My Weirdo Boy

My son has always been on the peculiar side - we know this, our extended family knows this, and many of you probably know it too. His peculiarity has made our job as parents more difficult at times, but also way more interesting and entertaining!

A battle we've had lately has been toothpaste. For some reason, over the past few months, his taste buds can no longer accommodate any flavor of toothpaste on the market. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

Obviously, the child has to brush his teeth, so I've just been making him endure the torture of bubble gum, fruity bubble, or the worst ever, berry blast. Can you imagine? Such an evil mommy I am!

When the girls left with Clay and Sandy I sent the only tube of kid toothpaste we had with them. I meant to buy some more at the store, but we forgot. So when bedtime came and he had just eaten a fruit roll up, I knew we had to improvise something.

Enter baking soda. I expected an all out fit of ridiculous proportions. I prepared myself for an onslaught of reasons why he could just wait until the next time we went to the store. I braced myself for any and all methods of refusal he might try. I was ready to hold him down if I had to!

Do you know that my weirdo child was happy at the idea of using baking soda? He cheerfully went to the bathroom and he brushed more thoroughly than he ever has. He liked it. He wants to continue to use it!?!?!

I knew it was okay to use baking soda sometimes, but all the time? I wasn't sure. I googled it and came across this insightful blog post.

And then there's all the sites that say how harmful baking soda can be because it's so abrasive. So it looks like he'll have a mouth full of enamel-less teeth that smells like poo if he continues to brush with baking soda.

Would that really be too awful?