We had our first visit to the dentist with the girls yesterday. They were both very good really. M laid back on Daddy and went for a ride on the chair but she was not overfussed to open her mouth and reveal all. From what the dentist saw she said that M's front teeth appear to be being pushed forward a bit and did she suck her thumb/ have a dummy? My heart dropped, as expected she told me we had to get rid of the dummy asap as it was affecting M's teeth development.
E was a good little girl and went for a ride on Mummy and with the promise of a Princess sticker she opened up for a full examinatin. Her teeth do not appear to have moved but of course if we take one dummy away, they will both have to go.
The girls are now 21 months and we planned to get rid of them at 2 years anyway, so you would think this should not be such a hassle but as parents we really have to steel ourselves sometimes to go through the nightmare of teaching discipline/ respect etc.
We faithfully came home with great intentions of the dummies being gone for good. I put the girls down for a nap, E, bless her got her Alfie teddy asked me for a dummy and I told her no, she rolled over and went to sleep. Beautiful - just how it should be! M on the other hand was inconsolable and screamed and cried for over an hour whilst calling for her best friend 'dum dum'. Unfortunately M has no special toy, the thing she loves is her parents and her dummy and none of those spend the night with her!
A and I have decided to wean the girls off, they can have them in their cots for a week or two and no where else (which means I have M screaming at me now as she is hungry and would normally have her dummy for 1/2 hr at this time of day). So step one has commenced and in a short while step two will and the dummies will be gone for good!
If I am honest I will miss having something that I know instantly soothes my babes and call me a bad parent but when there are two highly strung toddlers screaming at you it really helps sometimes.
