Tooth brushing

[dappleton]

Silly question but here goes.... how do you brush your babies teeth? my 12mo has 4 teeth and I feel I should be looking after them properly not just a half hearted attempt at brushing with water, but how would I use toothpaste, he's not going to spit it out on request? Again, apologies for being daft, really feel I should know the answer to this, but haven't a clue!

Just a tiny smear of age appropriate toothpaste. My ds has been brushing his own teeth like this since 6m...with last minute intervention from me just to make sure the teeth get a proper brush.

We had a 'lesson' in tooth care as part of our ante natal course..not much of it sunk in, as I think the babies must have been about 3 weeks old at the time.

However, I did pick up that it was good to do it as soon as they had a tooth and also, you need to choose an appropriate toothpaste - something to do with hard / soft water areas and whether your water supplier puts flouride in the water..?? I think there are two brands with different amounts of it in them and we were told to get the one with higher amounts in it as our supplier didn't we should get highest content..

Sorry sounding bit vague! Clearly I didn't pay enough attention! You might be able to pick up a leaflet from a Health visitor that can give you the above info or ask at your dentist ?

Anyway's I just got the toothbrush and smeared with toothpaste and gave it to dd to 'do', as someone else says at about 12mo, so where you are at.

She's now 16mo and we do the same thing (albeit the more teeth she gets I do have a sort of grab at it and attempt to brush around mouth) she does it whilst getting ready for bed and nappy change. Doesn't appear to be a need or bothered with spitting it out as it's only a tiny smear of paste (and to be honest I think she perhaps unusually appears to like the taste as she grabs for the tube and will try and put more on!)

She then does have a bottle after this so perhaps it's not what other's what call 'proper' teeth cleaning but hey I ain't changing a not broken bedtime routine!

They won't learn to spit til older, as long as you use a smear of appropriate toothpaste its fine if they swallow a tiny, tiny bit.

here is a good site

Try not to make it a chore, is good advice I think. You are setting up a routine for life hopefully.

Thanks to you all - yeap I live abroad so miss out on things like health visitors..MNet fills in the gaps in my knowledge quite nicely though . I'm off to find some baby toothpaste!