The moment your child announces a wiggly tooth, it’s time to begin forming your tooth fairy protocol. You may want to ask around the neighborhood and see what your child’s friends do to honor the achievement of a lost tooth, or you may just want to create your own family tradition.

The first thing to take into consideration is what beliefs your child holds around the tooth fairly. Is she a firm believer? Might he need a little coaxing into the realm of magic and make believe? Is he looking forward to a visit from the tooth fairy, or does he have some fear about this middle of the night visitor? Our daughter, for example, thinks the tooth fairy is a boy despite having three older brothers who believe the tooth fairy is a girl.

There are plenty of books to read with your child before and after that wiggly tooth falls out. I love The Real Tooth Fairy by Marilyn Kaye. In this tale, the mom “gets caught” and has to explain to her daughter that the tooth fairy takes on the image of someone the child knows and trusts. This way, the child will not be afraid should he or she wake in the night and see someone in his or her room.

There are some cute tooth fairy boxes out there. You can purchase inexpensive plastic ones or find some cute ones your child can decorate herself. For some children, the occasion is made more special with a tooth box to put under the pillow. In our home, we merely put the tooth in a Ziploc bag. Our children are excited enough without the fancy box.

We have four children, and every time the next child lost their first tooth – I struggled to remember what we had given the ones before. Decide on an amount that will remain consistent throughout the years and throughout your children. In our home, we also have a tradition where the first tooth lost receives double the money.

When the tooth fairy visits our house, she (or he) always leaves a note for our children. To help with that, I have several tooth fairy fonts I have downloaded onto my computer. It’s simple to type up a quick message and print it out after the children have gone to sleep. If you do a Google search for “tooth fairy fonts”, you may come up with letters inside teeth. Try searching “free swirly fonts”, and you’ll have better luck.

The hard part about a visit from the tooth fairy is that we have to stay up so late “waiting for her”. If you’re like me, it’s easy to drift off to sleep or completely forget about the TF task on your agenda for that night. Thanks to smart phones, we can set reminders so the tooth fairy does not forget to come. You will frequently see “TF” scheduled for 10:30pm on my phone’s calendar.

A visit from the tooth fairy can be an exciting event for a child. Make sure you see the experience through the eyes of your child and make it something special!



Amazon has an overwhelming number of choices when it comes to tooth fairy boxes. Here is a pirate or a fairy that safely keeps your child’s tooth until the TF comes to pick it up:


Here is a link to Amazon where you can buy The Real Tooth Fairy:



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