Brushing teeth

We've been using little baby toothbrushes with A&M that they just have to chew on at night, but I am wondering if I should be using toothpaste? If so, what kind? How do you guys brush your guys teeth?

 

Every night before bed we brush teeth and I actually still do it in their cribs. I go and wash the toothbrushes and put a little bit of baby toothpaste--it's clear and has no taste. My two boys LOVE it and one of them talks or sings the entire time I'm doing it :laughing: My dd on the other hand :headbang: I have to put my arm around her head and hold her still or she won't let me do it. I then give them they toothbrushes, I floss their teeth and put them to bed.
I did try using a kids toothpaste once they turned 2 but they can't stand the flavor (any flavor) so we just stuck with the other one.
We also brush teeth in the morning but that's when we bring our toothbrushes out of the crib and I let them stand at the mirror in the bathroom and do it themselves. The night one is when I KNOW their teeth are getting cleaned :lol:

 

we do it at night as part of the bedtime routine. we use toddler toothbrushes & a tiny smear of non-flouride toothpaste. when they were smaller, i would take them one at a time into the bathroom & brush their teeth. now, they each have their own step stool & stand at the bathroom counter. we usually let them brush their own teeth first for a little while & then i get in there & finish up. recently, they want to brush my teeth too so we've added that into the routine. we started working with them just after their 1st birthday on making "ahhh" & "eeee" sounds to facilitate brushing the different teeth. now, they're pros at it. they're also starting to figure out how to do some actually brushing of their own teeth rather than just chewing on the brushes, so that's good to see.

brushing teeth

 

I use the toddler toothbrushes with the Baby Orajel toothpaste (it usually has Thomas the Train or Little Bear on the front). We tried the 2 year old toothpaste and DD was freaked out by the fact it was blue, so we went back to the baby one. I let DD & DS brush my teeth, then they brush theirs and most days they are pretty good about letting me go over their teeth. I also have them brush in the AM & PM.

 

I use toddler toothbrushes for the girls. We do it in the morning and we ALL brush our teeth (if they see me brush my teeth throughout the day, they want in on the action too- so sometimes (depending on what I have eaten) it is a couple of times a day!). Before I give them control of the tooth brush I brush as much as I can get, then brush my own teeth. Once I am done with my teeth, I go back and grab control of the their toothbrush to finish the job. Because of our water, he said that we can either use regular toothpaste or do floride (sp?) drops. I decided to use regular toothpaste. I just use about a "pea" size per his recomendations. If we are brushing more in a day, I just lightly coat the bristles for effect.


A previous post mentioned making the "aahhh" sounds. Good Idea! I think I will incorporate that in! Right now they just copy what I do.

 

Brushing teeth has to be my least favorite child care task. The guys absolutely hate and it's a struggle every time. We use the same baby toothpaste that Nancy mentioned and put it both on toddler toothbrushes (the stage 1 type) and on finger brushes. We give them their brushes first and let them brush (usually they just chew them, suck the toothpaste off, or throw them <_< ), then we finish up with the finger brushes which always ends up with us getting our fingers bitten. :gah: Needless to say, we only do this once a day (before bed); my fingers can't take it any more often.

 

I just brush my boys' teeth once a day, after breakfast. It's always a struggle. I don't use toothpaste.

 

We brush ours at night before bed. I offer the toothbrush and try to get them to do it first. Most of the time, my DS will ignore it or throw it. My DD is starting to do it with some help. It's pretty much always a struggle right now. I hold my sons head and count to 5 while I'm brushing. He cries the whole time. sigh.