Brushing a 9-month-old's teeth

I need advice on getting my nine-month old daughter to let me brush her teeth (she currently has 5 teeth). As background, the only thing she will let me put in her mouth is a spoon full of food. She even refuses to let me feed her pieces of finger food - she must do it herself. I have tried one of those infant toothbrushes that just fits over your finger, as well as one of the toddler toothbrushes that kind of looks like a figure 8. I gave her the toddler toothbrush to play with, thinking that like everything else, it would end up in her mouth and she'd miraculously figure out that the toothbrush actually had a purpose. Of course, no such luck - that is the one thing that she won't put in her mouth!

So short of forcing her mouth open (which I would prefer not to do) and fighting a mad baby, I'm not sure how to get her to let me brush her teeth. Any ideas are appreciated! Leslie

''I brush, brush, brush my teeth
Brush them left to right
I brush them up and down
To keep them clean and white''

Brushing a 1-year old's teeth

I'm wondering how parents get their young toddlers to brush their teeth. We've been trying to brush our little boy's teeth since the first one came out at 6 months but it's not working! He enjoys the activity and wants to brush his teeth when he sees us brushing ours, but he usually just sucks on the toothbrush and there's no actual brushing involved. I've tried holding on to his lip and brushing, modeling, letting him do it...I'm just afraid that his 7 or so teeth are not getting clean and that they'll be a mess by the time he goes to his first dental appointment. Any tips? No cavities please!

14-month-old hates having her teeth brushed

My 14-month-old daughter hates to have her teeth brushed and clamps down really hard so I can't do it. She won't even cry b/c that means opening her mouth. She already has 12 teeth (including 4 molars), so I think she really needs to be brushing them. I've tried having her brush my teeth while I brush hers, having her do it and then me do it and even trying to make it a game. It's hard because she doesn't understand reasoning yet like other people talked about in the archive. So, I can't talk about cavities or even bribe her. --don't want cavities

However, I'm writing this a couple of hours before my 3-year-old goes off to the dentist to have her 4th filling put in, so I'll add that even if you do have a power struggle, it's still worth getting those little teeth clean. All of my daughter's cavities are in the front, on the teeth that she had before we started regular brushing. With my younger daughter we'll do two things differently: 1) brush those suckers as soon as they appear 2) take her to the dentist around age 2 rather than following the pedi's recommendation that we wait until age 3. If I'd known how low-key and non-traumatic the first dental exam (w/ Dr. Meeta Doshi, whom I highly recommend) was going to be, I'd have done it a lot sooner. Jennifer

I also applied the advice I read on the advice on the network of letting her brush her teeth while I hold the toothbrush. Lastly, I rewardeed her for letting me do the first brushing by putting more baby toothpaste on and letting her do it herself. Teeth brushing is a mostly positive experience now thank goodness. good luck! Angela

18-month-old now just refuses to open his mouth

We are having a difficult time brushing our 18 month old's teeth. He never really liked to brush but now he just refuses to open his mouth. We typically try this right before bedtime. He watches me brush my teeth and then I attempt to brush his. Any advice about brushing toddler's teeth would be greatly appreciated! We used to use a finger brush, then changed to a toddler brush when he seemed to not like the finger brush anymore. I am just worried about caries/cavities and plaque. Help! Momo

At the end, the adult very gently does a little brushing on the kids' teeth, adn we stop when the kids want to be done. The point here is to keep it very positive for the child, not having them be traumatized or learn to hate tooth-brushing, or feel pain. Basically, we let go of the idea that their teeth are going to be perfectly clean now, with the long-term goal of establishing a good habit and positive associations with this necessary task.

At nighttime, same thing, and use a SOFT wet cloth to gently rub your child's teeth a little better. I know of someone who plays ''dentist'' at night, making sounds of the dental tools and they practice going to the dentist in their bathroom. The child asks to play dentist after brushing each night. It's all in how you sell it to your kids...

4 years later, I reached the end of my rope with my 2nd child and threatened to throw her down on the bed and sit on her to brush her teeth if she didn't cooperate. ''Okay!'' she said excitedly. So I did. After that, I gave her the choice to brush teeth in the bathroom or on the bed, and many times she ran to the bed and lay down with her arms at her side waiting for me to come sit on her and brush her teeth! (It helps that she is still using toddler toothpaste that she doesn't have to spit out.)

