Lost.....first baby tooth....

[The Nappy Lady]

Ah, my 'big' girl (5 3/4) lost her first baby tooth today - one big gap bottom middle and what suddenly seems a tiny tooth in the palm of my hand.

Wonder if she will time it right to be able to sing 'all I want for Christmas are my two front teeth' this year!

Beware of a low flying Tooth fairy in Nunhead tonight.

M

[snowboarder]

Blimey they don't last long these baby teeth do they? Honestly all that trauma and then 5 years later they just pop out....

[The Nappy Lady]

Lol....yes with about a month of wobbling first of course!

Looking back this feels like quite a long five years though I have to say.

M

[ryedalema]

Awwww - another kiddie milestone.

Congratulations - my eldest, having read way too many Charlie and Lola books, is counting the days until the tooth fairy makes an appearance.

(edited as I sounded kinda crazy)

[curlykaren]

how much does the tooth fairy leave now-a-days?

[The Nappy Lady]

Hmmm I reckon 50p for a little tooth and ?1 for a molar.....but I gather it varies....maybe it's a postcode thing like selling houses LOL!

Molly

[katgod]

Over in SE22 she pays ?2 for that precious first tooth, and ?1 thereafter, except when she finds the tooth has not been looked after properly, in which case the rate drops to 50p.

This is apparently a good way to keep 'em brushing. Has worked so far for us!

[ontheedge]

Don't think you lose molars they're for life so wouldn't advise rewarding their loss

Sorry think i'm wrong

[The Nappy Lady]

Hmmm, now I don't know about molars, thought I remembered losing mine, but may have it mixed up with having a wisdom tooth removed later on...does anyone know for sure (just curious now).

Did you know you get '5 year molars'? It seems most parents don't know about them, but my daughter just got her first one - wasn't too painful or anything so don't all cringe at the thought of MORE teeth coming through....getting them at 5 would suggest they stay for life, but her molars don't look as big as mine???

If she is supposed to keep them for life I will most certainly not be rewarding her for any that drop out!!!

M

[The Nappy Lady]

Ahhh, don't you just love the internet - I can confirm;

The '5 year molars' are her first permanent molars, and normally appear in actual fact between 6-7 years old, she's 2 months off 6 so about right)....They look so strange when they come through as the 4 points of the tooth appear first and the gum almost looks like it has been 'poured' over the tooth where it still covers the middle until the tooth fully breaks through.....strange.

Then front middle top and bottom come next, so we are just getting started on that.

Then the others working around sequentially each side of the front ones, right round to, and including the 2 molars they have from babyhood, plus another new set of molars that come up behind the 5 year ones (these should be the last at about 12-13 years old), other than wisdom teeth at around 17-21 years.

So, 20 baby teeth eventually become 32 grown up teeth........

So - now you know, 5 year molars are the first of the 'permanent' teeth, as a rule! Better ramp that brushing up even more - eek.

Molly

[ryedalema]

Are you going to keep them all in a little jar or something, to show her when she's older? My Mum did that for me and always promised/threatened to turn them into as little necklace - which I always thought was a little ghoulish.

She was raised in Kenya though so that may have been where thst stemmed from...

[The Nappy Lady]

Certainly keeping this one, not sure I will keep all of them!

M

[snowboarder]

My dad has kept at least one of mine in an envelope where I have written a threatening letter to the tooth fairy...along the lines of 'give me more money than last time or you will get no more teeth, fairy'....!

[The Nappy Lady]

Tee hee, that sounds like you Snowboarder!

[ryedalema]

Brilliant..business sense at a very young age! Demand or no supply.

[The Nappy Lady]

Hmmm, so got asked today...'what does the Tooth Fairy do with the teeth?' hadn't thought around that one so suggested she asks Daddy later. Any thoughts?

[Mamma Mia]

She sprinkles fairy dust on them at our house and turns them into a pound coin

[ryedalema]

She gives them to little children in poorer countries who aren't as fortunate as us and might have lost them 'cos they don't have enough dentists?

[Pickle]

She uses them to build fairy castles in tooth fairy land :)

In NZ when I was growing up we got 10 cents for a bottom tooth and 20 cents for a top one. Was hoping to get away with the same when my kids start loosing their teeth, will try to convince them that 1 NZ cent is worth lots and lots of pounds!

[Helen GV]

definitely uses them for building fairy castles from what I remember, don't remember what we got for them. Though I think back then we still had notes for $1 and $2 so it can't have been more than 50c...