Conference moira::parenting

My son, 13 months, has LOVED toothbrushes for months - basically ever
since he could walk in on us brushing our teeth...

He loves to suck the water off (and I'm sure the toothpaste tastes good to
him, too ;-). We just let him play with it and exaggerate what it is
used for - always gets giggles out of him!

Stock up on the toothbrushes -- we've lost a few of ours to him since he
hasn't quite learned possessiveness (other than "mine")...

As for your son's reaction - it probably hurts his gums, or perhaps just
surprises him when you brush for him. Try keeping the brush in his hand
and guiding it along, while at the same time, showing him how you brush
your own teeth.  He should get the idea after a few trys and not dread it
so much.

Now if I can only figure out how to get him to wash his own face (when I
try I get the same symptoms you described - total resistance)!

-Cori

    At 21 months, my daughter still has the same resistance to brushing or
    being brushed.  Like your son, she sucks the water from the brush.
    At least he mouth is getting rinsed with water before bedtime.
    
    If you are giving your child flouride drops be sure he only gets a tiny
    dab of flouridated toothpaste so he doesn't ingest too much.  My
    daughter knows she only gets one dab, even when she asks for more.
    
    My dentist, the father of three young sons, who has a speciality in
    pediatrics, told me not to worry if my child won't brush at this age. 
    He said the important things are:
    
    *  To not give her a bottle at bedtime.  The milk puddles in the mouth
    and causes swift decay.  
    
    *  Keep up the flouride dosage.
    
    *  Until the child starts resisting, you can clean the gums with a
    clean, damp washcloth.
    
    I believe it is wise to keep children on a diet low in sugar,
    especially foods which stick to the teeth.  Raisins are a popular
    snack, but I think they might harm the teeth if eaten too often.
    
    Oddly enough, my daughter enjoys flossing.  I give her a demo while she
    is bathing.  She only gets a few teeth, but at least it is becoming
    familiar to her...
    
    L

    
    My dentist suggested giving my son a bath at night
    after dinner.  Then give him a face cloth to chew
    and suck on.  That should clean his teeth to begin
    with along with using the fluoride drops.  
    
    
    

We didn't actually *brush* our children's teeth ... we made a game out of it
and "tickled" the teeth.  No pressure on the gums or teeth ... just let them
get used to the idea of the brush in the mouth.  At the same time we tickled
them.  In time the brushing became more serious.

Stuart

    My daughter started reaching for my toothbrush before she even had
    any teeth.  For some reason it seemed like I was always holding
    her when I was brushing and she must have thought it was neat...
    
    So - when the first sign of a tooth appeared (5 3/4 months) I bought
    her her own toothbrush and now she "brushes" every morning with me.
    
    She makes the worst faces.......but always starts grabbing for more...
    
    

    I remember seeing a set of toothbrushes at Child World or Tons of Toys
    that started toothbrushing in stages.  I think the first one was like
    hard rubber with some bumpy things on it, can't remember the second
    stage, and then it progressed to a regular, kids size toothbrush.  
    
    Someone else told me to rub the new teeth with a gauze pad to sort of
    clean them.  Another told me to give the toddler a toothbrush to sort
    of chew on.  By chewing on it, it sort of duplicates the brushing
    motion.
    
    By the way, he always disliked the strong flavor the the adult mint
    flavor toothpaste. Maybe make a big deal with the Colgate "sparkle"
    toothpaste, and its coordinating "sparkle" toothbrush.  Our dentist
    always gives him both at his cleanings.
    
    Lyn

   There's also 'flavored' toothpaste out there too... my wife gets
   bubblegum flavored toothpaste for the kids - frankly I don't like it,
   but they love it, so...
   
   - Tom
   

    There is also Tom's of Maine toothpaste for kids in Strawberry, Orange,
    Pineapple, and Banana. I like it because there is no artificial colors,
    flavors, and (most importantly to me) no saccharin. 

    After reading some of these replies, I went out and got some and put a
    small amount on Spencer's tooth brush (it's really just a knobby round
    thing). I was hoping that if he chomped enough down on this teether
    brush that he might break the skin of the teeth that are having some
    problems coming in. Worked like a charm, he loves the strawberry
    (personally? YUK) and he is really giving his gums a workout.

