Caring for baby teeth

kgauntt

Also posted on 6 to 9 month board...

My daughter just got her first tooth. I've read conflicting things about the best way to care for them. On one site, it said to just use a wash cloth to wipe them off, then another that said to use fluoride free baby toothpaste. What do you all do? Also, if no toothpaste now, when do you start? How do they spit it out if they do use it now? If baby falls asleep with a bottle in her mouth, do you wake her up to brush? I'm so confused.

Edit.

I feed her the bottle, I don't give it to her in her crib, but she falls asleep a lot at the bottle.

bellelamb

I know this isn't probably right but honestly I don't even stress that much about my two year olds teeth. We brush with a kids fluoride free toothpaste once a day, if I remember. No the don't spit it out that's why I needs to be fluoride free.

My 8 year old has never had a cavity so I guess if he had I would be more worried but since he hasn't I don't stress.

picklesx

Once he gets teeth in, we will be just doing a sweep with a clean damp washcloth. He doesn't fall asleep with a bottle so that's not a concern for me, but a coworker of mine used to let her oldest daughter fall asleep with a bottle regularly and the little girl actually ended up having to have oral surgery at 2 years old as a result.

kgauntt

Well, I've been wiping her tooth while she is asleep with a washcloth. I don't know how to stop her from falling asleep while I'm feeding her. She only use to do it every once in awhile but lately a lot.

picklesx

kgauntt:

Well, I've been wiping her tooth while she is asleep with a washcloth. I don't know how to stop her from falling asleep while I'm feeding her. She only use to do it every once in awhile but lately a lot.

If you are doing this I would say that is all that you can do right now and I dont think it will cause any problems especially so young. My co worker's daughter's teeth came in very early and was more than a year old when she was still falling asleep and it was either her bottom canines or first molars on either side that were damaged as a result of falling asleep with a bottle every night. They would brush her teeth before bed but when she would fall asleep with the bottle afterward they would just take the bottle away and not clean her teeth so the milk sugars would just sit on her teeth. Obviously they didnt know there was any harm being done, but unfortunately there was.

stemms8810

With my DD I used this kit you can buy at Wal-Mart or other stores.  It's some baby friendly toothpaste with a little rubber thing you put on your finger to rub the toothpaste on the baby's teeth and gums.  My DD would fall asleep a lot with a bottle from feeding her and I never 'brushed' her teeth afterwards.  I just did it once in the evening before bed time.  She is 6 yrs old and no cavaties yet.  I have been taking her to the dentist since she was 2 yrs old.

Any baby friendly toothpaste you will find (no flouride) is safe to swallow in very small amounts.  Your child won't spit out the toothpaste until they are old enough to learn, like 3 or 4 years old.