First Loss

We thought it would never happen. Everyone has lost a tooth in Ainsley's school class. Her cousin, Kamden, who is 6 months younger has lost 8 teeth already and even has 6 grown up teeth in. A few weeks ago Ainlsey's tooth went from rock solid to decidedly loose. This caused her much anxiety. She got up the next morning and began one of her panic attacks. She paced and said she felt sick and didn't want to go to school. Her face was pale and her expression stiff. This was the first time this school year that she has one of these episodes. I was trying to figure out what was different this morning than every other day. I realized that it was the loose tooth. So I calmly talked to her about some of the fears she might have associated with the tooth and determined that she was afraid to eat fearing that it would hurt or worse, come out while she was eating. I couldn't get her to eat much that morning but I did talk to her about what very soft things we could pack for lunch. I told her that she could NOT stay home because I had an extremely full schedule that day and I really needed her at school. She went. She did fine. No more episodes.

It took a few weeks of constant wiggling. She was very diligent. She pulled it out herself after being asked repeatedly by her parents if we could help. She was NOT interested in our help, even though that is what her Dad does for a living. She did however embrace the advice we gave on what directions to push and pull and twist.

We told her to put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy but she wanted to take it to school on sharing day. I said to put it on her dresser then. She was worried that the tooth fairy might come and take it off her dresser so she asked me to write a note. The note said, "Dear Tooth Fairy, Please do not take my tooth. I need it for sharing day at school on Thursday. Love, Ainsley". We laid the note on her dresser with the tooth on top. The TF did not take the tooth. Then next night Ainsley said, "I don't care about sharing it at school anymore, I'm putting it under my pillow" I guess the wait was unbearable. The TF brought her a dollar.