Good luck! whatever works to get their teeth brushed

I had a tooth brushing resister. Now I have a cooperative little partner - but it was tough going.

We have lots of games you might try.

Who do we have here? I named all the teeth (I named all the people we saw that day in order or families all together in one area of the mouth or made up names) different each time - I'd greet each one as I brushed it and say they were welcome for the bath. Some of the younger teeth needed to be chased about the mouth.

A Great day for Brushing:
There was the NASCAR style pit stop/golf commentator where I did a running commentary about the style and speed of the team: a: ''clearly a team who's time has come - look at that floss angel'' b: ''yes those of you unfamiliar with competitive toothbrushing are in for a treat...'' (we'd set a timer and try to beat it - The electric toothbrush wants 2 minutes so if I turned it off for spitting/breaks/disputes whathaveyou it would help keep the overall brushing time up and the other timer would give us motivation to get back to work.

Food inventory:
I'd pretend to grab and scrape off particular bits of food and mock disgust at the build-up of stuff based on the things she ate that day. ''What is that!?!? it is reddish and pink (grunt and ''tug'')?'' ''Strahhbwy'' (mouth full of flosser) We'd get through an inventory of the day's foods. Another neat way to reflect on the day.

Songs:
Take any song or tune (marches are good) and throw in flossing and brushing and teeth characters/themes.

World in the mouth:
Narrate a fantastic trip through and amongst the mouth.

Professional Tooth Care Person:
Invent an imaginary Tooth Care professional and be that character. Or some character the kid knows about. Kid knocks on the door and you introduce yourself and begin the appointment. We have a bunch of different ones and she likes to pick. They have some crazy beliefs and small differences in style, but they are uniformly interested in their profession and can go on and on about all manner of nonsense (many do do not know about the others) It gets quite complicated.

Disgust:
Involves lots of face making on the brusher's part at the dirty filthy teeth, gums etc! YUCK! half way through they aren't the best looking teeth but they might be redeemable with some work/ a fixer basically then they become dangerously glamorous and shiny and hard to look at (The key test of your style on this one is that the ''staring at gleaming teeth'' look should be distinguishable from the ''Staring at filthy teeth'' look. If you have trouble I suggest a adding a shudder to the latter, but I consider that over-acting and a bit of a crutch...)

Finally, do check that the taste of the tooth paste is ok with your kid. I really hate some flavors and so did my kid. ALSO those Reach brand flossers (with the snap-in hoops) are pricey but AWESOME! The long handle keeps your GIGANTIC hands out of there and the 90 degree offset hoop puts you in a very graceful position. Really. I use them too and it has turned around my tooth care story (different post I suppose - but really it makes it so easy you'll likely do two good passes rather than one OK one...) Paul

18-month-old still does not accept toothbrushing

Oh dear. We've still not gotten our 18 month old to accept toothbrushing. She's fascinated to be held while we're brushing our teeth and to help hold on to the toothbrush, but closes her mouth and shakes her head when we try to brush hers. We'd tried the stubby finger glove toothbrushes with her around 9 months but she clamped down painfully over and over. We keep trying but are losing faith.... Does anyone have suggestions? Also, our pediatrician has suggested taking her to a dentist but I can't imagine her staying still for long. Any suggestions? She's got gorgeous teeth and so far I've been unconcerned about cavities from breastmilk pooling in the mouth as she drifts off to sleep at night. Somehow it doesn't ring true. Does anyone have personal experience to suggest whether I am right to be unconcerned or whether I am naively or dangerously underestimating this risk? toothy grin toddler's mommy

The hold is with 2 people seated and facing each other. You hold your child facing you as if you're going to hug, and with his/her legs on each side of you. You lay her down on both of your legs and hold her hands still in your hands and use your arms to pin the legs. The other person puts a finger between the upper and lower jaw in the back, where the molars will grow in, to hold the mouth open and brush. It sounds traumatic, but they soon learn that it's one of those things they just don't have a choice about. anon

