My husband checks our daughter’s mouth.simo every night before bed and says, “Open more. I need to see everything.” When I heard that, I opened the door knocking and running towards my daughter, but he wouldn’t let me get close to her. I started crying

“Wait.”

I opened it.

Inside were dozens of tiny objects.

Pieces of paper.

Small pieces of transparent plastic.

Pieces of eraser.

Small pieces of cardboard.

I stared at them.

Then I looked at Daniel.

What is this?

He didn’t answer.

I looked at Lily.

“Honey…

He covered his face.

Daniel said quietly:

“Lily, we have to tell him now.

I felt nauseous.

Tell me what?

Lily slowly lowered her hands.

I put them there.

I looked at her.

“Where?

He pointed to his mouth.

Models Anatomy

For a moment, I didn’t understand.

So Daniel finally explained.

Three weeks earlier, Lily had splintered one of her baby teeth at school.

He was ashamed of what he looked like.

Every time she got nervous, she started putting small things in her mouth.

A little piece of paper.

An eraser.

Plastic of a toy.

Anything I could hide.

Daniel discovered it one night when he saw her chewing something that was not food.