DD's first baby tooth fell out, but we've had a disaster!

[Earlybird]

DD finally lost her first tooth at school today - it's been wobbly for weeks. She was thrilled, and brought it home wrapped in a paper with a special sticker. For some reason she decided to wash the tooth while the nanny was cooking supper - and almost inevitably, dropped it down the drain of the bathroom sink. I came home to a teary and upset child who had only just calmed down.

She's gone to bed with a note under her pillow explaining to the tooth fairy what happened. In spite of my efforts to tell her not to expect it, she's fixated on the fact that the fairies can bring back her tooth - which is of course a completely impossible task for mummy or the toothfairy!

What can I do to comfort her? And what's the current tooth fairy "under the pillow" rate anyway?

u-bend?

Nope. It's gone.

Give her some money from the tooth fairy (50p?)and tell her that the tooth fairy must have used her magical powers to find the tooth.

50p or £1 here.

DS1 swallowed his first tooth and had to write a note to the fairy. No way was the fairy going to magic that one back under his pillow I can tell you!

I guess I can tell her that the fairy knew to look in the drain, and simply took it from there instead of from under the pillow.

Higglytown heros had exactly the same problem...They got a plumber in who retrieved the tooth from the u-bend...Of course that is just a dodgy cartoon...

£1 for a tooth? £2 for the first one?

I sent 2 of Ds1 milk teeth into school yesterday because their doing some project on it.

I've cleaned them with bleach and stuff....I could always get one back and send you it??

I wouldn't over complicate matters if I were you - just say that the fairy read the note and that was good enough.

i lost a tooth somewhere under the bed when i was little and woke up to find a lovely letter (that my aunt had written-i didn;t recognise her writing at the time) saying that "the tooth fairy" had found my tooth and here was my money and to be careful with it in future

The tooth fairy is like father christmas, (all seing and all knowing) and has special garden friends ( the likes of Fifi and the flower tots, Slugsy (sp) etc) who can retrieve her tooth fot the tooth fairy so it will get to where it should do and she will still get her treat from the tooth fairy. Does that help? (As a dentist and mum of young children I am constantly coming up with stories of the tooth fairy's challenges etc.

Ah - how sweet LTH. That's got to be a first. Don't think we need to have a substitute tooth. I'm hoping I can just put the money under the pillow and say "the toothfairy knew where to look".

LOL...as soon as I clicked "POST" I thought OMG....would anyone actually want a real tooth to be send to them??

It actually quite a mad idea of mine, isn't it??

MAD= gross...wierd....ridiculous....etc etc etc

hahaha lth! sweet though

How about putting a bit of fairy dust glitter under her pillow and a little by the sink to prove the tooth fairy was able to retrieve the tooth succesfully

ds1 has lost about 8 teeth and I haven't found a single one. God knows what he does with them. Swallows them I guess. Was given all those "my first tooth" weirdo jar things when he was a baby as well.

This (losing tooth and leaving note for tooth fairy) happens to Lola in one of the Charlie and Lola books . It might be a good read for your dd?

Sorry to disapear, but the phone rang.

There are some great suggestions here - thanks to all. And, who knew there was a book about this very thing? Amazing!

The tooth fairy couldn't bring back the tooth because they use them to build their castles! Everyone knows that!

Thanks to all for your suggestions. I sprinkled a bit of glittery "fairy dust" under her pillow and in the bathroom sink (of course, the fairy went down the drain to retrieve the tooth ).

Your good ideas averted a disaster (by any 5 year old's standards!), and helped me turn the situation into a positive experience. Thanks again to the Mumsnet sisterhood!