Pudding the Hippo’s Wobbly Tooth

Got a wiggly tooth in your house? This losing a tooth bedtime story follows one nervous little hippo across three wobbly days.

Story by the TalesKids team · Ages 4-6 · About 5 minutes to read aloud

Pudding and the Wobbly Tooth

Pudding the little hippo bit into a crunchy watermelon. Crunch.

Then he stopped. Something in his mouth felt funny.

He touched his front tooth with his tongue. It moved. Just a tiny bit. Wibble.

“MAMA!” Pudding shouted. “My tooth is BROKEN!”

Mama Hippo came splashing over. She looked inside his very big mouth. Then she smiled a very big smile.

“It’s not broken, Pudding. It’s wobbly. That means you’re growing up. A new big tooth is coming.”

Pudding did not feel grown up. He felt worried. He ate the rest of his watermelon very, very carefully, on the other side.

The next day, the tooth was wobblier. Wibble, wobble.

Pudding didn’t splash in the river. Splashing might make it fall out.

He didn’t laugh at his friend Reed the heron’s funny jokes. Laughing might make it fall out.

He didn’t even yawn. And hippos love to yawn.

“What’s wrong, Pudding?” asked Reed.

“I’m scared it will hurt when my tooth comes out,” Pudding whispered, with his mouth almost closed.

Reed tilted his long neck. “My big sister lost a tooth once. She said it felt like a tickle. And then she got a gap she could whistle through!”

Pudding thought about that. Whistling did sound fun.

On the third day, Pudding forgot all about his tooth.

Reed told a joke about a fish who couldn’t swim straight, and it was so funny that Pudding opened his mouth wide and laughed.

“HA HA HA HA… plip.”

Something tiny dropped onto a lily pad.

It was his tooth. Small and white and shiny.

Pudding touched the empty space with his tongue. It didn’t hurt one bit. It just felt like a little tickle.

He took a breath and blew through the gap. Wheeeeee!

“I can whistle!” Pudding cheered. “Mama! I can whistle!”

That night, Pudding put his tiny tooth in a shell beside his bed.

He whistled one soft, sleepy whistle. Wheee…

Then he yawned the biggest hippo yawn in the whole river, and he didn’t worry about a thing.

The end. A wobbly tooth is not something broken. It’s something growing.

Kids have 20 baby teeth, and every one of them will wiggle out someday.
Most children lose their first tooth around age 6, but a little earlier or later is normal too.
A wobbly tooth usually comes out on its own. Gentle wiggling with clean hands is okay.
The new tooth underneath is a grown-up tooth, so brush it well!

For more about baby teeth and when to see a dentist, visit the American Dental Association’s MouthHealthy site.