TTMA Tooth Brushing

[mrsdee1982]

C has 2 1/2 teeth now.  How do I brush them?  What do I use?  When do I do this?  Help me out here J15ers!  

[beersandweirs]

We are still just brushing with water over here. We have her 1 year appt and a dentist appt coming up, so if they tell me differently I will start doing that.

[purple]

A week ago, L was still toothless. Now she has five and number six is very close. So we're pretty new to this.

We have the very soft brush and mild toothpaste with fluoride which are recommended here. For a while, we've been giving her her toothbrush to play with whilst we brush our teeth in the mornings. So she's used to chewing her brush and she thinks it's great fun to be doing what Mummy or Daddy is doing.

Now that she has teeth, we put the merest smear of paste on the brush, sit her on our lap, and attempt to brush. That usually lasts about thirty seconds, then she sits on the floor and carries on chewing the brush whilst I do my teeth.

The paediatric dentist recommended this approach and it seems to work at the moment.

[belle0720]

purple L cut her first 5 teeth all in one week!? Wow! I wonder if G will be like this. Still no sign of teeth here!

I had bought Jack n' Jill silicone finger brushes and calendula toothpaste a while back when a baby store was closing down. Haven't had the opportunity to use them yet LOL.

[erbear]

We use a baby toothbrush and toms toothpaste. LO loves it!

[heartofglass]

We use a baby brush with extra soft bristles and kids toothpaste with fluoride. It's a fight. He's only interested in chewing on the handle and banging it on things.

The ADA recently changed their recommendations for babies and have switched to a tiny smear of a fluoride toothpaste due to rising caries rates. My pediatrician has also recommended a fluoride varnish at every 3 month visit since A's first teeth came in.

[pghtruelove]

We use one of the things that goes on the finger and fluoride toothpaste. Jules loves that she can bite my finger during.

[jillywilly]

Special snowflake question re: toothpaste. Do you try to get LO to spit it out? Or are they ok to just eat the tiny dab of kids toothpaste? We're behind on the brushing game, I've been meaning to get DS a banana toothbrush a friend raved to me about, but I don't think it uses toothpaste...

[mrsmonogrammed]

May 23, 2016 19:17:01 GMT -5 jillywilly said:

Special snowflake question re: toothpaste. Do you try to get LO to spit it out? Or are they ok to just eat the tiny dab of kids toothpaste? We're behind on the brushing game, I've been meaning to get DS a banana toothbrush a friend raved to me about, but I don't think it uses toothpaste...

I was under the impression this was the reason not to use Flouride toothpaste until they know how to spit it out. We just use the brush and water, but FTM so maybe someone has a better answer for you!

[turtle]

I brush A's teeth every night after his last bottle. We have a fluoride free toothpaste but he drinks fluorinated water so I don't really know that it matters. He used to love getting his teeth brushed but lately has been fussy about it.

[carolyngrace]

Am I the only one not really brushing LOs teeth yet? I do it with water, with my brush, sometimes when he's around when I'm brushing. But he played with, and lost, his brush months before he had teeth. Guess I need to get on that.

[3dimesdown]

We suck at remembering to brush her teeth, so we usually only actually do it once a day if I remember at all. Tiny, soft tooth brush and kids toothpaste with fluoride. I can usually get her top teeth pretty well, but she always bites when I'm doing the bottom.

[wegrowsheep]

May 23, 2016 21:21:20 GMT -5 carolyngrace said:

Am I the only one not really brushing LOs teeth yet? I do it with water, with my brush, sometimes when he's around when I'm brushing. But he played with, and lost, his brush months before he had teeth. Guess I need to get on that.

+1

[purple]

May 23, 2016 18:26:35 GMT -5 belle0720 said:

purple L cut her first 5 teeth all in one week!? Wow! I wonder if G will be like this. Still no sign of teeth here!

I had bought Jack n' Jill silicone finger brushes and calendula toothpaste a while back when a baby store was closing down. Haven't had the opportunity to use them yet LOL.

Yes, it was mad. She's had teething symptoms since she was nine weeks old with nothing to show for it. Ten days ago she had a few episodes of really sore teeth - after painkillers she slept for hours. We noticed that there were six teeth imminent at that point. Then she just popped them out over the course of a few days.

[Deleted]

I give her a baby toothbrush and let her just suck on it and chomp on it for a minute. Just so she gets the hang of the routine. She only has 3 teeth so there isn't much to brush yet

[Widget123]

I have been pretty bad with brushing LO's teeth, but I don't feel too bad because he only has two and then another four that just started popping out recently. I will probably switch from the finger toothbrush to a real soft bristle kids brush and use DD's fluoride free toothpaste.

I am also one of the STM that hasn't taken her older LO to the dentist yet, let alone this one. Ooops.

[islandgirl14]

May 23, 2016 18:50:21 GMT -5 pghtruelove said:

We use one of the things that goes on the finger and fluoride toothpaste. Jules loves that she can bite my finger during.

This! We have a finger toothbrush and use Tom's toothpaste (just a sliver is all you need). We brush once per day at night (should probably do more though...but...). But yes I second that there is a lot of biting that happens, so be forewarned. I can't remember when we started using a regular toothbrush with DS1... I feel like maybe somewhere around 18-24 months or so.

[mrsdee1982]

Thank you guys so much! I have a feeling this is going to be an interesting battle.