Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The Dentist

It was the boys' dentist appointment this morning. They're so different. B-man jumped up in the chair and relatively happily let the hygienist clean his teeth.

Then it was N-man's turn. He didn't want to even sit in the chair. He didn't want to open his mouth. He didn't want to turn his head toward the hygienist. He didn't want her to use any of the instruments to clean his teeth.

It was kind of a trial, be we got through it, with lots of whining but very few tears.

After being given a new toothbrush, two stickers, and some wiki sticks, N-man had cheered up enough that when the dentist came in to check his teeth, he actually let the dentist see inside his mouth. The dentist asked him when his birthday is, and N-man replied, "When I turn 4." Very matter-of-factly, with an implied "duh". The dentist couldn't stop laughing.

Unfortunately, the dentist also said we really need to work on getting N-man to stop sucking his thumb. Um, I can't even get him to reliably use the potty, and now I'm supposed to figure out how to separate him from his "yummy thumby"? Any suggestions?

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Random unrelated thought: We put in an offer on a house. The builder is on vaca at the mo', so we won't hear back until late tomorrow. And even if they accept, we still have to sell our house (pretty quickly).

Not stressful at all!

Hee!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Never had a kid whose thumb was yummy, so have no first-hand (ha) knowledge. I'd suggest you remind him that The Dentist says ... of course, that's assuming he cares one whit about what the dentist says, does or thinks! Congrats on making the house offer. Good luck!!

Nancy said...

You could always make the thumb un-yummy. They even sell stuff at the store you brush on - so whenever that thumb hits the mouth...blech. I'm sure you could find something non-toxic to brush on. . .

And you put an offer on a house?! That's AWESOME!! Except...I'm guessing that it's no where near me, is it? :P

Nicole S. said...

ister sucked her thumb until she was about 10 years old. We had a babysitter that put tabasco sauce on it. Ha! But I think that just slowed her down. She evntually grew out of it - I guess my mom didn't mind too much. or didn't take us to the dentist. :)

Luckygirl said...

No ideas to get him to quit the thumb sucking but I am curious as to the dentist's reasoning behind not wanting a three year old to suck his thumb?

Anonymous said...

My kids never sucked their thumbs but I did. My parents tried everything from putting red pepper juice all over it to bandaids....
What worked?
One year we were going to visit family in Italy...and they desparately tried to get me to stop sucking before visiting. I must have been 5 or so. Well, they told me that if I didn't stop it would start to shrink and dissappear. Sounds stupid but my parents were smart. There was a family friend there whose daughter was born without a thumb. Guess what they told me when I saw and asked about her thumb? I still vividly remember measuring my thumb up against my other thumb to see if it was shrinking. Silly me always lined it up wrong so I was convinced it was! Needless to say, that totally did the trick. Pretty much stopped in a matter of 2 days of seeing her thumb!

Anonymous said...

Oh and the reason I would imagine the dentist recommends to stop thumb sucking is simple....It completely changes your palate. I can pretty accurately spot a thumb sucker w/a simple glance of their smile. I wish I never did it. I cringe whenever I smile b/c I know my palate is messed up.

What A Card said...

Yep, you got it, Gio! N-man is starting to have some rather pronounced changes to his palate (it's more oval/triangular rather than the normal half-circle). The dentist did say there's only so much we can do, but that it's probably the time to start the "broken record" parenting of constant reminders whenever we catch him sucking his thumb.

He's already done enough damage that he's pretty much guaranteed he'll need braces, but since TK and I both had braces, I wasn't really holding my breath any of our children would be able to avoid them!

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Heather said...

exciting about the house! can't wait to hear how it goes!

my sister sucked her thumb, but i can't remember how my parents got her to stop. she did have really bad buck teeth because of it though...