What Happens When Your Child Loses A Tooth Away From Home

My daughter has lost 5 teeth now and has pretty much hit every tooth loss scenario possible--or at least, she is really trying to!  She has swallowed one, lost one at school and could not find it, and just lost two on our Spring Break trip.

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Dealing with these situations takes some quick thinking.  When my daughter swallowed her tooth, we had her draw a picture of the tooth for the Tooth Fairy.  We placed the picture under her pillow. When she lost one at school and was unable to find it, she drew a picture for the Tooth Fairy and wrote a letter to her telling her where she would most likely find it.

The teeth that she lost on our trip posed two different situations.  The first one, she lost during the middle of the trip.  She actually lost it when we were in transition moving from our location in New Jersey to a new location in Pennsylvania.  I had her put the tooth in a plastic bag so we would not lose it and told her that the Tooth Fairy could find her anywhere.  I reminded her to put it under her pillow that night.


Realizing that she may sleep light because we were in unfamiliar surroundings, I had her keep the tooth in the bag with part of the bag sticking out from her pillow so that the Tooth Fairy could remove it quickly.  (I, of course, did not tell her why I did this.)  Since we did not have one of the items we usually give her when she loses a tooth, I told her that since she is far from home, the Tooth Fairy might not be able to carry everything that she needs with her.  As soon as she fell asleep, the "Tooth Fairy" removed the tooth and tucked some money under the pillow.  The next morning was greeted with a happy child.

Two days  later, on our way home, she lost another tooth.  We still had quite a long ride ahead of her.  Since I always have some sort of containers with me, we threw it in one of our empty containers so it would not be lost.  Right now, it is sitting safely in the container on my counter awaiting placement tonight.

It really feels like my daughter has run the gambit with losing teeth.  We'll see if she throws us another curve ball!