I have two areas of concern and would love your advice.
First, I have been avoiding church because I didn't want to leave L in the daycare. I finally felt like we were at the point in our attachment where I could. I dropped E and L off in the same room and neither one noticed or cared I was leaving. But when I came back to pick them up E ran over to me to be held, but L didn't. In fact, she refused to come back to me. She fell on the floor and started crying. I know she had fun (she got chocolate donuts thanks to my Aunt T, which she has never had in my presence). But is that a normal reaction for her age? Or is that a sign of something else? I hate that this is something I have to worry about, but it is a real concern for me. I am going to go again this week and see what she does. If she has the same reaction we may have to forgo church for a while. :/
Second, she HATES getting her teeth brushed. When I say HATES, I mean it. She is in hysteria. Mainly when I get to the front top teeth. I have tried waiting until she calms down and continuing. That just draws out the process. I always give her the toothbrush after I'm done so she can "brush" her teeth. I have tried letting her brush my teeth. I always show her how I brush my teeth. E goes first and does great. L watches her the whole time. I just don't know what to do.
Help!!
We went through the teeth-brushing resistance for quite a while. This is totally normal. We just kept at it, and even held her down if need be (I hated doing this, but with her weird teeth, dental hygiene is something we cannot dismiss). After a while things started to get a little better. I would always give her the option of doing it herself, or mama and dada would have to do it (usually meaning we'd have to pin her down). Eventually she started to choose doing it herself b/c she knew what would happen otherwise. Of course she didn't do that great a job, so we would have to convince her to go back over some spots, sometimes having to do that ourselves if she didn't cooperate. Gradually she got better and better. Now she is great at brushing her teeth. Flossing....now that is still a pinning down situation.
ReplyDeleteWhat really helped, I think, is that we let her brush her teeth while we are laying in bed reading stories. So it is not the complete focus and she will brush a lot longer that way. Sometimes she ends up chewing on the brush a lot, but that is still a type of "brushing" so I let her do it for a bit. We use Jason Naturals toothpaste (from BRU/TRU) and it is safe to swallow, so we don't worry about the spitting thing yet. I always let her drink water after she's done.
It also took us like 4 different toothpastes before we found one she liked. Do you think Lou might not like her toothpaste?