For the big little, teeth seem to be a problem.

She's at that age where her final round of primary teeth are going to erupt and be replaced with permanent teeth. In the last week or so, she's lost three other teeth, with the last dental visit extraction included. Her lower cuspids were both freed within a day of each other, with nothing but "hey look!" 

Over the weekend, she brought a little sliver of tooth she'd dislodged while flossing. Nothing to be done on Saturday night, ma pledged to drop a note to the dentist and get some advice. Today she heard back that there's an opening and we took it.

It's a small journey to the pediatric dentist we visit. So ma ran early to grab the girl from school and head to the dentist. They found that the primary molar in particular was indeed broken, and was being ejected, more or less on time. There was a fragment of separated root still in there, and while it would probably come out on its own, removal would relieve pain faster and be certain. They're going to take some x-rays and assess the remainder of the teeth.

A discussion was had that there seems to be a possible deficiency. I'm thinking calcium, as neither kid is a big milk consumer. The little little takes more soy "milk," which we switched to when suggested that dairy may be a cause of some of his skin irritations. He used to get little bumpy spots, seemingly like a rash or batch of clogged pores, and eliminating milk and reducing dairy seems to have made that go away. She, however, seldom has anything with milk, except as a possible ingredient, or ice cream. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that she's not getting enough calcium, if the Dairy Council is still to be believed.

If there's a deficiency, there might be need to extract some or all of the remaining primary teeth, to avoid more breakage and pain. She's on the cusp, but it can take the next year or so for all of them to erupt naturally.

We've also gone through a little bout of bad oral hygiene, where "toothbrushing" is really more about spending time singing in the mirror than it is scrubbing junk off teeth. For the kids, that is. Supervised toothbrushing has returned before bed. We vocally encourage morning toothbrushing, too, but we're taking the small bedtime win.

Except the mouth thing, everyone's healthy.