How to brush bubs teeth??

[Bronte'sMum]

My DD is 12 mths old and has 6 teeth. We don't give her any sugary drinks or foods but I was wondering how i go about preventing teeth decay. How do you brush your bubs teeth and with what? Seems like a silly question but she just clenches her mouth shut when i try with a gum massager. Do you use toothpaste?

what do other mums do??

Bronte's Mum

[Melissa1983]

i started brushing my girls teeth at 1. I just brought baby toothbrushes, and baby toothpaste. I only put the smallest amount of paste on there brush and just lightly brushed them..

Hope that makes sense and helps.

[Supermum]

Hi Bronte'sMum

There are special little toothbrushes and toothpaste for special little people. It's all at the supermarket where you would buy your brushes and paste.

We do our children's teeth in the morning and at night. How long it takes you depends on how many teeth they have. I started by putting their hand on the brush and putting my hand over the top of it ... to get them into the swing of things. I also floss my children's teeth twice a week. I started this when they were very young so they are now used to it!

When my daughter first got her teeth, I used a soft moist flannel with some toothpaste on it and rubbed it along the inside and outside of her teeth as she too used to clench the mouth shut. It's a little easier sometimes to manoevre a soft little finger in there as opposed to a scratchy brush:)

I also have a tooth brushing song that I sing to them that kind of gets them excited over the prospect ... sad but true!

"When you wake up in the morning at a quarter to one and you feeling like having a bit of fun, you brush your teeth ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch you brush your teeth ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch"

Happy brushing.

[the_queen]

LOL that song gets used in our house too!!!
And Bear in the Big Blue House (a perennial favourite here) has a song too about teeth-brushing ("my favourite thing about brushing my teeth is shuka shuka shuka shuka shuka shuka shuka shuka":D)

Vallerie has always liked brushing her teeth, but I always brush mine at the same time - she's the kind of kid who wants to do whatever I'm doing..... A trick that dentists use with little little kids is "Can you open your mouth THIS wide??? Coz I want to count your teeth! How many teeth have you got??" etc etc. The more fun you make it, the less stressful it is for everyone (especially mum!;) )

I think the washing them with the flannel idea is fabulous too. Also, if she's eating cheese already, a little block (ie a small cube) of cheese after she's finished eating actually helps keep teeth clean, something about the enzymes in it, or it puts enzymes into the saliva which clean the teeth... something like that. Vallerie's dentist told me that, and also they did it at a child care centre she went to for a while.

[reAllytee]

You can even buy a little finger brush not sure where my sister got it just sits on your index finger & you can brush them that way.
Otherwise i found a set of 3 "brushes" at Big W but you can get them at Target also the first stage is a teething brush just a little stick with ridges then the next stage is for when they cut their first teeth it has longer rubber ridges then the last stage is a little toothbrush its a good idea as it gets them used to holding it etc. Ive used the first stage on bubs & am currently up to the second stage he uses it after his brekky in the morning & then as part of our routine just before he goes to bed.
So im hoping this will set him up for proper brushing with toothpaste & he wont reject it but no doubt he will :p
Good luck the others have given great advice especially the face washer if your not wanting to spend extra money.

[Peaceangels]

We too have a brushing song - brusha, brusha, brusha (you know the one from Grease).............

I do mine at the same time as the kids (so they copy me) and they have the little peoples toothbrushes (from the supermarket) with a little bit of toothpaste. I also brush the back teeth for them (they can't quite manouvre themselves that far yet).

They actually ask to do it now and do it morning and night (in the bath).

[Bronte'sMum]

So many cool ideas..thanks heaps. Will try all of them, especially the use of the washer at first, a special song and incorporating it into our routine eg when i brush mine. Hopefully she'll have sparkling , gorgeous teeth instead of the filling addled ones I have!

I didn't know that about cheese! Good thing she loves it!

Thanks again.
Leisa:)

[dentalforum]

Good luck, let us know how you go!

:)

[alicesmum]

can someone please give me some advice about this topic.

My DD alice is 16 months and HATES having her teeth brushed. I mean HATES. I started with her quite young (about 7-8 months) because she had 2 teeth by 5 months and 4 teeth by 7 months. For a few months she seemed to like it, or at least not mind it, but by 12-13 months, she was hating it and the resistance has only grown stronger. I sing songs, we do it while watching her little horsey carosel that plays music which she loves, and all manner of things to make it "fun", but it ain't!!! :(

I do it most days, but forget some days (probably a subconscious forgetting because it is such a chore). EVen when we do it i feel like i haven't done a good job, because after 15 seconds, she clenches tight her mouth and that is how it stays until that brush is well out of her sight!!! The only thing I have found that works is to let her do it herself, but all she does is chews on it. She loves to do this and will chew on it for 5 or 10 mins. So what i usually do is to let her do it herself for a few minutes and then i take over and get my 10-15 secs of brushing in before she completely loses it with me!

I just want a bit of reassurance....is that better than nothing? :confused:

WIll it get better soon?

[Artemis]

We started off with wiping her teeth over with a wet flannel when she was younger and just gave her a toothbrush to play with.. no pressure associated with it. As she got older we sat her on the vanity whenever anyone was brushing there teeth to come and play with us.. making up silly songs and talking about how we were brushing our lion fangs or our big gorilla gums... we had a bit of resistance around 3, but we were tell her that she needed to brush her teeth so that they were strong and healthy and she should let us know when she wanted to do it - I would place her toothbrush on the vanity with some paste with her stool and tell her to do it when she was ready.. and we would just make a big deal of how much we liked cleaning our own teeth etc and now we have no problems.. she typically reminds me that she needs some help.

