dd, 22 months has lost her 2 front teeth whilst out of our care and we don't know how happened........

[TicTacsMum]

I am absolutely gutted. This is a bit of a ramble because I'm confused about things - sorry.

DD is 22 months and was being looked after yesterday by dp's sister who loves her to bits but is a compulsive liar. DD loves her auntie and cousins and really enjoys going to their house.

Anyway - I got a phone call at 1 pm to say that dd had 'taken a tumble' whilst walking back from nursery at 1130 and dp's sis had just noticed that dd's front teeth had gone when they got home. How can you not notice that a toddler has no front teeth?

I raced over and she met me where it happened as I thought that if I could find the teeth they might manage to re-implant them. I realise that it was nearly 2 hours later at that point but was pretty desperate.

Dp's sis told me that dd was chasing her cousin along a (pretty flat) path and she had fallen. I was looking around where she told me it happened and she was looking further up the path, near to some steps. This seems bizarre now. If it had happened where she had told me, why would she be looking 10/15 metres away? When she came back over to where I was, I moved the pram and found a (very clean) tooth underneath. I got her to go to the school to get some milk to put the tooth in and rushed to a local dentist but he said that they would never re-implant baby teeth and she would just have to live without these teeth until her adult teeth come in in about 5 years.

There was also a problem with the front wheel of our 3 wheeler pram, which is strange as it is a decent pram and can withstand pretty much anything.

I left dp's sis and went home with dd, absolutely gutted but as I started to think about things I just felt that something wasn't right.

I took the pram inside later to sort the wheel and as soon as dd saw it she said 'pram - fall'.

Dp questioned his sis about it last night but she is adamant that dd was chasing her cousin when she fell. She has only been walking a few months and can't really 'run' properly yet. We just don't believe her. She has a history of lying about the most bizarre things and we just feel that yet again she isn't telling the truth.

I cannot see how you can knock your teeth out by falling on a flat path. To my mind, the other injuries on her face are not consistent with falling over whilst running. Her hands aren't even grazed as they would be if she had put them out to break a fall.

We went up to where it allegedly happened with dd this morning to see if we could find the other tooth and as soon as she saw the steps (not the path where it was supposed to have happened) she pointed at them and said 'fall'.

We have 3 theories:

1 - that dp's sis didn't put the brake on the pram and it rolled towards then down the steps when she wasn't looking.

2 - our nephew pushed her down the steps in the pram

3 - she was being bumped down the steps without being strapped into the pram and fell out, knocking her front teeth on the edge of a step.

We realise that accidents happen and it abviously wasn't something that was done on purpose but we are so angry and can't come to terms with things as we don't know what actually happened.

Sorry for the ramble. Thanks for reading this far.

What would you do in this situation?

Bubblerock - where are you? Do they do implants in the UK?

Not implants, plates with baby teeth on them i mean.

I knocked mine out at a similar age (18m) and my adult teeth are fine. Rather splendid in fact!

Sorry to hear about all of this, I hope you get to the bottom of it. All seems v odd.

Tictac, I spoke to my Mum and she said I knocked mine out at 23 months, I also broke my gumbone which affected my big teeth. I did start to lisp so my, apparently, lovely dentist said he would make me a plate ready for school, so when I was 4 he made me one which lasted until I was about 6.

I have just uploaded a picture of my plate - feel free to right click and save it for future reference, It sounds like I was lucky to have a very sympathetic dentist - this was in the UK and 27 years ago so you'd have thought they would be able to do it now (probably a case of finance though knowing dentists today).

Thanks bubblerock - your plate is so tiny!

If the dentist won't do a plate on the NHS will will have to do whatever we can to pay for private treatment for her when it becomes necessary.

Good to know it can (and has been) done though - thanks!

Hi TicTac,
God how awful for you all. Know your hormones must be raging at the mo so you deserve a medal for handling the situation so well. personally think I would have slapped her about a bit, without the kids watching of course !!

Sooooo aggressive but would have been justified.

Like you say, do what it takes to make sure your DD gets the best. Get on that phone to some Private Dentists and send your SIL the bloody bill.

Good luck.

TicTac - your poor DD

I hope the tooth fairy will be paying a visit

39andcounting, I had to laugh at sending sil the bill. She is beyond skint and the only money she ever has is what we (and her mother) bail her out with.

I wouldn't really worry about the speech thing til it seems there is a problem, but your sil needs to tell the truth.

She may not have seen what actually happened. I would confront her. Say that you understand that she feels awful, she probably does, but that you need to know the truth and would rather she tell you the truth than lie, as that is worse. That you understand that accidents happen but that you wont trust her any where near your dd if she lies to you.

How is she, TTM? Keep thinking of you and her.

tictac.hiya. i know you are awfully upset about all of this,firstly please try not to worry too much about the teeth being knocked out,these things do sometimes happen,my own dd knocked a tooth out like this around this age. eventually she will get her second teeth when she's at school, just get your dentist to keep an eye on her.

one thing that strikes me when i read your post is; you don't entirely trust dp's sis with your child, you have not got complete faith in her ability to look after your dd. therefore, don't leave her in her care any more. when you leave your dd with someone, you need to know that if something untoward happens,they would act as you would in that situation. it does'nt matter how exactly this unfortunate event took place, or why it happened,but the point is she is being cagey and knows you are angry, probably because she was'nt taking as much care of your dd as she could have done. ive learnt this lesson myself with my own children,but luckily for me no harm was done. its not really worth falling out over,but definately don't leave her with this person again

Thanks for the recent, very sensible advice. I knew I would get this on mumsnet. BMM your approach sounds just right.

dd is fine. I'm getting used to the way she looks now and she really isn't bothered about the teeth. She is beginning to change the way she eats. It is amazing the way kids will adapt.

Bubblepop, you are correct about the way I feel and I am now feeling incredibly guilty about leaving dd in sil's care. Although there is no doubt that she loves dd and would never do anything to intentionally hurt her, we can't leave dd in her care if we can't trust her to be honest with us.

Aw, Tic Tac, really sorry to hear this. Is your dd OK now? What did your dh say to his sister?