but after the 3rd time trying to yank the thing out my kid was ready to summon his inner Daniel LaRusso and kick me in the bonsai. So we decided brute force wasn’t going to work.
The Dentist
At this point, his adult tooth was starting to grow in so we started freaking out and figured the dentist could pull it. So, we scheduled the appointment and the dentist tells us that his adult tooth growing behind his baby tooth is perfectly normal and it would fall out when it was ready. ….. Well that was a waste of time….
The Apple That Stole my Thunder
After two to three weeks of researching ways to pull a kids tooth out and convincing him to let me pull it out with pliers we gave up. Than one day he comes home with his tooth in a plastic baggie. It turns out he was eating an apple at snack time and the stubborn tooth came out. So while I was mad at the apple for stealing my thunder but we were ecstatic that the tooth finally came out!!
The Moral of the Story
We are now 5 teeth lost, and each time we see a loose tooth we get excited but have learned to be patient. Eventually those teeth will come out on their own. But what do I know, I am just trying to figure out this dad thing…..
Tooth Fairy Box
Oh yeah, be sure to pick up a tooth fairy box as a keepsake. We are planning to award him this until he no longer believes in the tooth fairy or when his last baby tooth falls out. Whichever comes first.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHm5kC0mKrU