[alicesmum]

that sounds like a good idea for older ones *******. thanks. i will will try them when the time comes. my only prob atm is alice is not standing unaided yet and doesn't understand words like teeth and brush etc yet. i have to do it holding her or her sitting somewhere. i have tried doing it in the bathroom, and showing her me doing it, but she is just completely uninterested.

i might ring my dentist to console myself that it's all ok to be doing what we're doing and maybe to get a few tips. would love to her from anyone else who had troubles with intolerant tooth-brush chewing toddlers!!!

[funnyfarm]

I read an article in this weeks new idea about cleaning childrens teeth. The following is some key points.

Dr Kim Carr is a dental surgeon who specialises in childrens dental health - recommends the following when it comes to cleaning your children's teeth

1. dont force it with children under three - they will just chew on the toothbrush. If their diet is good, their teeth will be fine.

2. with young children, make sure they dont eat too much toothpaste - too much fluoride can lead to fluorosis (childrens toothpaste has low fluoride compared with normal toothpaste).

3. Once they start cleaning their teeth themselves, they should do it for about one minute and up to three minutes for older kids. Parents should clean their childrens teeth for them once or twice a week.

4. take your child to the dentist with you from about two years just to familiarise them with it. At about three, its a good idea to put them in the chair for a clean so they feel comfortable with the surroundings.

5. Once the six year old molars are through, its time for an x-ray and regular six monthly check-ups.

6. Let your children watch you floss and encourage them to floss as soon as they are ready.




Good luck ladies in keeping your childrens pearly whites clean.

Janet.

[alicesmum]

1. dont force it with children under three - they will just chew on the toothbrush. If their diet is good, their teeth will be fine.


that's interesting!!!! makes me feel a lot better. :p

thanks for the info Janet! :)

[cobysmummy]

i give my 9 month old ( who has 6 teeth) his baby toothbrush and he chews on it and moves it around his mouth... i have just started to add a tiny bit of baby toothpaste to it
this is the best way at the moment for me to brush his teeth.. there is noway he would let me brush them!!

[AM]

I was having terrible dramas with trying to brush my 22 month old sons teeth, he would just clench his mouth shut, until someone suggested an electric toothbrush, and it works SO well!

We just got one for about $10 from the supermarket, and it has replaceable heads.

[pegasus]

I started brushing DS's teeth with one of those rubber headed ones not long after his teeth first started arriving (3 1/2 months). He now is getting his last teeth (the final set of ones at the back which are supposed to appear between about 2 and 2 1/2). I graduated up the toothbrushes (pigeon ones) as he got more teeth - they say which brush for how many teeth and we try a bit of a brush each night. He seems to enjoy it, but if he bites down, I take the brush out and stop for the night. The dentist told me that he shouldn't need paste till about 2 (mind you now all his teeth are in, maybe I should start using a small bit of paste).;)

[dentalforum]

I read an article in this weeks new idea about cleaning childrens teeth. The following is some key points.

[I][B]Dr Kim Carr is a dental surgeon who specialises in childrens dental health - recommends the following when it comes to cleaning your children's teeth

1. dont force it with children under three - they will just chew on the toothbrush. If their diet is good, their teeth will be fine.



For starters, I wouldn't believe too much of what New Idea chooses to publish.

Secondly, "A dental surgeon who specialises in children's dental health" is a fancy way of saying "A general dentist who has an interest in children's dental health". ie. they are not a specialist dentist at all.

Children should at least be given the chance to chew on the toothbrush, as it gets them used to the idea of using a toothbrush, not necessarily the correct methods, just the idea and familiarity.

Avoiding at least minimal cleaning for up to 3 years, and trusting on 'good diet' alone, would be a bad idea.

:D

[MariaZen]

My son is 18-months old and boy, how hard is it to brush a toddler's teeth?!!!. I always have to chase him up and down, do a sing and dance and sometimes, I just let him go without brushing his teeth. I figure, these are milk teeth, so I am not going to be that strict with brushing yet. I brush his teeth once day if I am lucky. Otherwise, it is four times a week.

[Bronte'sMum]

A quick update re how we're going with Bronte's teeth brushing dramas! After all the fabulous suggestions I started with the flannel which she just loves to chew on. i think she may be teething at the moment so she might like the sensation of it on her poor little gums. I then progressed to a little kiddies toothbrush with some baby toothpaste and we brush our teeth togteher in front of the mirror every morning before her daytime sleep. She's mostly chewing on it but I figure its a good start and its becoming part of her routine.

My biggest worry is that she'll end up with teeth like mine - full of fillings ! I also remember working with kids in a previous workplace whose baby teeth her black and rotted down to the gum. It looked horrendous and I imagine would have been so painful. Your teeth are so important and you only get two sets!

:)

[Elfin]

So glad to hear the flannel is working well, I agree with Apprenticemomma, the battery operated toothbrush was the only thing that worked for us. They also do a better job, I am using one know too and they do clean a lot more effectively as they just need to run over the teeth. My kids love theirs! They have just been to see the dentist, no fillings, just great teeth.

A low sugar diet is very important according to my dentist.