Brushing Teeth

My girls finally have 2 teeth each!! They got toothbrushes from my IL's for Easter & I've been waiting a long time to put them to use. Now that the girls have teeth, I'm kind of stumped on how to incorporate brushing them into our bed time routine.

Here is what we currently do:

Bath
baby massage
pajamas
sleep sack
bed time bottle
sleep

I guess I'm kind of stumped just b/c they get their bottle right before bed. To be the most effective wouldn't I want to brush their teeth after their last bottle? The only thing is, they're in wind down mode after their bottle, so to try to brush their teeth afterwards wouldn't work in my opinion.

What do you all think?

 

We used to brush teeth after dinner before bath (while they were still sitting in their chairs). After they got more teeth though we changed it to after their bedtime milk (sippy.. since my girls had very few teeth until after they turned 1). Its still part of wind down time. They drink their milk, they sit in their special chairs (or you could use boppies) and we brush teeth while singing the brush your teeth song. Then they hand me the brushes and we go to bed. GL!

 

At this point, it just to get them used to it so you could really do it whenever you want too. Once they start getting more teeth, then I would do it after the bottle. For us, we did, bath, bottles, teeth, books, bed.

 

We just started brushing teeth and right now to get them used to it, we do it before the bedtime bottle. I agree with Rachel, you just want them to get used to the process. I think like Leighann said, when they are older they'll be able to do it right before sleep. Good luck!!!!

 

Could you move their bedtime bottle before bath?

 

I'm planning on starting this in the next week or so - and for now it will be right before the bedtime bottle of EBM. In the future (when there are more teeth) I'll brush before the bottle.

 

I think right after their bath would be a good time or after their massage. I wouldn't be too worried about having a bottle after brushing their teeth until they get quite a few more teeth. Once they get molars then you can make sure they don't have anything but water, but now I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

You got some great advice from pp's about doing it to get them used to it. We sure did and now that they have 4, we let them drink then tell them it is time to brush their teeth and they walk to the bathroom door and know that is the last stop before bed.

 

We just recently introduced the concept of "brushing teeth." We have refluxers so we try to keep them up a while after their last bottle, so we stuck it in between the bottle, snuggle time, and bedtime stories.

Although so far there hasn't been much brushing. There has been a fair amount of laughing, playing (evasion is one of their favorite techniques and they think it is really funny), and biting (OUCH!! Those teeth are SHARP!!). It probably doesn't help that just keep on teething so their poor little mouthes are already sore and here I am trying to stick something else in it with no obvious benefit to them. But alas, we keep at it in the hopes that they have significantly fewer cavities than I do...

 

We've dropped the bedtime bottle, but when we had it we did baths, bottles, book, teeth, bed.

 

Just before bed here too, but they usually get their bottle before solids anyway. I still forget most of the time though...

 

We usually brush their teeth during bath time. It can be part of the bathing routine .