Baby Tooth/Gum Cleanser

I just bought my 12 month old a tube of flouride-free baby tooth and
gum cleanser and a baby toothbrush, to try and get her into the habit
early. So far we are brushing once a day as part of her bedtime
routine. She really enjoys brushing along with mum.

Has anyone else tried this stuff? When should we switch to a pea-drop
size flouride kid-paste on her brush? Also - is once a day enough?

She doesn't have any refined sugar, but she does eat *alot* of fruit.

Medina Wilson

Medina Wilson wrote:

I just bought my 12 month old a tube of flouride-free baby tooth and
gum cleanser and a baby toothbrush, to try and get her into the habit
early. So far we are brushing once a day as part of her bedtime
routine. She really enjoys brushing along with mum.

Has anyone else tried this stuff? When should we switch to a pea-drop
size flouride kid-paste on her brush? Also - is once a day enough?

You should not be using fluoride toothpaste
before age 2, the concept is that the child
should know how to spit it out. My Pillbug
is a bit slow developmentally, so we will be
using the apple-banana flavoured toothpaste
for a long while!

It's a great idea to get them used to brushing.
Pillbug goes through phases of hating it, but
now, at 21 months, it's not a problem at all.
I started "brushing" every night around 4 months
old. He still needed a teeth cleaning at 19
months.

-- Anita --

"Medina Wilson" wrote in message
oups.com...
I just bought my 12 month old a tube of flouride-free baby tooth and
gum cleanser and a baby toothbrush, to try and get her into the habit
early. So far we are brushing once a day as part of her bedtime
routine. She really enjoys brushing along with mum.

Has anyone else tried this stuff? When should we switch to a pea-drop
size flouride kid-paste on her brush? Also - is once a day enough?

She doesn't have any refined sugar, but she does eat *alot* of fruit.

Yes we started brushing our two as soon as they had a tooth to brush. We
used toothpaste designed for that age group which doesn't contain flouride.
The world seems to disagree on the direction in which to brush (side to side
vs up and down ve round and round etc). Perhaps we should ask this over on
sci.med.dentistry

Fruit is good - fruit juice drinks not so good. The main think to avoid is
giving fruit drinks in bottles that can be sipped over long periods of time.
That keeps the sugar in contact with teeth longer. I guess you know that
fruit juice is a hidden sugar in many baby food products. The makers say "No
added Sugar" and load up the vegtable stew with apple juice. They put it in
all sorts of baby food you wouldn't expect.

My daughter isn't on baby food anymore, but I never thought of the
juice for sweetner thing! I bet its in her teething cookies.
(occasional only).

I have so far avoided juice. It seems far better to give real fruit
than juice. Plus, most commerical juices are devoid of real nutrients
(besides, say added vitamin ) so I just give her milk or water in a
sippy cup.

Thanks!