Toddlers breath stinks

[LemingtonPolly]

My son is 18 months old and his breath sometimes stinks.

When he gets up in the morning or if he had a cold it's very strong.

He has about 9 teeth and still teething. We brush morning and night. I say brush, we give him the toothbrush and try out best to get in we he will let us, otherwise he chews on the brush.

I asked the dentist at his checkup when he was younger and she said at this age it's about exposing them to the toothpaste and letting them have a go.

He only drinks water and milk.

I'm worried he has an infection or is this normal?

My son and I both get this when we're a little under the weather. Teething / a cold will trigger it. It's actually quite good because I know when he's ill!

The only time my DD has had bad breath was when she was coming down with a gum/mouth infection thing which is the precursor to coldsores (oh joy). Was quite nasty but she was over it within a couple of days so if this is a long-running thing it's probably not that.

@Comedycook no not acetone just foul

@Foreveranxious22 nope no thumb sucking and no dummy

My youngest gets this when he's mouth breathing at night due to a bunged up nose

If it’s something that persists after infection clears up - see GP. They could do a quick urine test to check for diabetes and maybe also assess the size of tonsils or look for other causes.

For us what made a big difference was getting an electric toothbrush and really getting into the corners of her mouth properly.

We tried all kinds of stuff to get her to let us brush her teeth but finally the only thing that helped was showing her a video (something short, we do an episode of alpha or number blocks but at 18m something like Peppa pig might work).

I don't know how she'll ever learn to brush her teeth herself but at the moment I'm happy that at least her teeth are clean and healthy.

Teething gives them bad breath , and colds. Don’t worry about pinning down it’s better than them having teeth pulled out that will be worse x