A few points:
- Pediatric dentists (we use two excellent practices, Wampler-Katsura (Berkeley) and Matsuishi (El Cerrito)) know how to examine a very young toddler's teeth -- it is not the sustained, long appt. you might think it is. I'd advise going NOW before any problems get worse.
- Night nursing, which also often causes the milk to pool in the mouth, may or may not be a culprit. I recently read that the milk itself is not the culprit in decay, but it can cause decay when mixed with bits of solid food (present in the mouth when you haven't brushed it away). In any case, neither of the dentists I mentioned wanted me to stop nursing, but they did advise to either have some water after nursing, or try to brush (yeah right! In the middle of the night?). I just cut it out entirely because it was interfering with my sleep too much by that point.
- Cut out juice if you can! Our son drank way too much juice.
- Keep trying to brush. In fact, the dental visit was helpful about that -- my son sort of listened to the dentist when he talked about brushing (but too, my son was older than 18 mos.)
- Genetics seems to play a role: I have lots of cavities, and my older child has ''sticky plaque'' that causes cavities despite flossing and brushing. And if your child's teeth look great, they may be great! A dental visit can confirm this. Good luck. Christine

I used to be really worried about it - he seemed to be building up plaque and/or stains, and I was worried about cavities (especially because I also nursed him to sleep, so I wondered about the breastmilk pooling in his mouth). But we took him to his first dental visit a few months ago and he didn't have any cavities at all. He DID accompany me to my dental visits, and my husbands, since he was 1.5. I agree that a 1.5 year old who already doesn't like toothbrushing is too squirmy to actually get examined by a dentist, but when we went, the hygenist would always ask if she could look in his mouth as well. Sometimes he let her and sometimes he didn't.

Anyway - to get him to let us brush his teeth, we made up lots and lots of different silly games, songs, etc. Something would work for a week and then he'd refuse again, and we'd have to come up with something else. These games included ''Let me see if you have any monkeys in your mouth - do you?''; ''Can you roar like a lion?''; tickling; a silly song about someone named ''Gargle McGarrigal''; asking to see how beautiful his teeth were, and then making a huge deal about how beautiful they are while I brush them; asking to count his teeth; having him tell me about what color worms were in there, and what their names were, and then trying to brush them out of there; same thing, but with ants; looking to see if Monster Fred is in there, then asking as I brush ''Monster Fred, what are you doing in there! Don't run away, come back here!''; asking if it's a ''cooperating day'' - and then praising him when he does cooperate -- you get the idea. We've gotten really creative with it, and sometimes it still doesn't work. The only things I can tell you are that humor works much better than forcing, and that it has gotten much better now than when he was younger. Jen

If your daughter's teeth look good, you're probably okay. Dentist visit won't hurt, don't get intimidated: night nursing doesn't cause cavities, sugar residue plus the bacteria does.

For brushing, I suggest you gradually get onto a routine. You want brushing to become like hand-washing - Something We Just Do. Don't traumatize her, just introduce it slowly. Plan to brush her teeth for her until she learns to write; most kids don't have the dexterity to properly brush until then. Some parents have the child lie on his/her back; you can see the teeth better.

You can buy pouched wet wipes for teeth, called ''Spiffies'' at www.drraysproducts.com. Great for keeping in your diaper bag and you can let her chew on them if she won't let you brush her teeth.

Here is a good list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/veryyoungkidsteeth/. (where I learned about the following regimen):

To prevent decay:

1. Brush before you eat. The bacteria in your mouth need sugar from the food you eat. It's not until the two meet that cavities are formed. When you remove them before eating, it takes 24 hours for them to recolonize. If you eat and then brush, the bacteria have already created the acid that damages the teeth.

2. Brush before bed and if she eats anything, brush again. Our saliva helps remineralize our teeth during the night but if food residue is on our teeth, the bacteria have all night to create acid.

3. Xylitol helps prevent cavities. You can buy xylitol mints, toothpaste, gum, and ''sugar'' for baking (www.xylitolnow.com). Feel free to email me. shannon

18-month-old - major battle brushing

My daughter is 18 months old and we are having the most difficult time brushing her teeth. We try to get her to do it herself with our help but she resists. When we do it it for her it is a major battle that ends in screaming and crying. The only thing she is interested in is eating the toothpaste off her toothbrush. She has most of her teeth now and i can see food getting stuck in her molars. I'm getting concerned. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. sharon

