Purple teeth and ............."other" purple stuff

Max is very serious about his dental hygiene. Especially since one of the kids told him that if he didn't brush his teeth that they would turn yellow, and if he still didn't brush them they would turn green and if he still didn't brush them they would turn black and fall out of his head.

Like he really needed one more thing to stress over.

For the last few weeks, all the kids needed to do to get Max to leave the room was to say "Hey Max, your teeth are looking a little bit green, have you brushed them recently?" And Max would run to the bathroom screaming "THEY'RE GREEN! MY TEETH ARE GREEN! I NEED TO BRUSH THEM RIGHT NOW BEFORE THEY TURN BLACK AND FALL OUT OF MY HEAD!!"

The only problem with Max's teeth brushing (or is it tooth brushing? I'm not sure which it should be. Pretend I got it right OK?) is that he is unable to use toothpaste. He just can't seem to brush his teeth without swallowing the toothpaste. I have tried on many occasions to teach him how to brush and spit out the toothpaste, but this is how it usually goes.

Me: "OK, I'm just going to put a little bit of toothpaste on the brush. Brush your teeth then spit out the paste."

Max: (brush...brush...brush.....)

Me: "OK Max, time to spit, lean over the sink and spit out the toothpaste."

Max: (GULP.....spit)

We've tried this multiple times, and it always ends up the same, so he just doesn't use the toothpaste.

This morning, Brielle, Aaron and Max had their check up at the dentist. Max was beside himself with excitement. He set out his clothes before he went to sleep so that he could be ready on time.

About 10 minutes before my alarm went off this morning, I woke up to Max poking my arm. I opened one eye and told him to go get dressed, thinking that I could buy myself another ten minutes of sleep, but no such luck, he was already dressed and ready to go to the dentist.

So I sent him downstairs to wake up the other kids :0)

When we got to the dentist, we learned that Max's teeth are perfect, however, Brielle and Aaron's teeth.............

Did I mention that Max's teeth are perfect?

Let's just say that Aaron is no longer allowed to eat Milk Duds.

As we left the dentist's office, they had a large jar of disclosing tablets (those fun little tablets that stick to the plaque on your teeth and turn it purple so that you can see how well you are brushing) with a sign that said to take them home and try them. Aaron grabbed a few and brought them home.

Max could hardly wait to try the tablets. We told him that if he would eat ALL of his dinner, there would be more stuff on his teeth to turn purple. (just one more tactic that we have used in an effort to get him to eat)

After dinner, Aaron and Max disappeared into the bathroom to turn their teeth purple.

A few minutes later I heard Aaron saying "Did you swallow the tablet? Max, did you swallow it? Try to spit out the tablet, did you swallow it? You weren't supposed to do that!"

I went in to see what was going on, and found Max standing next to the sink, frowning, mouth closed tightly with purple oozing from his mouth.

Aaron said "Mom, I think he swallowed the tablet, and there was a sign on the jar that said that you weren't supposed to swallow them!"

Max was then unsuccessfully trying to spit in the sink, he kept going GULP....spit, GULP.....spit.

He just didn't get it.

I asked him what happened to the tablet and he said "I swawwowed it."

I immediately went and googled "disclosing tablets" to see what was going to happen to my little boy.

The first thing I learned was that they weren't recommended for children under age six because they might swallow the tablets.

Really?

As it turns out, the tablets aren't toxic, they will just travel through his body and possibly dye stuff purple along the way.

However, there might be an ingredient in them that is sometimes used as a baby laxative. The site where I found this information basically said that the tablets were harmless, but you should stay home near the bathroom.

Did I mention that it dyes things purple?????

I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow.