First toothbrush?

[Blessed_Mom]

What was the first toothbrush you used on your LO? After they got how many teeth? Did you just brush with a naked toothbrush or used any type of a toothpaste?

My DD has 4 front teeth and 4 more showing through......should I just brush her teeth with my finger and water?

[treeoflife3]

We started letting our daughter play with our tooth brushes when she got her first tooth. She took our older ones. She loved to chew on them and would laugh when we'd take them and go 'brush your teefers!!!'

Now we got her some banana shaped tooth brush thing designed for little mouths that she absolutely adores. We just give it to her and brush as we play. Nothing stressful. No force, no tooth paste... just whenever she feels like playing with it during the day. She still has the other ones to play with too.

I figure, she only drinks water or breast milk and almost never has sweets and bad foods so I don't need to do anything more than that for a long time.

[pantrygirl]

Our family uses an electric toothbrush.
When she started sprouting teeth, I would wipe them with a warm wash cloth but as they started to fill in and there were less gaps we introduced family teeth brushing time where either my husband or myself would brush our teeth and floss while she stood on a step stool.
Soon she tried to imitate us and so we gave her her very own electric toothbrush (a portable one we use on trips). I purchased the replacement heads labeled sensitive teeth and gums and she uses this as her toothbrush.
We told her that she can brush her teeth while we brush our teeth but once we are done, we would help her brush her teeth.
At first we did this without toothpaste.
When she started asking us for toothpaste as she saw we were putting 'stuff' on our toothbrush, we introduced Weleda Tooth Gel.
We showed her that we put a small amount on top of the brushhead and she would brush away.
She's almost two and has started to protest the Mommy/Daddy brush your teeth time but we told her there isn't any room for negotiating teeth brushing by Mom and Dad.
My husband has also slowly started showing her that she should 'spit' after she uses the toothpaste. She makes the sound but nothing comes out. She's also drinking the water instead of sloshing it around and spitting but we figure those things will come in time.
Hope this helps.

[LadyCatherine185]

Originally Posted by treeoflife3

I figure, she only drinks water or breast milk and almost never has sweets and bad foods so I don't need to do anything more than that for a long time.

This was my DS, only breastmilk, water, and a few solids. No sweets or junk. Well, we brushed his teeth every night and he still got 6+ cavities at 16 months old. Just be on the lookout, and if she lets you brush, brush them! If breastmilk mixes with food particles it can cause decay.

We now use a regular toothbrush and a kid's flouride toothpaste (Tom's silly strawberry). He has had 16 teeth since a little over a year old, and is now working on 2 year molars.

[crunchy_mommy]

My DS didn't get his first teeth until.... 10-11 months old maybe?? So he was already eating some solids and stuff, plus I wanted him to get used to toothbrushing BEFORE the teeth came in because I am a stickler for dental hygeine! So as soon as I saw those first 2 teeth about to poke through, we started brushing. We used a finger brush at first (still use it sometimes when he's teething) but also let him play with a regular (soft toddler) toothbrush and sometimes brushed with that instead, now it's almost always the regular brush. He's 16 mos & still only has 6 teeth!

We just use water, one time I tried using a bit of my homemade toothpaste but he did NOT like it which is funny because he will eat anything...

We brush morning & night.... but we don't force it if he's fighting it (usually he likes it) -- we want him to have a good association with toothbrushing even if it means sometimes we only brush 'em for 3 seconds... luckily his teeth are in great shape, but I have really good teeth (never had cavity) so hoping he inherited them!

[LynnolaS]

We use a toddler toothbrush on our 16-month old, and a tiny dab of Jason's flouride-free toothpaste because it's the only way DS will let us brush his teeth. He must like the taste because he now gets excited and exclaims "bah!" (brush) when I get his toothbrush out. Before we used the toothpaste it was a total power struggle and sucked for everyone.

[AKislandgirl]

we use weleda tooth gel and a toddler tooth brush from the grocery store. 2 actually. One for her to control and one for me! It works well! We started as soon as she started getting teeth... 4 months! She has all but her two year molars now so I try to get a good tooth brushing in every night but sometimes we skip it if she's not in the mood.

[ElaynesMom]

We started off with the Oral B Stages toothbrushes (Stage 1 for 4-24 months). We used spry infant tooth gel for toothpaste.
We started brushing when she was easting solids.

Now that she's a bit older she likes Kiss My Face Kids toothpaste, or Green Beaver toothpaste (green apple flavour).

[treeoflife3]

Originally Posted by LadyCatherine185

This was my DS, only breastmilk, water, and a few solids. No sweets or junk. Well, we brushed his teeth every night and he still got 6+ cavities at 16 months old. Just be on the lookout, and if she lets you brush, brush them! If breastmilk mixes with food particles it can cause decay.

We now use a regular toothbrush and a kid's flouride toothpaste (Tom's silly strawberry). He has had 16 teeth since a little over a year old, and is now working on 2 year molars.

honestly, I think cavities might have something to do with genetics and diet or something too and not as much about mouth hygiene. I've NEVER had a cavity.. not even a little one (dentists always tell me how great my teeth are) and that is definitely not because I've brushed twice a day every day since my first tooth (hell, I refuse to floss, don't use mouth wash of any type and I've had many times in my life where you were lucky I brushed once a day 5/7 days of the week... yeah... and I was raised on the standard american diet all the way)

Not to mention, I've always gotten plenty of calcium and other good stuff for building strong healthy teeth... despite all the other crap stuff I was raised eating/drinking, my mom still managed to get some good stuff in me.

I think how your teeth will go has more to do with diet and genes than just how you take care of them with a brush because otherwise I really should have gotten at least one cavity or something. My parents have pretty good teeth too. Not as great as mine, but barely bad.

[mamazee]

My first child hated having her teeth brushed, until I got somethng called an Angel Brush from I think firstbrush.com, and she loved it and wanted it all the time because it felt so good. The second one loves having her teeth brushed so I just use a regular child's toothbrush.