My guess with my son (and I suspect your daughter too, since she's the same age roughly) is that he is going through a do-it- myself phase, and at the same time his mouth hurts because those eye-teeth are coming through. I stopped with the power struggles and have just been closing him in the bathroom with me when I brush, and letting him carry around his 2 toothbrushes until he's ready to give them up. Sometimes I let him ''brush'' my teeth with them too. As a backup, when I am wiping his face after meals and when he lets me, I use a washcloth to wipe off his teeth as much as possible - he has less of a problem with that than with me sticking a toothbrush in there. Jen

I have a friend whose daughter could be persuaded to cooperate with almost anything if Mom could convince her that's how a princess would do it. (''Are those princess manners, Jenna?'' would stop a tantrum in its tracks.) Good luck! Holly

My brother is our dentist. I have observed him cleaning his kids' teeth and picked up on this "game" for brushing our daughter's teeth. We say that there are cavity bugs in there and we have to get them out with the special brush. Many variations on this game can be played, including washing the cavity bugs down the drain, pretending that the cavity bugs can talk and are trying to trick you by jumping to the next tooth, in which case you say you have to get that tooth with the brush too. Then they all end up getting successfully brushed out of the mouth. Hurray! Another victory for you and your child! Also, my brother the dentist says that toothpaste is not essential, so maybe leaving it out will be better than not brushing at all. Fluoride can be either supplemented or met by drinking 8 oz. of tap water a day (EBMUD water, that is. Not all municipal water is fluoridated). Good luck.

19-month-old has a cavity - how to get her to brush?

All,
In my daughter's (19 months old) last visit, the dentist found a very early stage cavity on her front tooth. The dentist advised us not to fill it. She asked us to pay more attention and monitor the decay. She hopes that we can last until the when the teeth falls out for the permanent one, which won't be until when my daughters is 5 or 6. I want to get your experience on the following:

1. Is it common to leave cavities not filled? Is it more likely for her to get other cavities if it is left not filled? Have any of you had experience where you were able to manage the cavities until the baby tooth fell out for the permanent ones?
2. Do you have any advice on how to get a toddler to brush their teeth willingly? We have tried different tricks: electric brush, putting in her favorite DVD, brushing together, songs, dance, games... My daughter hates brushing her teeth. Now that we have to get even more aggressive in brushing her teeth, I need to get more creative on how to get some quality time in brushing each of her teeth thoroughly. I'd appreicate your thoughts. Thank you When my son had just turned two, we discovered a small cavity in the middle of his two front teeth. One dentist told me to get it filled immediately, but two others urged us to wait. Since he was terrified of the dentist at that point, and the cavity was so small, we waited, cut down on culprits like sippy cup juice ( I guess sippy cups ''bathe'' teeth in juice), and used a nightly flouride paste that Dr. Lady Fatima Pineda (Oakland & San Lorenzo) gave us. We were able to wait nine more months until it needed to be filled. Dr. Pineda let my husband stay right with our son during the procedure, and he was able to get through it with no pain medication- amazing!!! (At 24 months, I was frantically thinking he'd have to be sedated.)She has excellent pediatric credentials and was very gentle. I have also heard very good things about Alameda Pediatric Dentistry.

I was able to get him to stay very still during brushing/flossing by saying ''Hey! WOW! I didn't know there was a... (bulldozer/ giraffe/ giraffe driving a bulldozer/ whatever) in your mouth! Let me see that!'' Good luck! Been there too

At about the same time, my dental hygienist told me the story of how she would have to pin her sons to the floor to brush and floss their teeth...for years. And they hated it then, and thank her for it now, because they don't have cavities.

I did not want to have a constant fight over teeth brushing either, but I also did not want her to go through what I went through: multiple visits to the dentist for enormous fillings because I didn't brush my teeth when I was young and my parents didn't do it either (something I have not forgiven them for). And I am cheap and don't want to pay for something like fillings. So based on my hygienist's advice, and my own experience, we became meticulous brushers of my child's teeth.

We talked to her about how we have to get ''the cavity bugs'' out every night, and about my own experience at the dentist (I had a horrible mean dentist as kid named Dr. Clap who liked to inflict pain on small children). I talked about what it was like to have your teeth drilled. I also bought a Dr. Seuss book (The Tooth Book?) about brushing teeth and read it often to her. And I would fight with her about brushing teeth (oh and we brush twice a day, floss at night). And I would take away privileges from time to time. But we also would sing songs to her to try to make it fun. We would try basically everything. And the truth is that if you are committed (and your partner is too if you have one because you have to both be enrolled in this), then your child will give in and let you brush their teeth.

