Time to call out shit parenting!

Teeth brushing as well as healthy eating is part of the early years curriculum. And repeated later in school with disclosing tablets and free toothpaste in some schools.
I’ve had 4-5year olds in classes with teeth crumbling away in their mouths. Some had parents with similar problems. Fear of dentists etc. Some Eastern European squash varieties are like a highly concentrated sugary syrup which can’t be helping.
Not looking forward to the prospect of having the kids spit onto the blue paper towel or inco mats on desks, I’ve got to say!

Our school told us cleaning teeth is part of reception curriculum? Preschool mentioned it was part of theirs too. They do it after lunch. Not because I haven't taught DD, I hasten to add!

Your statistics for extraction will include children like mine who were born without formed tooth enamel - in-fact, only one of his teeth has a full coating of enamel. This is hereditary.

I pay a fortune to see a private dentist every three months so he has less of the issues I had as a child. He will still need teeth removed at some point.

To look at, his teeth are ridged with rough patches and dark patches. He cleans his teeth every day and at nearly 5 has no cavities. It will only be a matter of time though.

We limit sugar at home, but school have cake and sweets for every child’s birthday and school puddings seem to have arrived from the 80s with plenty of sugar and salt.

Our DS refused to brush his teeth so twice a day we had to hold him down and brush them for him. I would consider this gentle parenting when the alternative is dental extraction by surgery! This went on for months and months but he now does it himself and has lovely pearly whites. I'm sure some people will see that as abusive but to us it was essential for his gum health and sometimes you've got to do stuff you don't want to for their wellbeing.
It is not the responsibility of the teacher to do this imo but some parents do need to be educated on gum health as they themselves may have limited knowledge on the matter.

While their is no excuse for child neglect.

I wonder if the increase of theses types of stoys, are down to a lack of early years perental support, toddler groups, health clinics ect, Community services, extended family support .
Is it a case of parents struggling with teaching basics life skills and not knowing where to get advice from, or not receiving basic information about child care early on, it's almost assumed every one already knows these things about child care.
For example they used to show you how to bath your baby in hospital etc. As when I had my first I had never even changed a nappy before, so i had to ask the midwifes to show me, (I felt very embarrassed at the time) so had to hit the ground running so to speak. However I did have enough support to get me through the early stages.

This is my experience too! Was just about to comment this. My memory is that children didn't drink water at all and I was born in the 70s. We also used to go and spend all our pocket money on chewy sweets that we'd eat all day while roaming about unsupervised. People are so weirdly blinkered about how things used to be. As if the 70s/80s were a golden era of parenting lol.

A quick google will tell you children's teeth are much better now than in the past.

I do wonder if it is because some parents see milk teeth as disposable - ie the teeth are going to fall out anyway so why bother?

Fizzy drinks and fruit squashes but all "sugar free" it's the acid that gets them. Most dentists say water and milk are ideally all a kid should drink. I agree the occasional treat is fine but I know so many people where all the kid drinks is fruit squashes and they say the kid "doesn't like water".
That would never of been an option when I was a kid dad was an extreme stinge who would never spend a penny unnecessarily he also had rotten teeth as a kid so I was basically never allowed sweets. Seems harsh but I'm grateful now, never missed what I'd never had at the time either.

Confused by the 70's/80's parenting comments. Water was simply not a drink in my childhood, it was orange squash or Ribena so strong it burned your mouth or fizzy drinks, everyone had a soda stream or the pop man.
Although toothbrushing was encouraged it was always straight after breakfast in the morning and much rinsing and spitting went on afterwards. I don't remember my parents ever brushing my teeth for me. DH's family only brushed once a day.

My parents and in laws thought me a tyrant for not giving my babies squash and accused me of pampering them for brushing their teeth for them at 6 and 7.

But surely things like population growth, inflation and probably improvement / changes in the actual extraction care are relevant in the rising costs?

God that's so sad. How did she get the point where that was ok?

Is it she saw her child enjoying it and he asked for me so he gave it?

Was it that she ate chocolate all day so it was normalised?

Many middle class or well educated people are very clued up on nutrition - but millions are not. The messages about 5 a day or limiting sugary snacks are just not reaching them in an impactful way.

