To think that parents are responsible for their children's teeth?

[insancerre]

Dental surgeon on BBC breakfast
Says that nurseries should be brushing children's teeth
She is regularly removing all 20 baby teethfrom toddlers under a general and giving teenagers false teeth

I work in a nursery and I really don't see this as my responsibility

It's down to parents to take children to the dentist and to brush their teeth

Both brush that way we all know they are clean and the child benefits

I really wouldn’t want anyone else brushing my child’s teeth.

The difficulty as I see it is the more responsibility schools take for personal care, the less some parents do, claiming ‘that what school is for’.

There is always a fine balance between stepping in to help children who are not receiving adequate care and removing responsibility from parents who begin to take advantage and stop seeing things as ‘their job’.

Of course it’s a parents responsibility . Our nursery does get the kids brushing their teeth, but as far as I’m concerned that’s a good opportunity for the kids to get some practice at doing it themselves. They are my DC, I am their parent and the buck stops with me.

I’ve come across a number of parents who say their kids won’t let them brush their teeth. I’ve had this with mine, and after trying everything under the sun to get them to open up and get their teeth brushed, they both still went through a phase where I had to pin them down and do it. To me, tooth brushing, like having medication, is non negotiable. It’s what keeps them healthy and as a parent that’s my responsibility.

I'm thinking where am I going to store dozens of toothbrushes
How am I going to keep them clean
How am I going to stop them getting mixed up and make sure children use their own brush
I'm thinking when do I fit it in? What activity do I drop to give us the time to do this
Who pays for the toothpaste? Or the brushes?
I'm thinking how do I staff this to ensure adequate supervision
Sometimes we have 1-13 over lunch periods as staff have to legally have breaks
Who is going to pay for the extra staff needed
I've only got 4 sinks so what do the rest of the children do while waiting for their turn?

i just don't think I should be responsible for children brushing their teeth

Mybabystolemysanity

I'm in Scotland too and the childsmile officer at our nursery says not to do it soon after eating either. She says at least 30 mins after breakfast if you can't do it before.

Children should not regularly be eating sweets /chocolate nor should they be regularly drinking fruit juices or sugary drinks / fizzy drinks especially out of a bottle.
Brushing is definitely down to parents I would never expect my child’s nursery to brush his / her teeth. Poor teeth in my opinion has a direct correlation to a regular poor diet and that is half the battle.
My little one hates their teeth being brushed but it’s part of the night time / morning routine and we play a game of teeth tickling.
There has been times it’s not really worked but I don’t stress too much about it as they generally only drink water and do not have regular sweets.. I do worry about fruit acids tho as we consume a lot of fruit.. as in actual fruit not juices.
Definitely not a nursery responsibility to actually brush ..although fun games / songs about teeth brushing etc could help educate.

Royalcoronation
No, I'm in this job for the money and the perks, obviously

I liked that Charlie tried to emphasis his point about if parents really don't know that their kids should be visiting a dentist regularly or in fact brushing their teeth. It's such a simple and fundamental part of parenting.

I don't understand parents who don't supervise their kids teeth brushing, not necessarily every time but surely at bedtime?

I still brush my 6 years old teeth for him after he has had his go with the brush.

The cheapest brush and paste can be bought for pennies and it's 4 minutes out of your day, if they don't ensure it's done it is nothing but laziness on the parents part and nothing to do with education.

I don't think anyone is suggesting move responsibility for this to an outside party. It's an additional measure to support children.

Yanbu...this is absolutely the parents responsibility. There is no reason why the children's teeth cannot be brushed before and after nursery.

It should be parents responsibility and actually id rather a nursery or school didn't brush my sons teeth as I don't know if the brush they use is clean and hasn't been used by someone else. I also brush them morning and night and don't want them brushed an hour after I've done it as it's not good for his teeth.

If a child is in a setting for a long day with all their naps and meals there then I can see the argument and obviously in settings where children stay overnight as in some nurseries but when does it stop? Would it be expected if a child is in a pre-school 5 mornings or afternoons a week or in reception at school or shall we go all the way up to secondary school?