    			Wendy

    My 4yr old boy uses a brush that has a bell inside the handle
    so we can hear if he's brushing his teeth.
    
    philip

Or at least shaking his brush.

    re. .9: Reminds me of my wife. At one point in her adolescence she
    hated taking a bath so she'd go into the bathroom, wet the tub, and
    emerge wrapped in a towel -- only claiming to have taken a bath. Her 
    parents were fooled -- for a little while..... ;-)
    
    Mike

    re: .11
    
    My son tried that one on us last spring . . . I think he got away
    with it for about three times, until we started asking ourselves, why
    is he getting dirtier and dirtier? 
    
    --bonnie

    We make a game out of brushing Brads teeth.  I first tell him to say
    ooooooh and you can get the back teeth them he says eeeeeeee and we get
    the front teeth.  Then I ask him what he had to eat today he will say
    Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, or Snack and I'll say. "We got get that snack
    and we eventually get the whole mouth done.  He enjoys it and tells
    me when it is time to brush.  He also likes Bubble Gum Dental Floss. I
    have to get do it after he is done, and I usually go through the same
    routine as I did with brushing.  Brad will be three next month, and just 
    went to his first dental visit.  No cavities!!!!!!!
    Sasha

    Toddler teeth brushing, eeks!
    My pediatrician keeps asking me if my (now 16 mo old) son is brushing
    his teeth, or am I atleast wiping his teeth.
    
    At the risk of sounding silly, I have quit wiping his teeth at the risk
    of losing my fingers, as he has a full mouth of teeth.
    
    At 16 months is brushing his teeth so VERY important? I certainly don't
    want him to go through all of the dental trauma I have had to endure,
    but I don't want to become a fanatic.
    
    I have 2 brushes, one in the bathroom, so that Cody (my son) can
    'brush' his teeth when I brush mine. He lets me rub the brush across
    the front of his teeth sometimes....and I mean sometimes.
    
    There is another downstairs in the living room, which wwe leave about
    with some toys Cody plays with frequently. He does reach for the
    musical toothbrush and my husband and I do encourage him by saying
    'brushy, brushy'...
    
    Most days it seems like a game.  His breath smells gooky in the
    morning, and he refuses to do much of anything at 6AM. My inlaws, who
    watch him during the day,who aren't great in the dental hygene (sp?)
    dept, think I'm being unrealistic.
    
    **** To brush or not to brush ****  Oh if all of life's problems were
    so simple !   What are your views ??

    Sort of timely as my 3 year old has his first dental check-up next 
    week and my husband and I are going to draw straws to see who has to
    bring him.
    
    We started him out with a toothbrush at about 16 months.  He did ok 
    there for a while (only used water though - didn't like the taste of
    toothpaste).  Well in the last 6 months he's gotten horrid about it.
    It's becoming a struggle to get him to do it and he says toothpaste
    tastes yucky.  I menitoned this to my hygenist a month or two ago when
    I was in for an appt and she said that we should still keep up the
    attempts and perhaps look at different flavored tooth pastes so long
    as they have flouride and then she says "and of course ensure he 
    flosses".  I almost choked on that one!  Do other 3 year olds floss?
    He watches me floss (occassionally..) and I've offered to let him
    try and he says no.  He doesn't like anyone poking in his mouth too
    much and like the basenoter's child...my kids breath leaves a bit to
    be desired too.  Any suggestions?

    My son will only use Oral-B brand bubble gum flavored tooth paste.  My
    kids are HORRIBLE about brushing and (at the age of 7 and 9) have no
    cavities.  I think part of it is what their parent contributes.  I have
    no cavities and in the 10 years we have been married my husband hasn't
    had any although he had a few before we were married.  When they were
    babies they received flouride in the water and now they receive a
    treatment every 6 months - with the dentist pushing the sealant.  I am
    incluned to believe that if they are lousy brushers (like I was at
    their age) and they take after me in that their teeth are strong and
    resist cavities, I won't worry about the sealant.  I do insist on
    brushing at least twice a day.
    
