Comments on: Does Anyone Have “Clean Little Secrets”?

By: mjm

mjm — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:40:50 +0000

so I give my kid my own electric toothbrush and open my mouth for him to brush my teeth. this distracts him enough to let me brush his.

By: hd

hd — Mon, 05 May 2008 22:36:41 +0000

And also, Pili’s comment made me choke on and very nearly blow diet coke out my nose.

By: hd

hd — Mon, 05 May 2008 22:34:04 +0000

Lordy, I have missed you.

By: Donna

Donna — Sun, 04 May 2008 23:52:10 +0000

I can not pick which one you did not do, because I have done all of them myself !!!
What awesome pics of your kid!
Donna

By: Minnesota Nice

Minnesota Nice — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:19:39 +0000

OH mercy me! I love the new pics - he is growing so fast - looks like a miniature adult.

By: Homestead Mom

Homestead Mom — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:54:50 +0000

Um, I’ve done all those things at the end of your post. Sometimes in the same day. Bad, bad mommy.

By: Deb

Deb — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 02:09:18 +0000

RE: toothbrushing: have you tried with him upside-down? J. at that age would always open her mouth and laugh in that position and I could see her teeth (not a 2-parent family, here, so I would sit her on my lap facing me and then have her lie back so that her head was by my knees, but you could probably accomplish more secure upside-downness with 2 parents. We also have a toothbrushing song, which is just about brushing the top teeth and the bottom teeth and the front and sides, etc. but it passes the time and lets me keep getting the brush in there to do another little part. She has gone through phases of resisting it and being fine with it.

I have been wondering what age I could start using a battery toothbrush and am enlightened by these comments, so thanks!

RE: night bottles. I was lucky, because it suddenly dawned on me when J. was about 13 months old that she wasn’t really using the bottle to fall asleep. She would finish the bottle and then walk around the crib for a little while and then lie down and go to sleep. So I just moved the final bottle earlier in the nighttime routine, and now brushing teeth is the last thing before bed.

So my suggestions (I almost deleted this part, but then reread your post and realized you DID ask for suggestions) would be: try to move the night bottle earlier in the bedtime routine (it sounds like one of your earlier commenters does that too.) Or if there must be a nighttime bottle, let it be water only. Which he will hate, but not as much as he would hate having to go to the dentist for lots of fillings/extractions at age 2-3, anyway. Good luck.

Deb

By: Pili

Pili — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:34:41 +0000

I have a cautionary side note to add to Art-Sweet’s largely positive review of Dirty Little Secrets - the book sucks! Indeed, to call this string of quotations a “book” is too generous. I mean, what effort did these authors put into writing it? They didn’t compose the quotes, they simply collected them and then laid them out artfully one per page. For me, the grim un-funny lines laid out against a stylish pink background don’t make me feel relief, they creep me out. It was more depressing than cathartic to read confession after confession about loveless marriage and feelings of rage or indifference towards one’s children. Not that I’m a perfect mom, by any stretch of the imagination, but maybe I’m a Puritan, or a Puritanical Buddhist. I don’t think we should indulge the darker, more aggressive and angry parts of ourselves - recognize them, yes - but maybe we should spend more effort actively trying to cultivate the positive sides.

On that note, Art-Sweet says I should try not to be so negative, so let me take her and my own medicine for a second and think of something positive to say about this book: hmmmm…. I’m thinking…. I guess if you really take these women at their word they are trying to “puncture the myth” of perfect motherhood then their effort is definitely to be commended. We all could probably stand to cut ourselves a whole lot more slack.

By: Liz

Liz — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:27:28 +0000

On the bagel at the grocery front: we used to pop MM into the cart, go straight over to the organic strawberries, take a container of them (the kind that’s already weighed and priced), open it up, and proceed to let him eat the entire container as we shopped. It kept him quiet and we paid for the strawberries on the way out.

We’d also pay for the strawberries the next day…do you have any idea what a pound of strawberries looks like coming out? Yah.

By: antropologa

antropologa — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:53:19 +0000

My kid is 20 months and has a bottle at bedtime and then we brush her teeth (largely against her will).

So, with the toothbrushing. I got a motorized one, whateveryoucallit, so that I just have to get the brush IN THERE and don’t have to worry about also moving it around. And we’ve gotten her to think it is semi-funny to open her mouth and say AHHH and then she gets a turn when we are done. So her teeth are a little cleaner, anyway. I don’t care about the bottle.