I kept meaning to book Josh into the dentist and had brought him for a very quick consultation when he was about 2 but then over Christmas I spotted what I thought looked like a hole in his tooth so made one ASAP.

My suspicions were right but far far worse than we could have ever thought. Before I delve in anyone who has read my blog will no my children eat sugar, at Halloween/Christmas a little more than they should. We don’t have juice in the house so water and milk are their regular drinks of choice. Josh does eat sweets and honestly probably has something with sugar in it daily over the last 18 months or so..

Now bad parent altet, I was concious of his sweet tooth like every parent is. He certainly doesn’t have refresher bars hanging out his mouth and from observing wouldn’t have eaten much more than most of my friends kids BUT and there is a big but.

5 cavities needed, 1 root canal, specialist treatment required and all under general anaesthetic-I was floored.

As the news and the approx 4K bill sunk in, I just felt like a dreadful parent. We had assisted in this happening to our child. Both the intake of sugar and the delay in bringing him back for a proper consultation. My dentist had assured me that due to my weak teeth, Josh has probably picked up this genetically as it’s pretty unusual at his age which is why he would not have pushed for us to bring him in. However here we are, he needs surgery and we are just coming out of recovering from unpaid mat leave with a now 4K bill ahead of us!

We luckily got a cancellation as the next appointment wasn’t available until March. We explored a few avenues but went ahead with this consultant and her findings were similar but she laid out all options and suspected the cause was more to do with regular snacking on fruit alongside a weaker than normal tooth enamel.

We have another appointment at the end of February to determine the next steps and how he handles a fisher seal and take it from there..

He has been great about it, gone are the Friday treats and he has a full understanding that we need to be extra careful of sugar consumed. His resilience and maturity to it all he made us so proud.

So some tips, you probably know a lot already but based on what we have just learnt a quick refresh is no harm!

1. Obviously the quantity of sugar needs to be monitored but it is the frequency that causes the real problems. Anything that takes longer to consume-lollies, jellies etc
2. Washing teeth day and night from an early stage creates the habit so when it becomes more important it is just part of the routine.
3. Use a child friendly toothpaste with fluoride in it.
4. Regular snacking on fruit, especially-apples, bananas and high sugar content can be so bad for little teeth. We live in a snacking culture but fruit if possible should be given with main meals.

Josh showing his bro how it’s done… 💙