Question about Children's Toothpaste

pinkclouds

I buy Tom's of Maine strawberry toothpaste. More tasteless than strawberry, in my opinion, but it has sufficient fluoride and my kids like it. Plus, it is less "foamy" than most toothpastes so we have less gagging going on.

kdenty

Bibilicious wrote: »

My son used to bite my finger hard :rotfl:whenever we tried to put teething gel on his gums so to stop the pain we tried using a baby toothbrush with the teething gel.

Do you put Bongela on your sons gums when he is teething? Because you could try and see if he doesn't mind the toothbrush with something he is familiar with?

If you use Bonjell please ensure it's specifically for children/teething. The active ingredient of adult bonjella is like asprin (Salicylate) which can make children very ill with Reye's syndrome.

You could try wiping the teeth with your finger wrapped in a hanky and a little toothpaste. Maybe not as good as a toothbrush but would be better than nothing.

minimoneysaver

Pop on over to the health board. Toothsmith is a dentist.

brighthair

Bloomin_Freezing2 wrote: »

you could buy eg strawberry toothpaste, but he won't be having that flavour into adulthood so just keep on with the mint, he will get used to it. Are you using too much toothpaste? Children his age only need a smear of toothpaste on the brush, they can't spit it out so swallow what's in their mouth and too much is not good for them to swallow.

If he's being a pain,do what I had to do when mine were similar age, lie him on the floor, straddle him with his arms by his sides, your knees holding them down, hold his face with one hand and brush with the other. he has to have his teeth cleaned, so just get on with doing it, the sooner you start the sooner its over.

Just a thought - I can't stand toothpaste that is mint flavoured, it burns my mouth so badly I can't tolerate it for more than a few seconds, v odd I know! I use Dawood and Tanner toothpaste - comes in 2 mint flavours, lime, or lemon

Lynn11

I managed to get toothpaste from my health visitor and had several tubes from the nursery - they are not much of a favour (not mint as DD does not like mint). We did go through a phase of not wanting to brush her teeth and we did the singing and joining in but it does get better, May try a different flavour of toothpaste and ust perserve.

fannyadams

Kingfisher toothpase -
http://www.kingfishertoothpaste.com/
I have lemon (minty makes me puke) and My DSs (6 & 10) use Fennel. they think minty toothpaste is weird and they say it "hurts their mouth"...

Benson

There is a peppa pig book about cleanIng teeth and going to the dentist which helped my ds

carolan78

Our dentist told us not to use the childrens toothpastes because they don't have enough floride (think it was that one) in them. He said to use a tiny amount of our paste and not to rinse afterwards hth

Toothsmith

Nothing too bad will happen if you don't manage to brush his teeth thoroughly for a few days, so don't panic.

That's a bit like when parents worry if their kids aren't eating properly. It all builds up into an 'issue' and even tiny kids can sense when they have some sort of 'power' over the grown-ups, and they play on it.

I too dislike 'kids' toothpastes. Use just the merest hint of adult toothpaste, and if that seems to be the objection, don't use toothpaste at all for a while, until the kid is happier with the brushing.

Come at the chlid from behind (a bit like described in post #11).

I would say you sit on the side of the bath or the loo. Have the child standing at your knee (assuming he/she can stand) facing away from you. Get them to lean their head back onto your lap. As the head goes back, the mouth opens a bit anyway. Support (restrain!) the head a bit with one hand under the chin and you've got a good view, and the other hand free to do the brushing.

This is much easier than trying to poke about at the child from the front with the kid backing away from you and arms flailing!

Final rule - nomatter how much the kid objects, messes about or misbehaves, if you just manage to touch a tooth with a toothbrush, or even just get close to the mouth, then make it seem that that was all you wanted to do anyway, and congratulate and praise the kid for being so helpful. In their head that will then seem that all that objection and tantrum was completely pointless (As you did what you wanted to do anyway) and next time they will be just that tiny bit more cooperative. A few days/couple of weeks of this, and they should be letting you in there and giving their teeth a decent brush.

It's just a case of breaking their power, and getting out of the vicious circle.

Good luck.

minimoneysaver

Have you thought about a sticker chart? It's amazing what some kids will do for a sticker!!!