    We gave the boys a wash cloth after meals when they were in their high
    chair.  Most things at that age went into the mouth and were chewed so
    I figured that was a little help.  We never pushed the toothbrushing
    issue when they were little (not until their first checkup at age 3 did
    we start insisting).
    
    I guess I'm saying that if they don't come from particularly strong
    [tooth]stock, I'd work at it now, otherwise wait till they are older.
    
    -s
    

We bought the NUK infant toothbrush set when Noelle was an infant.  There's
one gum massager for the toothless, an interim "brush" for once they get
6-7 teeth, and then a child's toothbrush.  I used to give Noelle the gum
massager on the changing table and she seemed to enjoy that.  The interim
brush was similarly mouthed.  The toothbrush, though, that's another story...

Noelle has had fluoride drops all along (we have well water - no fluoride
there).  And I use the Orajel Tooth & Gum Cleaner which she sucks off the
current brush twice a day :-)  Sometimes she lets me or one of her stuffed
animals brush her teeth a little.  Other times she actually does allow
the brush to meet some of her back teeth.

I'm assuming/hoping that the fluoride is the best preventative right now,
and that it's important for me to encourage her brushing but give her control.
So every night I ask her if she wants tooth cleaner and she usually does.
And I ask if she wants me to brush her teeth (and she usually doesn't :-).
BTW, Noelle is 2.

I'm so glad to see this note as I've wondered what others do about this.  When
I asked my mom about brushing or wiping teeth, she gave me a very surprised 
look and seemed almost embarrassed to admit that she didn't do anything.

And floss a 3-year-old??!!  At least it's a year off ... :-)

	My daughter is 16months old and gets all excited when I say we're
	going to brush her teeth.  She only has her 4 front teeth and she'll
	put the toothbrush in her mouth and kind of suck on it.  I try to
	brush her teeth with it, but she's not too cooperative and thinks
	"Okay mom, I'll brush your teeth then"  She has a lot of fun trying
	to brush my teeth.

	I'm trying to keep things light now, not a lot of pressure.
	So after we sort of brush I rub some of the Baby Teeth & Gum Cleaner
	from Orajel on her teeth.  I got a few tubes for free in the
	package when I bought Orajel.  I'm not sure I would buy it, but since
	I have it I figure I might as well use it.

	Oh, she also gets floride drops once a day, since she doesn't drink
	a lot of water, the doctor didn't want to count on the floride in
	the water yet.  But she doesn't like the taste of these drops so
	I have to disguise them in something or catch her when she really
	isn't paying attention to what I'm doing.

	I like the idea of a wet cloth after eating, I think I'll try that
	since everything goes in her mouth.

	Karen T.

    My kids are 3 and 6, and both brush 2x each day - morning and night. It
    used to be only once a day until my older son got his first cavity at 3
    1/2. We also floss every 10 days or so.
    
    Our dentist says that kids don't really know how to brush thoroughly
    under the age of 8 so he encourages parental participation at each
    brushing :-)
    
    One of the best helpful hints we used for toddler brushing came from an
    earlier version of this file - we would look for animals and brush
    them, choosing a different animal each time.
    
    Lynn
    

    
    	When Spencer started brushing his teeth (read having his teeth
    burshed) he always wanted to use Daddy's toothbrush. What started off
    as an indulgence has now become a convienience.
    
    	Using an Adult size toothbrush means that we get more brush power
    in each stroke. A few times he would choose his baby toothbrush to
    brush his teeth and after having used the adult size, I couldn't believ
    how ineffective they were (they all seem to have a total of about 5
    bristles on them). I finally threw out the baby toothbrushes and we
    just use Adult soft for the kids.
    
