Hey all! I thought I'd chime in here too! You're right, kids are def not able to take care of on their own... and I think Gill's dreads get extra flat because of sleeping on them more than adults do (although this is is just my theory since I dont have dreads myself).
Stuff getting in dreads was deff on my mind! I take extra care to put Gill's (4) dreads up when she's eating (especially things like syrup!!! omg could imagine!?) and I plan having a wrap on her head at the beach... pondering how much sand will end up in her hair.
Gill's never been one to dump things on her own head, but you never know what other kids are going to do. So it is something to consider. Gill throws up in her sleep some times and I was quite worried about that... she def did it within the first week of having her dreads....
it was very very very gross.... Far worse than the normal, cleaning up a kid and a bed in the middle of the night, I had to wash her hair TWICE that night with BS rinse. I pulled a few loose to make sure everything was out of them. And had to let her sleep on wet dreads.
I still felt like a few dreads smelled in the morning and washed (and soaked 3 or 4) her dreads AGAIN in the morning.
We DO meet remarks from family, but my family at least knows to make the snotty remarks to me and not to my daughter.
We've talked to her about loving herself and her hair and I really have yet to notice nasty looks or stares from strangers... I just got my first nasty remark from a stranger on Facebook actually (i'll post it later)... but again... it wasnt to her and she is, at least for now, protected from the remarks of adults that are able to self monitor.
OK.... totally just wrote a novel. Sorry about that... just throwing in what I've encountered so far in my short amount of time with a dread child 
updated by @gillys-mum: 02/05/15 10:12:49AM
