A dinner lady has pulled out my child's tooth, am I overreacting?

carlamarie_2

I am absolutely fuming right now! And my instinct is to go into school and have words, but I just want to check that I'm not being a drama queen about it!

Basically the story goes like this......
On Saturday my dd developed a slight wobble on her tooth, I checked this morning and the back part had come away from the gum, the front still completly intact, it wasn't overly wobbly.
She has come home from school today with a nice gap in the middle. I thought 'wow that came out quick' but she said she has banged her mouth and could taste a little bit of blood. She asked the dinner lady for so e water to swill her mouth out.
The dinner lady then said 'the tooth might go in your belly, so I'll have to pull it out first'
She then pulled it out before giving my dd any water.

We, as parents encourage the to kids to leave their teeth until they are almost disconnected from the gum. Then they have the 'joy' of pulling that last little bit and the new tooth is sat there waiting.

Now if the tooth had been knocked that hard that it had dislodged and was almost out, would there have been a lot of blood( dd said there was a little bit) and wouldn't it have hurt? (Again, she said it didn't and she's a bigger drama queen than I am)

Also don't you think I should have had a phone call, saying what had happened and asking my permission to remove it?
She hasn't even had an accident note sent home with her!

So whats your thoughts? Am I overreacting? Or is it wrong that a dinner lady can do this?

carlamarie_2

Also, I don't know if this matters but now she has a gap with NO sign of the new tooth, which i believe is a sign that it WASNT ready to come out!

lobbyludd

My children's teeth come out with little to no sign of the one underneath so I don't think that is necessarily a sign that it came out too early.

that being said, I'm not sure what level of first aid a dinner lady has nor am I convinced of the need for her to pull out the tooth so it didn't go "in her belly". I'm sure she had the best of intentions but I doubt very much the school would be happy with this level of intervention without parental agreement.

Your daughter is unharmed which is the main thing, but I'd probably go to the school when I'd calmed down and speak to them about it.

mrsmortenharket

You are over reacting. Dinner lady probably thought she was being helpful.

My older 2 children have lost teeth without the next tooth being ready underneath.

Perhaps just speak to the school and ask if the dinner helpers could not interfere in the health of the children & to send them to the office. The office will then call you to come & deal.

WestonDave

Probably breaches all kinds of H&S official protocols but in the bigger scheme of things helping a tooth that is falling out on its way as a motherly sort of thing is kind of what I expect of dinner ladies - most of them are parents doing a couple of hours each day for a bit of extra cash - without them the school wouldn't function and I'd personally not be making a big deal out of it. Maybe a casual passing comment to the class teacher describing what you'd been told and leave them to deal with it internally.

dandy-candy

I wouldn't see it as a big deal tbh. She may have been worried your DD would choke on it. I used to pull my kids teeth once they were very wobbly for the same reason, and they didn't all have the new one coming underneath.

Bollotom

I don't think I would have been overly bothered as long it was pulled out by a caring person. It was helped out more by a bang on the mouth. Some dinner ladies are maybe over-motherly but I should perhaps have a word with the school and lay down that you are to be contacted immediately by the school and that under no circumstances should any first aid be applied unless from a properly qualified person. And adult teeth don't appear as a rule, especially if there's been a bump. A year is not unusual. :cool:

Willowpop

The last 2 my daughter has lost, quite naturally, have had no sign at all of the big tooth underneath...in fact, the one that she lost before Xmas still hasn't been replaced.
I don't think I would worry if this happened to my daughter at school, the tooth was coming out anyway, and your daughter doesn't seem particularly bothered by the dinner lady's intervention so I'm not sure that it's a big deal.

It's probably not what she *should* do according to the school rules, but then teachers shouldn't give the kids a hug if they fall over according to the rules, but thankfully the teachers at my daughter's school do..so the 'rules' dont always make sense in practice.

However, if you are concerned by what she has done then you should speak to the school and have a quiet word.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I personally think you are over reacting...


In my opinion the world has gone mad.... with blame for this that and the other..


Lets go back to when Dinner ladies, School playground helpers etc where like extended family... and in my day we all used to call them 'Auntie xxxx' and if you fell or cut yourself, they would sort your cut out, and then give you a cuddle..


This Dinner lady sounds to me like she is a normal person... who was thinking of your daughter... and was worried she might swallow the tooth..She prob was treating your daughter like she would her own daughter...


This is the OS board... and we should get some of those OS values and mentality back.....

carlamarie_2

Thanks everyone for your comments.
I fully understand and appreicate that the dinner lady was trying to help my daughter
However on saying that I believe I should have gotten at least a phone call giving my permission for her to do it.

I've calmed down abit now, but I will be having a word with the ladies on reception tomorrow explaining how I feel I should have been informed.

Thanks again

ljonski

In my opinion the world has gone mad

And getting madder! God knows what it wil be like in 20 let alone 50 years!