Brush your kids teeth!!!

For those of you who don't know I have moved to Virginia and I am working in an office seeing mostly children.  I love it!  Kids are so funny.  All the time I hear parents say that their kids brush their teeth every day.  But when I look in their mouths its obvious they are either not brushing at all or they are doing a very poor job.  I have three kids of my own and I would love to tell you that they all have made it through life cavity free.  But I would be lying.  Cavities happen, they happen to kids and adults, but the fact remains, if there is no plaque on their teeth then there will be no cavities.  Cavities are caused by plaque bacteria and that is it (I am excluding developmental defects and genetic issues with teeth).  So how can you prevent cavities in your child?  Easy, brush and floss their teeth.  Yes I said floss!!  I love to tell my patients that they only have to floss the teeth they want to keep.  We will end up pulling all the rest sooner or later.

What is the best way to floss your kids teeth?  One method is to sit down on a couch and have your child lay their head in your lap and then floss the same way you would floss your own teeth.  I happen to like floss handles better.  There are several different types.  The most common are the single use and toss type.  They also make a handle that allows you to change just the floss head.  It really doesn't matter which one you get as long as you get them and use them.

When children are little I would say under the age of 10 they need at least some level of supervision.  Young children do not have the manual dexterity they need to brush effectively.  So please mom and dad, brush your child's teeth!!
That is all

Fighting the Turd.

I have a daughter who is a one of the biggest sweet hearts I know.  She is also "champion of the picked on".  She will always stand up for other kids who are being teased or riddiculed even if it's behind their back.  Because she is a sweet heart and a very sensitive girl she gets her feeling hurt easily, which makes it difficult for her when she stands up for other kids.  Last night I picked her up from the sport she plays, and she came out of the building crying.  She was very upset.  I asked her what had happened and she told me a story full of injustice and drama.  The story in a nutshell is this, she stood up for a friend of hers who is on the team, and the girl who was saying mean things about her friend then started being "mean" to my daughter.  This is a very common theme by the way.  I am frustrated because many of the problems she has she brings on herself by defending other kids.  I dont want to tell her to stop defending others because I think that is a good trait to have, but at the same time when she does she ends up in a bad mood or in tears.  In a moment of inspriation it occured to me that I can use her experience to teach her an important lesson in life.  I called it fighting the turd. 
One issue she had yesterday was this other girl "cut" in front of my daughter in a line they were in.  My daughter of course started it up with this girl.  So I told her that her decision to fight about, (not a physical fight) or argue about it was hers to make, and that I wasn't going to tell her what to do.  But I did tell her that if she wanted to take on this girl, who we referred to as the "TURD", she needed to expect to get some poop on her.  In other words she cant expect to stand up for others or herself with out a backlash.  I have found that in life we need to pick our battles.  We need to decide if it is worth it to fight the bullys and protect the innocent.  I happen to like the fact that she stands up for others, and tries to help those in need.  But many times that isn't the the popular way to go, especially on the grade school playground.  I could see the light come on in her eyes.  It was the first time I have really felt like she understood and agreed with what I had said.  I think that I have helped her understand that if you are going to stand up for what is right instead of being a sheep in the crowd, someone will always disagree with you, and that is ok. 

That is all