Brushing teeth in the morning

[NotMyMonkey]

Just wondering when your dc's brush their teeth in the morning.

Mine are all under 6, and are currently doing it after breakfast, but before they are dressed. DH thinks it should be done before breakfast. So on mornings he gets them ready DC's tell him he's doing it wrong and he battles with the 3 year old regularly

When do you do it?

On a weekday, before we go out - DS has breakfast at nursery

Or at the weekend, we brush after breakfast

After breakfast - no point in doing it before!

If I'm doing them its before breakfast, OH does them after breakfast. We do half the morning each so far our kid hasn't questioned it but he is only two.

Thanks Hero after breakfast makes sense to me, I don't know why !

I think I read that eating food means your enamel weakens so you shouldn't brush straight after eating or you damage the weakened enamel.

You shouldn't brush your teeth for about 30 mins after eating acidic foods so if they're having fruit at breakfast time I'd side with your DH. We do ours first because in our house it's dressed and teeth done before we go downstairs, or it'd be hell getting them back up!

Thanks everyone, nice to know I'm not alone. DH has had me thinking I'm some kind of crazy!

Winchester your DH is a wise man

We brush before breakfast. Mainly because DC1 is the world's slowest eater and if I waited for him to finish breakfast before brushing (and therefore also getting dressed, since he's sure to dribble toothpaste on his clothes) we'd still be sitting at the table by the time school finished. So on school days at least, breakfast is portable and we do that last of all, after toilet/wash/brush/dress.

Before is better. Once again, brushing teeth isn't to clear food out of your mouth, your tongue does that pretty efficiently. It's to remove plaque which causes decay and gum disease.
Brushing immediately after eating can contribute to erosion as you are effectively scrubbing off the softened enamel and spitting it down the sink.