when to start introducing a toothbrush.................

[CvQ]

and do you do it with or without toothpaste initially?

Introduse a toothbrush as soon as there is a tooth to brush; no toothpaste until they are three or so (when they can relably spit it out). That's what I reckon.

When they first get teeth, I think. With a bit of toothpaste, you get special baby toothpaste, got given some in my Bounty bag. DD hasnt got any teeth yet, so Im not too sure myself.

When first tooth through. Generally. I personally would use flouride toothpaste (a smidge) but it would depend on age of child and whether weaned or not.

If still ex bf I would be more inclined to let them play and chew on one without flouride toothpaste.

Just give him a brush with a tiny smear of baby toothpaste.

Let him chew it and explore it himself initially. The chewing action will be good enough to "clean" in the early days. If he will let you brush then great. If not don't worry.

Oh and word of warning...when we first gave DTDs their brushes they we most bemoozed. Then we realised they had never seen one as we used to brush our teeth when they were in bed. I then got mine out and "brushed" my teeth with them and they soon got the idea!

The special baby toothpaste is a grey area.

Baby toothpaste has 500pph of flouride as opposed to 1000pph or 1500pph of flouride in adult stuff. BUT also the taste is much milder.

The jury is out on which children would benefit from which level of flouride, depends so much on individual diet, genetic risk, whether you live in flouridated area and so on.

However, for starting out. At say, six months plus, I would suggest a wee smear of 500pph 'baby' toothpaste, but there are alternatives if that doesn't feel right. You can go without and just brush. or you can get non-flouride toothpastes.

It is an individual choice. As ever!

According to the official advice, as soon as they have any teeth, and use baby toothpaste.

But what I do is start playing with them with a toothbrush in the bath once they've got enough hand-mouth co-ordination not to poke themselves in the throat, and gradually turn it into brushing over a few weeks or months. I never use toothpaste until they are old enough to spit it out.

5yo dd hates toothpaste, and our dentist considers it more important that she accepts thorough and regular brushing, than that she is forced into using toothpaste and rebels.

I mean that she accepts regular brushing without toothpaste.

I was told by HV to use normal adult toothpaste (but only a small amount) as we live in an area where the water is not fluoridated.

oh blimy.head is bamboozled with info but thankyou.
yes hes bf so i shouldnt use toothpaste is that right?

cvq remind me ds age?

10.5months slur

We were advised to buy a toothbrush and let dd chew it to get her used to the feel of having it in her mouth. She only has the front two lower teeth at the mo and we dampen it and give it to her for a little while before she goes to sleep.

You are bamboozeled because there is not a definitive answer to this. Even amongst health care professionals.

IN GENERAL.

• use a toothbrush when first tooth appears.

• use a smidge of some toothpaste on it.

RIGHT, 10.5 m

Use toothpaste.

He has other sugars and such in his diet and flouride will help prevent any tooth decay.

Use baby toothpaste as a default position, but as I say, jury's out on that one.

i havent until now because hes had such tender gums
but will get him sorted
thankyou!

Bless him, teething is horrible.

Yes get something. But I would consider it mostly like a chance to introduce something. So get a toothbrush, smudge of toothpaste and let him chew it and play while watching you brush your teeth. then take it away.

If his diet is ok then I would wait a little while before the (slightly) inevitable head lock position. sigh.

You are bf at night aren't you? If so, apparently it is particularly important to brush teeth before he goes to sleep as any other things hanging around on teeth (as in food, non bm) will make bf through the night worse for teeth.

If ONLY breastmilk then not really an issue, it is the mix of BM and other stuff I think.

(I think I got that from kellymom)

yes hes still feeding during the night.cant see that changing whilst co-sleeping

thankyou for your help though!

Oh I completely relate CVQ! both mine have been determined bfers all through the sodding night and cosleepers too.

In that case, apparently it is particularly inportant to get rid of days food stuff. I employ the forcing approach which is frowned upon but does job and the the many exciting strategies approach which works a bit.

kellymom

skip to relevant bit....

According to this research, a baby who is exclusively breastfed (no supplemental bottles, juice, or solids) will not have decay unless he is genetically predisposed

Much research indicates that it's the other foods in baby's diet (rather than breastmilk) that tend to be the main problem when it comes to tooth decay......

.... However, when a small amount of sugar was added to the breastmilk, the mixture was worse than a sugar solution when it came to causing tooth decay. This study emphasizes the importance of tooth brushing and good dental hygiene.....

hth.

hi i got advised by my dentist because we have no fluride in our water where we live to use a fluride toothpast with 1000pph. My son has had his teeth brushed since 6 months, i like to do them 2 times a day but some times we only do it once, now he's 14 months he's really good and will let me give them a good brush.

Loads of good advice here,...but just wanted to add a tip in case you meet with resistance to your helping brush, especially when LO gets a near full set of gnashers.

DS1 gets a new brush quite often as it gets chewed an awful lot. I made it a treat for him to pick the colour and open the packet (little things!). Also I have a quick whizz round after he has "brushed" and we pretend that I am the dentist checking/counting for new teeth in my super laid back chair (I just sort of cradle him slightly laid back) He also likes the feel of my electric toothbrush on his teeth/ tongue which I let him hold momentarily on occasion.

He happily will have milk teeth toothpaste or adult because my dentist advised I should use a bit of adult stuff as we have spring water not flouridated mains supply.

All this though from a starting point of him clamping his mouth shut at 6 mths (tender gums?), screaming ab-dabs a little later to brushing himself at about 16mths or so. Softly softly I would say..!

thankyou for all the other info.its really helpful.

Slur has some really good advice here. I would have to agree with her.

If they really object to the toothbrush then you can use a flannel for a while.

Also, I had 2 brushes for dd. One she played with & I used for her. Reason being that toothbrushes are excellent for teething, as they can get them to the back of the month, but thios makes the bristles splay out, so was unusable for brushing after a while.

If you let them teethe on the toothbrush, keep a close eye on it as sometimes the bristles can get loosened and pulled out. You can get silicone toothbrushes (handle and bristles all in one piece, not with bristles inserted in a handle) which are brilliant for teething, and can be used for early brushing as welll.

CvQ, thanks for starting this, DD is 27 wks and already has 2 teeth
PrettyCandles do you have a link for the silicone toothbrushes?

This and this. I got the small teether-style one in Waitrose, IIRC.