my kid has bad breath, always

CTFandme

even after we brush his teeth. His breath is terrible.  We brush his teeth really well, twice a day at least.  What gives?

Temp108743750006959

three thoughts: flouride toothpaste? The non-flouride toothpaste did not clean DS's teeth and we had to switch. will he let you floss? strangely - our kid likes it -- maybe he has something caught back there. and lastly -- sinus infection?

Mrs Manners

vccake:

three thoughts: flouride toothpaste? The non-flouride toothpaste did not clean DS's teeth and we had to switch. will he let you floss? strangely - our kid likes it -- maybe he has something caught back there. and lastly -- sinus infection?

This exactly except we don't use flouride because ds still swallows and our dentist says not to use flouride toothpaste until they spit all of it. Changing toothpaste or using baking soda in addition might help. We floss daily too and it helps (we use those little plastic things with the floss in the end so I don't have to stick my hands in his mouth).

Mrs Manners

Oh...and get a tongue scraper and scrape his tongue after brushing if he'll let you.

CTFandme

hmmm, I'll have to look to see if there is flouride in the toothpaste we have for him.  I haven't flossed his teeth, but he let's the dentist so I will try tonight. He had some drainage a while ago, but isn't pretty healthy right now...knock on wood.

CTFandme

Mrs Manners:

Oh...and get a tongue scraper and scrape his tongue after brushing if he'll let you.

we brush his tongue, but maybe a scraper is better. thanks!

Temp108743750006959

we flouride toothpaste even before he could spit -- it was just a tiny bit on the brush.

CTFandme

PMQ:

I found with Joey it wasn't necessarily flouride vs non-flouride, but about the paste itself. That toddler goo they market as something that will actually clean teeth has no "grit" in it and does nothing. We switched to an actual flouride-free paste for a while and it did just as good of a job as the paste with flouride. Burts Bees made one without flouride, as does Tom's of Maine.

If switching pastes doesn't do much I would say a visit to the dentist or pedi would be a good idea. I know my kids only have really bad breath when they are sick.

We use aquafresh kids right now, but will try something else to see if it helps.  We were just at the ped for his 4 yr well last Saturday. I forgot to ask about it, but she didn't mention it either.  His dental appt is coming up.  If it's not gone by then it'll definitely be a question. He goes regularly and hasn't had any issues yet. 

 

marchbaby

Is this a new thing?  I had a friend whose daughter started to have really bad breath, she brought her to the doctor and the culprit...carpet up her nose!  Ha, not sure why but for some reason her daughter decided to stick some carpet fibers up her nose, where it stayed for awhile and caused the smell.  Once removed the smell went away

AHblessed01

marchbaby:

Is this a new thing?  I had a friend whose daughter started to have really bad breath, she brought her to the doctor and the culprit...carpet up her nose!  Ha, not sure why but for some reason her daughter decided to stick some carpet fibers up her nose, where it stayed for awhile and caused the smell.  Once removed the smell went away

This! 

I have a step brother that always had bad breath and nobody could figure out why. So when he was about 14 my parents took him to the doc and sure enough he had a cough drop wrapper up his nose. I always thought that was pretty crazy...