My 3 year old won't spit out the toothpaste. Is this O.K ??

[mummyloveslucy]

My 3 year old always swollows the toothpaste and never spits it out. I've tried to show her but she swallows it then pretends to spit it in the sink. She has verbal dyspraxia and so has co-ordination difficulties in this area.
I've recently read that doing this can cause problems and eating the fluride can cause an increase of tooth development. Is this complete rubbish ?
If anyone has any tips as to how to get her to spit it out then PLEASE let me know. Thanks.

my dd doesn't spit it out either, and she's 4. I don't worry - I reckon they must make kids toothpaste with this in mind!

My ds used to do this so I started using the foulest tasting toothpaste I could get my hands on. Too much flouride causes black adult teeth and can affect the bones but I doubt that she'll be swallowing a massive dose. You could try a low flouride toothpaste or mark a target in the sink and get her to aim at it.

I hope it is, My dd 5 has done this since the age of 2!

Mine swallows too (she's two).

I swallowed until I was in my teens and my teeth are fine (never even had a filling)

DD swallows her toothpaste too, she is 3.3

I seem to remember DS got the hang of spitting it out sometime between the age of 3 and 4. I remember when we saw the dentist when he was 2.6, the dentist said his teeth showed signs of being exposed to too much flouride (no discoulouring I could see, just something about the texture the dentist could see). Dentist didn't mention it last check up when DS was 4.6.

I was told by dentist that this is why you should use toothpaste marketed as suitable for those under 6. These are actually designed NOT to be spat out!

I think this is fairly normal! TBH my 9yo has only just got the hang of it! I wouldn't worry. As long as it's specially designed for young children they will be thinking of that and it will have low (or no?) fluoride.

We used to live in an area where they had fluoride in the water and were told to use low fluoride toothpaste AND get DC to spit out.

Now we've moved we're told to get DC to swallow their toothpaste as we don't have fluoride in our water.

DS swallows his as well but we use organic fluoride free toothpaste so don't mind.

Try using a low fluoride, that doesn't froth much, then wont be much to swallow.
Xylitol is also something to look for, it decreases the bacteria, so then the fluoride is more effective at protecting so you don't need as much toothpaste.

www.brushbaby.co.uk/ do a really good one!

It think it's okay for children's toothpaste, from what's been said upthread.

I have a friend, though, who used to swallow a lot of toothpaste when she was a child. She has said that it was adult toothpaste - her teeth are severely mottled due to over-fluoridation. She grew up in the 1980s in an area where the water already contains fluoride (don't know if this is the case everywhere). It's cost her a fortune in cosmetic dentistry treatment to whiten her teeth.

It's around 5or 6 they can manage it. That's why kids toothpaste is marketed as suitable for infants-6yrs old. It has less fluoride in it.