Try buying an electric tooth brush because they do a much better job than you can.

And we still go to the same dentist because he was right. Now she is almost six, she still has no fillings or cavities, and she lets us brush and floss her teeth every night. Her 16 month old brother is following in her footsteps only now he cries for his toothbrush when he sees it. The Tooth Police

Obviously, dental hygiene is terribly important. There are many toothpastes available now that are more ''pleasant'' to children -- orange, tootie-fruity, flavors etc may be helpful to you in getting your girl to brush. In addition, you could have a rewards program -- everytime she brushes her teeth to your approval (getting all the way to the back, brushing back and front of teeth etc) will garner her a special reward. Maybe every day she does that once (to start), she gets something special. When she does it twice, she gets a better reward. The reward should be something relatively immediate (she's too young for delayed gratification). You've clearly tried all the obvious, like special tooth brushes, etc. but perhaps there's something she likes especially well that could entice her to willing brush on her own, even if it's a food that is bad for her teeth (hey, at least she's brushed them! What if she gets the reward before she brushes -- the brushing eliminates the negs of the food?? Just a thought). Anon

2-year-old refuses to have teeth brushed

My son just turned 2 and refuses to brush his teeth or to let us brush them. He is terrifyed of having a toothbrush put into his mouth. He has other sensory issues such as getting sticky food on his hands etc and we are working through those but the tooth brushing issues are a real problem. Has anyone had this problem and how do you get them to brush their teeth or let someone else do it for them without holding them down and forcing them to open their mouth. I don't want to tramatize him but am at my wit's end as to how to deal with this. Some people have told us to not worry about it that they are just baby teeth. Has anyone else had this problem. Will his teeth be full of cavities? He does not eat sweets. need help

Two-year-old wants to do it himself

My son who is 2 years old is into ''I want to do it all by myself'' stage. So, he would not let me brush his teeth and does it himself. But of course, he can't do it properly and I worry that he will have cavity because he's not brushing it right. Is there any suggestion for this stage? need help

I wish we'd thought harder of more ways to make brushing teeth fun and had insisted on doing it ourselves. ugh

How can I get 2 yo to brush? He's still nursing at night

I need ideas on how to get my son to brush his teeth. We do have a nightly ritual of standing at the sink with our toothbrushes -- I brush my own teeth and he sucks the toothpaste (less than a dab) off of his. That's the extent of his technique. When I try to get in there and brush his teeth he clamps up his mouth or sticks out his tongue so I can't even get to the molars. Any ideas? I am really concerned because he still nurses during the night (that's another issue to be resolved...)

As with most kid struggles, it helps to keep the task at hand fun, making it a game. Keep a smile on your face during encouragement:

1. Blame the dentist. "Remember, the dentist says we have to brush twice a day."

2. Take turns counting to 10: "Okay, you did a great job, now it's Daddy's (or Mommy's) turn."

3. Or counting the "tooth bugs." "Oh no! The toothbug ran to the top teeth... now the tooth bug is in the molars. Phew, I got it!"

4. You can replace "tooth bugs" with any character that the child is into-- dinosaurs, tinkerbell, teletubbies ("Now how did that -blank- get into your little mouth?"

5. Take him/her to the dentist with you. Have toys to play on the floor while you are being examined/cleaned. Ask the dentist to say a word about brushing or give your child a toothbrush.

6. We found that board books about going to the dentist were extremely helpful before that first visit. We started at 2 years, so that's just around the corner for your son.

This is how you can brush the teeth of a non-cooperating toddler: Wet the brush and stick it and the tube of paste into your shirt pocket. (You're going to need both hands for a few seconds.) Lay the toddler on the floor (preferably carpeted). Sit on the floor above their head, placing your knees over the toddlers shoulders/ upper arms. Your feet should be along side the child's body. This effectively pins their arms and prevents them from undesired interference. Now imobilize their head between your thighs by gently squeezing. Now you have both hands free to load the paste onto the brush, and one hand available to open lips (which will be sqeezed tightly closed by the child). I found it effective to slide my finger into the corner of the mouth and follow that with the brush. Brush as gently as possible considering the lip resistance. Let them up to rinse.