    				Wendy

    Having suffered enough in my youth, I am fairly adamant about brushing.
    We do it all the time for the kids ( 2.1, 3.5yrs)
    My wife usually has a big fight with our youngest, burt for some reason
    I usually get around the fight joking while brushing. I would say -
    brush, and find a way to distract the child, make it a bit of a game.
    My $0.02
    Michel

David (5) tends to need a new toohthbrush every month or so - glow-in-the dark,
sparkley ones, character (eg Muppet), or curly-handled. The variety seems to 
help - he looks forward to using whatever the 'new' one is. Colgate seems to 
make a variety of colours and flavours for childrens toothpaste, which also 
helps maintain his interest. He *loves* going to the dentist, and has been 
going every 6 months or so since he got his first teeth.
He does NOT floss - and I only floss his teeth if he has something stuck in 
them. The dentist hasn't suggested flossing for him at all.


Chele

    
    I have a 2 year old myself.  I just had my teeth cleaned the
    other day.  Our dentist had the following comments about
    dental hygiene for a toddler:
    
    - Besides fluoride, brushing and flossing, it is also important
      to watch what you eat.  Some examples of beverages to drink
      would be fruit juices, water or milk instead of soda.  Some
      examples of food to eat would be fruits and raw vegetables
      instead of cookies, candy and chips.
    
    - Support the toddler's head when it is your turn to clean their
      teeth.  Either rest their head on the wall, on your body or
      have them lie down while you are brushing their teeth.
    
    - If the toddler is willing to have you floss his teeth, that's
      great.  The biggest concern here is the size of the gap between
      the teeth.  The larger the gap the more food that can get caught.
      If there are no gaps between the teeth the chance of food getting
      caught between the teeth is not as great as when there is a gap
      where food can get caught.  If there is a possibility
      of food getting caught between the teeth, check regularly and
      try to remove the caught food.
    
    - Finally, the two biggest areas that are missed by a toddler
      include the upper molars on the outside by the cheek and the
      lower molars on the inside near the tongue.
    
    Just my 2 cents,
    -diana

	This topic reminds me of when I was first trying to
	teach Emily to actually brush (versus sucking on the toothbrush).

	I demonstrated brushing on my own teeth, and after 30 seconds
	of trying to make her hand move back and forth, she held her
	hand still and moved her head back and forth instead!  I nearly
	choked on my toothpaste!

	Now, at 2, she brushes once a day.  It's a big thrill for her,
	and part of our morning routine.  She gets lazy most times and
	just brushes her front teeth (slightly), then swallows her toothpaste
	and throws her brush in the sink.  Every other day or so, I ask
	if Mommy can help, and she actually lets me brush her teeth
	thoroughly.  Six months ago, if I tried to help, she'd wrap her
	lips around the brush and I couldn't do anything.  I dropped it
	for the time, and started asking about 2 months ago.  She didn't
	use toothpaste until then, but she loves it.  We use the same
	toothpaste for her as we do for ourselves.  Also, after every 
	brushing, we say, "Let me see your whities" and praise the
	wonderful job she did, then send her off to show the other
	parent her wonderful whities.  (I have to admit some mornings
	when she wanders up to me with this ENORMOUS grin it takes
	me a minute to know what she's doing ;-)  )

	Now, if we could only keep her from stealing Mommy and Daddy's
	"ready and waiting" toothbrushes off the sink!

	Karen

    
    Tom's of Maine makes 2 nicely flavored toothpaste for
    kids. One is strawberry banana and one is orange, I think.
    They came out with these maybe 3 years ago. My daughter, 9,
    has been using them since. They work well and don't have 
    saccharin or nutrasweet it them.
    
    Eva
    
    
    

	What about the issue of them eating the toothpaste?  I think it
will be a very long time (read: years) before my son (age 1.75) gets the
concept of putting this tasty stuff in your mouth, and spitting it out after
brushing. 

	Maybe this is a naive question, but when I was growing up, it was
always frightfully important not to eat the toothpaste, because ingesting
that amount of fluoride daily would be bad for you.  Or at least that's the
impression I got.  Is this another unfounded fear/urban legend?

	Right now we use some of that Orajel tooth cleaner (that we got as
a free sample, like everyone else), and Ben sucks it off the brush after
letting us do a little cleaning.  I don't want him eating a daily gob of
toothpaste though.

	Brian W.