Wouldn't it be better to support parents in learning what is involved in parenting?

Things you mention aren’t exactly insurmountable though are they?

I'm a nursery nurse and completely agree with you OP, the role of a nursery worker is close enough to a teachers without the higher pay or holidays. Too much is expected. Personal hygiene is the parents responsibility. I wouldn't expect my children's school to brush their teeth. That's my job as their mum

Thanks Jasey

DD is too little to have got to nursery yet. This is my point about too little promotion in the very early years. Our health visitor has been beyond excellent, but teeth were only spoken about if I asked. She did tell me it was acceptable to get on top of DD to hold her down if that was the only way I could get her teeth done and I respect her honesty. I'm not sure if every HV would promote the technique, but perhaps as parents we need to know that brushing is non negotiable for parents and children alike.

Will be changing to pre breakfast brushing from tomorrow.

They don't have to be at a sink. There is lots of information on the childsmile website here are some models

Pretty much every nursery in Scotland has managed this without fuss. I have no doubt that the training offered by the childsmile officers has been a massive part of it.

I worked in a small primary school where approximately 65% of the children are Polish. Various reasons for this; good reputation for children with English as extra language, several Polish teaching assistants, brilliant sen but mainly older folk without small children living close by so although the catchment area is tiny families come from long distances to go there.
The vast majority of the Polish children's teeth are terrible because it isn't the culture to care for the milk teeth as the attitude seems to be that since they lose them anyway why bother.
The worst case i saw was a 3 year old girl who had black rotten teeth with huge cavities close to the gums and a bad case of gingivitis. Poor kid.
The parents all have fantastic teeth however so obviously they can take care of them.
This is not to say that the parents don't care for the children as they clearly do love them and I'm not saying that only polish kids have bad teeth before anyone starts bashing. I've seen plenty of British kids with horrid teeth too including a 9 year old who had 9 teeth taken out in one go as the family hadnt seen a dentist in 4 years due to moving about a lot and poor dental hygiene habits

Is this really new? I remember the kids having their teeth brushed in the school my mother worked in about 15 years ago. It was in a very deprived area with a lot of social problems mind you. Some of those kids probably only ever got their teeth brushed at school. I do agree the parents SHOULD be taking responsibility, but SHOULD and DO are two different things and ultimately it's for the benefit of the kids. I think YAB a little U not to see that.

Yes it's the parents responsibility. But if they don't do it, and the evidence suggests that this is often the case, it's the kids who suffer. So why not do it at nursery, it can't hurt. Watching the others doing it will encourage those children who resist having theirs done as well.

Things you mention aren’t exactly insurmountable though are they?

Ok, so how about you take the OP’s points in turn and provide a solution for each of them?

I agree with you OP, it would be a logistical nightmare. You only have to watch a reception class being taken to the toilet before a school trip to understand what would be involved in a task like this. Every day.

When DD was in nursery they all did their teeth after the breakfast club. Everyone had their own brush, never had an issue keeping them seperated as they were kept in each child's draw, a lot of parents provided their own brushes with the holder/cover things.
I personally found it a really positive thing because by DD seeing that other kids did theirs she was more receptive to it - quite a few other parents said it lessened the need for a fight at home!

Never heard the staff moan, it was part of their policy that was handed out to all new parents.

My DC (10 now) had to take a facecloth, a toothbrush and toothpaste to nursery in a named washbag. They made a big deal of teaching kids to brush their teeth and wash their faces. It became part of their post lunch routine. They'd eat, play outside for a bit then come back in brush teeth, wash face and then settle for story time every single day.

This hasn't been passed into law has it?
So no point in getting het up about it.
They are not going to force you to do it.
If the tooth police come knocking and threaten you:
Each child brings travel sized toothpaste and toothbrush with cover.
They go with their nappies.
Child's key worker takes his/her charges to brush their teeth at allotted time.
Pretty sure this is about instilling good habits rather than nursery taking over from parents.
Don't you do healthy eating, stranger danger, reading, play etc?

it would be a logistical nightmare