May just lost her last baby tooth. That makes nine teeth she has lost since coming here two years ago. The tooth fairy has been busy.
The first time May lost a tooth, I had a hard time explaining why she should put it under her pillow, but she caught on fast. She tells me that when you lose a tooth in China, you throw it -- up in the air if it's a lower tooth or down to the ground if it's an upper tooth -- and if you throw it straight, the new tooth will grow in straight. It must be true, because she's the only one of our kids who is not going to need braces. She had to have six or eight fillings when she came, but her teeth are straight and even. Our pediatric dentist uses white filling material and doesn't charge extra, so her teeth look perfect now.
May is ahead of Bess in the tooth department, though Bess is a year older. She still has four teeth to lose. She is waiting for those teeth to come in so she can get braces. Our orthodontist is very conservative, and wants kids to have to wear braces only once, but I don't want her to wait too much longer and be the only kid in driver's ed with metal in her mouth.
May's and Bess's teeth illustrate why you can't use dental growth to estimate a child's age. Based on their teeth, you might think May is older. But their height and physical development match their stated ages pretty well. Bess came with a note stating her date and time of birth; the detail leads us to believe it's accurate. She is just a late teether. At her first birthday she was still cutting her first two teeth. She lost her first tooth in third grade. Based on her teeth, we might have guessed Bess was younger than her stated age, but based on her height and development, this seems very unlikely (she is already in the 99th percentile on the Chinese growth charts). We're less sure about May's birthdate, but since she told the SWI her real name, she was probably able to tell them her age or at least what year she was born (year of the rat). She tends to run about a year behind Bess in growth and development, with the exception of her teeth.
I'm always alarmed when parents bring a child home from China and immediately want to change her birthdate (usually to make her younger) based on delayed development and small stature. Even wrist X-rays may not be accurate at this point. Teeth and bones show slower growth in children who have received less-than-ideal nutrition and stimulation. Most children make tremendous gains in size and development that first year. Although there may be an initial benefit in school of giving children an extra year of social and intellectual development, children who have been institutionalized often experience puberty early, which means some children who have had their ages changed are going to be going through puberty as early as second grade -- definitely a social disadvantage. Parents typically need to observe a child for several years before deciding to change a birthdate.
At any rate, the tooth fairy is happy to have one fewer pillow to visit in our house, since her coffers were in danger of being depleted.
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