And when I look at the supermarkets, ALL the cheap snacks on offer are processed and packed with sugar. An apple can be 50p or more. You can buy a whole pack of biscuits for a similar amount.

We used to have Dentist visit in school in the 70’s. They would give out toothpaste, brushes and stickers and teach everyone how to brush teeth properly. It’s a good thing.

Yeah I know someone like this. Idk what the kids teeth are like but he's been morbidly obese since a toddler and she gives him family size Haribo bags. I don't get it. Surely she can see how big he is?

The occasional fruit drink is harmless.

Was that fizzy drinks? Because I know they do damage teeth.

I was never or rarely bought a drink out of the house as a kid by my parents, but I did regularly have "healthy" freshly squeezed fruit juice, and I remember having squash provided at playgroups / holiday clubs.

I quite often visit cafe with my DC and we will have a milky drink or a fruit drink. Maybe once a week or more.

Their teeth are so much better than mine were at the same age!

We had a 3 year old in school nursery who had all of his teeth removed, even his front ones which were like brown stumps, because they were rotten.
He was thoroughly spoilt and whenever we did a home visit he was eating chocolate (I don't agree with children NOTeating sweet treats btw)
Mum never learned and once he was in reception, he had his lunch box with at least 3 chocolate bars in, every day.

They do because they're acidic. Someone I know was drinking diet drinks with no sugar every day and now has to spend 2k on dental work.

Honestly what the fuck is with people that constantly buy their kids beverages though? I'm not even old wasn't even alive in the 90s but my parents would never of tolerated "not liking water" hell no would they waste a penny of money on something as unnecessary as a drink when water is free.

Treat culture is a massive problem

I grew up in the 80s too and honestly, no one drank just water. We weren’t really allowed fizzy drinks, except on birthdays/special occasions, but everyone used to bring a flask of cordial to school and had cordial with meals at home. School used to give a glass of cordial with school dinners too.

My family certainly weren’t well off but I don’t remember ever seeing anyone having water as a drink on its own.

I think tooth problems are often at least partly genetic/environmental not jsut about brushing.
My son had an extraction because one tooth didn't form properly.

And there are many reasons why parents may struggle to brush teeth - it's not only laziness. The world today is very pressured.

My son had tooth brushing at nursery (apparently daily but I think it didn't happen every day). It wasn't supposed to replace brushing at home but just to help encourage it.

Also need to address the lack of NHS dentists for children.

We were taught dental hygiene at school to an extent and I'm glad. In fact I wish it had been more. My parents didn't teach me it properly because they were living on the absolute bones of their arse in the late 80s and early 90s trying to put food on the table out of thin air. It wasn't top of the priority list. I mean ideally they wouldn't have had to deal with being part of the vast unemployment and travelling miles out of the shitty place we'd been housed in to try to find work every day but we don't want to help parents have that time either do we?

My ds has hypomineralisation due to having chicken pox as a newborn, it made me super vigilant (and anxious tbh) about dental care and I check every day thay he has cleaned them twice and if he has a sugary snack he adds in an extra clean. He is now 14 and hasn't had any fillings etc but I stress that he will need something every time he has a check up (a dentist has been known to give me a hug once she finished checking over his teeth)

What I can't get my head around with parents not caring for their kids teeth is that it is subjecting them to a future of pain! Proper horrible pain. I don't want my kids to go through that if there is no need to and battling with a kid to clean their teeth is a small price, it's for their own good!

It really is failing on basic parenting, depressing.

Same ‘ few minutes’ spent on everything else that used to be done at home though. Basically carves into the school day..every day.

The issue isn't parents not insisting on teeth brushing; it's the breed of parent who just hands the brush to the 3yr old and let's them 'do it themselves' while parent smugly thinks they are making their child nice and independent.
Child then just chews ineffectually on the toothbrush and once the sweetish taste of toothpaste is gone, says they are done. The teeth haven't actually been brushed.
Parents need to continue actually cleaning children's teeth for them
much longer than a lot of parents realise.
Fine to let them have a go themselves to practice, but you the parent need to do some brushing first to ensure all the teeth actually got brushed - til they are like about age 8!!
5 and 6 year olds don't brush their own teeth well no matter what parents think.