    My son (15 months) does the same thing.  At this age they just
    can't comprehend "spit it out" (of course unless it's something
    you DON'T want them to spit out - like their medicine!).  I
    also use the Orajel gum cleanser, but alternately use regular
    toothpaste...just VERY little (since he doesn't like a lot of
    it anyway - too strong).  In fact, even brushing with plain
    water is better than NOT brushing at all.  I would suggest
    just continue using Oraject Gum Cleanser or very small amounts
    of adult toothpaste until he learns to rinse and spit, etc.
    
    Mitch loves to brush his teeth!  He prefers mommy or daddy's 
    toothbrush to his "kiddy" one, but he knows how to brush (with
    a little help to get the whole mouth done).  He has about 7
    teeth (2 are molars) and more on the way.  Sometimes his gums
    are too sensitive (cutting teeth) to brush, but we still do
    the best we can.  
    
    When do you start to bring kids to the dentist - what age?
    
    julie
    

    Oh - I forgot to mention in my last note... DON'T LET YOUR KIDS
    PLAY WITH TOOTHBRUSHES AS TOYS!  Meaning - don't let them walk
    around the house with it in their mouth!  I think it was on the
    Rescue 911 show, but I saw somewhere that a child was playing
    with their toothbrush and fell down with it in their mouth. It
    got lodged in the childs throat and was almost a FATAL accident.
    
    Just a note of caution.  Mitch used to like to sit and brush
    his teeth & carry his brush around with him, but after seeing that, 
    he only uses his toothbrush when I'm right there and NEVER carries
    it around.
    
    julie
    

re .26

Fluoride keeps bacteria from growing as plentifully in your mouth by inhibiting
a chemical reaction which is common to bacteria and human cells.  My biochemistry
is rusty, but I seem to recall it is the Krebs cycle -- the reaction that turns
sugars into energy.

So you probably don't want to eat a lot of it.

Beryl

    re .28 - I believe in the Rescue 911, the toothbrush actually
    penetrated the roof of the child's mouth, not stuck in the throat. 
    QUITE a brave kid from what I remember.
    
    Try a smaller 'glob' - and check with the dentist, maybe there's
    something that's not a problem to swallow.  They give kids flouride
    drops to swallow - I don't remember any grave warnings to not give 'too
    much'.  The pharmacist should even be able to tell you if it's much of
    a concern.  Jason's 6 and usually swallows most of his still ... it
    never occurred to me it might be a big problem - he uses so little to
    begin with (-;
    
    

    Last week, I took my 4.75 daughter to have a her first (boo hoo) 
    cavity filled.  Like my husband, she unfortunately has "soft" teeth,
    whatever that means.
    
    She handled it like a trooper, but were horrified to learn the dentist
    (who handled her beautifully) had to do a "baby root canal."  Yikes.
    
    We plan to be more diligent about brushing and flossing (and I already
    thought we were pretty good about it) but I just recently read
    an article about spitting into your baby's mouth so that (apparently)
    my saliva will help toughen my 3 month old son's teeth as they
    are forming.
    
    Has anyone tried this?  Seems pretty gross to me but if it works...

I don't recall where I read this....

but I *thought* I read that parents should avoid getting
their saliva into their baby's mouth as it would promote
tooth decay.  The context was about feeding babies and how,
if you want to taste their food, you should use your own
spoon and not theirs.

Good luck!

- Deb B.

    I'd heard more along the lines of .32 ... that adults tend to have more
    bacteria in their mouths than kids, and there's some bacteria that just
    doesn't go away without medication.  This doesn't normally exist, but
    is contagious (excuse my terminology).
    
    FWIW - I had a baby tooth root canal when I was ~10 ??  I had no clue
    what it was - they just told me it was a filling.  I remembered it ...
    it took FOREVER, but I don't remember it as being ANY more painful than
    any other filling.  It wasn't until I had a root canal last year, as an
    adult, that I finally realized what had happened earlier.
    
    You'll probably be more shook up about it than your daughter.
    
    Patty

    I've heard that a mom can transfer plaque just by kissing her little
    one on the mouth.  I think there was a little blurb about that in one
    of the magazines I get, don't remember which one though.
    
    sandy