Toothbrushing a baby?

[GuruLuru]

Now I mean the baby's teeth. Not the baby itself!

My 10m has 5 teeth now. Since her bottom two came through I'd been using one of those finger tooth brushers. She now REFUSES to open her mouth for this haha.

A bundle of questions regarding toothbrushing:

• when did you change to a toothbrush
• what time of day did you toothbrush teeth
• did you toothbrush when you knew tooth was coming through

• when do you use toothpaste??

Thanks one and all.

Never used a finger toothbrush, just let mine chew a kids toothbrush and got a few gentle brushes in in between. I did morning after breakfast and evening as part of bath/bed routine. I used age appropriate mint toothpaste with a tiny amount from the get go.

You should already be using toothpaste with at least 1000ppm fluoride. I never used a finger toothbrush and used a baby sized toothbrush with a smear of toothpaste.

As others, I went to a normal kids toothbrush and morning and evening

A normal kids toothbrush and children's toothpaste with a high fluoride level from the minute the first tooth came through here.

No need to faff with a finger brush but you definitely should be using toothpaste no matter what. Just rubbing them with a brush isn't cleaning them.

I started as soon as they got teeth. I do them after breakfast and after bedtime bottle. Kids toothbrush and tooth paste, fair bit of yelling some days but it only takes a minute so I just get on with it.

Whoops!!!!!!
Best get me some baby toothpaste and brush them

Hangs head in shame

Yep, it was a non negotiable here, and it was a bit of a pin down and shove the brush in when they screamed operation. Necessary.

We also used toothpaste and a kids toothbrush from the start. The toothpaste comes in different ages (with different amounts of fluoride), so you'll need the 0-2 years one. We found we had more success with a strawberry flavour then the standard mint.

Also, I now brush and do not offer any milk but water till the morning unless absolutely necessary. My friend's child have 3 fillings due to having the bottle in the cot at night and sugar in the milk attacking the teeth.

When able to of course.

@GuruLuru

Whoops!!!!!! Best get me some baby toothpaste and brush them

Hangs head in shame

Don’t fret, she only has 5 teeth, it’s not too late to get started! If she doesn’t like having it done, take the pressure off a bit, make it into a game, sing songs, make up a tooth brushing song etc that will make her smile so you can get in there. Yes it is important and needs to be done and with a bit of perseverance will become an easy part of your routine. Good luck!