During all of this maintain a calm manner and in a gentle voice let them know over and over that brushing is not optional- tomorrow we can do it the easy way, or the hard way - the choice is theirs.
from a dad wishing to remain relatively annonymous

Some tricks ... "Say ahhhh" to get the back teeth, and "Say eeeeee" to get the front teeth. I count "1 - 2 - 3 - 4" on each surface (front top teeth - 1234, front bottom teeth - 1234, etc.) When he was little and only had a few teeth, I used a baby washcloth to wipe them off before bed. I didn't use toothpaste till he was able to spit - close to 3 years.

Then I (the Magic Dentist) would have him lay down with his head on my lap (I would tell him that I didn't believe he was a real Super Hero, and the only way I could tell if he really was one would be to look at his teeth), He would then open his mouth to show me that he was, indeed a Super Hero! I would act totally astonished, and, continuing to talk about what an amazing and powerful Super Hero he is, and what amazing strong teeth he has, I would floss and brush his teeth with no problem whatsoever.

I couldn't believe how well it worked, and my sister had the same results. My son is 6 now, and flossing and brushing is a breeze. We sometimes do the Magic Dentist just for fun, though now he is usually a Power Ranger instead of Batman. He has come to actually enjoy having his teeth flossed, and reminds me about it if I forget. Hope this helps! Sorry to be so long-winded! Suzanne

Another method that I don't recommend, but that worked really well for my mother, was the old guilt-trip method... She had really bad teeth, but I ended up with no cavities at all. She used to tell me, "When I was a little girl, I didn't have a mother to tell me to brush my teeth. I used to get big cavities and get taken to the dentist, but they had no anesthetic during WWII, so they'd drill on my teeth only using perfume, and I would scream! You don't want that to happen to you, do you?" :-}

3-year-old won't brush, eats toothpaste

Hi there, My 3 1/2 year old son does not like to brush his teeth. I often have to chase him around with a tooth brush. He ends up eating the tooth paste before we get to the sink to rinse his mouth. I asked his dentist, who said it was okay to eat a small amount. I am thinking small amount twice a day can add up. Does anyone know the safety of eating tooth paste? Please give me any advice on how to get him to brush his teeth. I am so tired from chasing him around. I tired letting him choose his tooth brush( I have 5 different ones at home), and tooth paste Lisa

1. There is something called ''toddler toothpaste'' or ''training toothpaste'' that is safe for them to swallow (or at least that what it says on the box!). My son doesn't get the concept of spitting it out yet, and since he hardly ever gets sugary-tasting stuff (though there is no sugar in it, obviously), he likes it.

2. When we are gonna brush teeth, I tell him ahead of time about 5 minutes so he can know what's coming and that way he doen's have to be interrupted with his playing or whatever he is doing really suddenly (more prone to fight if that's the case). I give him to or three preparatory announcements and then I sit him down and explain that we need to do 10-10-10 on the bottom, and 10-10-10 on the top. Then I count with every brush. ''Aqui - uno, dos, tres, cuatro.....'' Somtimes he bites down on the brush, i stop counting dramatically (like mid word) and yell ''Hey!'' in disbelief and then he laughs and we move on.

Works for us, not sure if it is just because he is smaller genevieve

He has already had 3 cavities filled, and is scheduled to have 2 more filled in the next month. While I understand that this is partly hereditary (as I had numerous fillings as a child, yet have healthy teeth today) I am concerned that his behavior about brushing is having a lot to do with. Advice would be greatly valued!

We also use fluoride pills. Fluoride, of course, is more controversial so that is something you will have to consider but there is no doubt that it is extremely helpful for reducing cavities. You need your dentist to give you a prescription for the pills. There are also fluoride mouth washes but my youngest tends to swallow everything so I was unwilling to go that route. (Our drinking water does not have fluoride added.) Good luck!

I did have a talk with him about the bacteria that eat the food on our teeth and secrete an acid which eats holes into our teeth - rotting them. He has gone to bed a couple of times without brushing his teeth - but then he swears he can feel the little buggers moving around in there and will get up and run to the bathroom and brush!

Another mother I know has an egg timer that she runs and tells her twins (now 7) that they have to brush for that long. She says it keeps her out of the struggle.

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