1st trip to the dentist

While we were at Henry's 18 month well child check-up last week our pediatrician suggested we make H a dentist appointment. I had already asked our dentist when we should bring him in and he said that they like to start seeing kids around 3 years old. But Dr. K said that recently the recommendations had changed so even though we felt a bit foolish we made an appointment with a pediatric dentist. On the way over Tim and I talked about how it was silly to take a kid to the dentist who flat out refuses to open his mouth when you want him to, I think Tim may have even uttered the words "waste of time."

Guess what? It was super cool! The whole visit lasted around 10 minutes. They said mostly the goal is just to familiarize kids with the idea of going to the dentist and see that it isn't as horrible as going to the pediatrician because there are no shots!The dentist was really helpful and gave us a really great suggestion for brushing our little guys teeth!

I know there are some toddler mamas who read this so I'll pass along the info just in case any of you have trouble in the teeth brushing department. She laid him down on his back (we brush H's teeth in the bath) and stick your finger back behind the last molar (so even if they bite down it doesn't hurt and they can't close their mouth) and then brush brush brush really fast. Henry isn't really a fan of this method but I feel better know that we are doing a good job getting his little teeth clean.