Healthy Brushing
When I found out that I was pregnant, I signed up for emails
from about any baby site that I could find, like Parenting.com. This morning I
was reading an email from Parenting.com about how to properly brush your baby’s
teeth.
This is the link
Since Thomas is two years old now it’s pretty much a repeat
of things that I already knew – begin brushing with a rubber finger brush and
then brush with a baby tooth brush and fluoride-free toothpaste. But they don’t
tell you what to do when your baby doesn’t like you messing around in their mouth.
Some kids simply hate getting their teeth brushed.
So I thought I would tell you how I began brushing Thomas’
teeth. I didn’t start with a washcloth as soon as I brought him home. I was
always told that you start brushing their teeth when they start getting teeth.
So that’s what I did. He never honestly liked the rubber finger brush. Whenever
I would use it I would simply get my finger munched on. So I used a baby
toothbrush.
Then we met our next problem – he didn’t seem like he
honestly cared for the taste of the “toothpaste”. Whenever we used it he would
turn his head and clamp his mouth shut. But when I brushed his teeth with a
moistened tooth brush he loved it. He also loved being given the toothbrush so
he could “brush” his own teeth – which is honestly just him chewing on the
toothbrush. So to solve the problem of the toothpaste I simply switched it to
salt. Just regular old table salt.
The salt works because it works along the lines of an
antibacterial – leaving the clean sparkling clean ant the breath fresh. And
Thomas LOVES the salt. He now loves brushing his teeth. And often dings around
until he finds my toothbrush to play with while we’re getting ready. For some
reason my tooth brush is much more fun playing with than his.
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Other things I do to keep him interested is let
him watch me brush my teeth – children see that this is something everyone does
and they also want to pretend to be adults and do adult like things.
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I let him pick out his toothbrushes.
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I let him have play toothbrushes. This turns the
chore into a game and makes them more willing to cooperating when the actual
tooth brushing comes along. But the cost of a tooth brush lost under the couch
or behind the toilet… or into the never found again universe. So I’d suggest getting
a couple of tooth brushes at the dollar store – like Dollar General. I’ve boughten
decent children’s tooth brushes there for two for a dollar.
And as always keep a close eye on Little One
when using a toothbrush by themselves. You’d hate for them to choke themselves with
it. You have to teach them how to properly use it.
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