Thursday, March 29, 2012

The Bae Battle

If you were anywhere on the law school campus last night you might have heard it: an ear splitting scream, going on and on for a solid ten minutes as I attempted to negotiate with Mae over something she finds utterly horrible.  She believes that it's some sick form of abuse and she's pretty certain that if she fights me on it long enough I'll just give up and let her teeth rot out of her little head.

That's right, rot...  can you guess what it is?  This great struggle that last night was accompanied with plenty of tears?

She hates having her teeth brushed.

I got her a new Go Diego Go toothbrush and baby My Little Pony Toothpaste that she loves to carry around.  For a day that solved the problem and she tilted her little head back and let me brush her pearly whites.  I imagined she was shocked when it wasn't bad at all.  We'd reached a turning point, I told myself.

Then we went right back to wrestle brushing, in which she runs as fast as she can and evades me and then kicks and screams and flails about while I try to get the toothbrush to actually touch each tooth.

I think back to Sadie's not quite two bedtime routine.  Sadie hated having her hair washed.  But at least that was only once a week.  But she always thought having her teeth brushed was kind of fun.  Not so with Mae.

Mae is very into doing things by herself.  And there are plenty of things she can do by herself (she's awesome with a fork and spoon).  Brushing her teeth, however, is not one of those things (not even close).

I'm hoping we head through this phase quickly... but I have a feeling we may be stuck in it for a while!


5 comments:

  1. I have the same problem with my son (21 mo), but it's off and on. Some days he'll let me brush and other days it's a struggle. It used to be a constant struggle, so I guess it's getting better!

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  2. Do you know the under the knee trick. (It's really no fun for anyone but it gets the job done quicker). It's where you lay them out with their arms out-stretched (like a cross) you sit in a pike and put the bottom of your knees on top of their elbows forcing them to remain laying down. I learned it while I was in grad school in a nursing class. It is how you administer nose spray to a small child. It always helps with anything having to do with the mouth. Some people find it cruel to pin down a child but it doesn't hurt them and I've never really had a problem with it.

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  3. My girls have been the same way. I don't have time to barter with them so we just get it done. I sit on the edge of the tub, wrap my legs around them then with left hand hold head tilted back a little and brush away with the right. They scream and holler like nothing I've ever heard, but since they are yelling, their mouth is wide open and I have easy access to every tooth. Brush quickly and badda-bing we are done.

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  4. I got a finger brush for my 15 month old, because he would fight the tooth brush and I could never seem to get up by his gums on the top teeth. It came with some infant toothpaste which I think he loves. My almost three year old however loves to brush his teeth.

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  5. I will have to pass these tips on to my daughter, as baby grandson has just gotten his first few little teeth. She often has to throw her leg across him to change his diaper, so this won't be much different.

    Marie

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