My son will be 2 on Thursday. We have been brushing his teeth, sometimes with just water and other times with a training toothpaste. The training toothpaste tastes like candy, and my son just wants to suck on the toothbrush, so a lot of the time the actual brushing is just with water. The problem is, his mouth stinks! I'd like to try to use something that will actually clean his mouth, but I don't know if he's too young? When did you transition, and how did you make sure your child didn't just swallow all the toothpaste?
I have been brushing his tongue as well. I will start flossing, but he doesn't actually have a lot of teeth. He was a late teether, and currently has his front four on the top and bottom, a big space, and then one back tooth on each side top and bottom, so really not a lot of spots for food to get stuck. I'm finally starting to see/feel his canine teeth poking through a little. He can rinse and spit with water, so I think today I will try with the flouride toothpaste, but just a tiny dab, and see how he does.
Also, I know that the flouride itself will not actually clean his mouth, but the regular kid's toothpaste has other ingredients that do, so I guess that's what I actually meant. I plan to bring all this up at his 2 year doctor appointment and see what the pediatrician has to say as well. Thanks for all of your comments.
Stinky breath tends to be caused more by decaying material stuck between the teeth than from lack of proper brushing. I think perhaps the better question is should you start flossing?
We do not use fluoride, ever. My son doesn't have stinky breath. (None of us do now, actually.) Before I was diagnosed with celiac (gluten allergy) I had seriously bad breath. Food allergies, can contribute to bad breath. So can nutritional deficiencies.
I refuse to allow any flouride into our home. Flouride comes from the smokestakes of industrial companies and isn't something we should be putting into our bodies. Remember; just because they/gov't says it's good for you--doesn't mean it is.
That said, my daughter uses Tom's of Maine flouride-free/natural toothpaste, flavor silly strawberry. For adult flouride-free toothpaste, I use TheraNeem organix Neem Toothpaste w/cinnamon (I take homeopathic meds and you can't take mint/peppermint with them), and my husband likes Weleda Ratanhia Toothpaste. Someone at a natural healthfood store could help you with figuring out what to use for a young child.
I think for flossing he's a bit young yet. I know I had to floss my daughter's teeth for quite a while when I did start doing them before she was old enough to do it herself.
Just something to keep in mind: if his breath is really bad, it might be more related to a food that his body doesn't like (so that it ferments or otherwise isn't being broken down correctly). I used to have really bad breath until I discovered that I have food allergies and food intolerances. If I stay away from the foods that don't like me, I don't have bad breath.
NEVER EVER EVER use fluoride. We even installed a filter in our home to keep the fluoride out of the water. It is pure POISON.
I transitioned when my son was able to show me that he would and could SPIT into the sink. He was about 3 yrs plus 4 months old. I kept reminding him about "big boy toothpaste" and how we had to practice with the training toothpaste.
Added reading Jo's answer:
I started flossing at a very early age. My son loved it (the fun flossers). Granted, he only had 4 spaces where the floos needed to go. At age 3.5, he often brushes his tongue and lets me help him brush his "stinky breath germs" into the sink.
Post nasal drip and the resulting throat irritation can also cause nasty breath. Does he have allergy issues?
Brushing his tongue and flossing will help tremendously. That's where most bad breath comes from.
You need to ALSO brush his tongue.
And yes, you can use kids fluoride toothpaste already.
Or, you can use things like "Spry" toothpaste for kids. Which is made with Xylitol. A natural ingredient. Whole Foods will probably have it.
I agree with the other posts..brush their tongue and they can floss to at that age. The picks with the floss are available and easy to use. Also, once they learn to spit out the toothpaste and rinse then flouride is ok.
Hi S.! Flouride will not help his breath. Since your son just sucks on the toothbrush he will be ingesting the flouride and you definitely don't want that!
I agree with the other posters about looking into other reasons (illness, diet, etc.) causing the bad breath.
Good luck!
My daughter gets stinky breath when she's teething. Since your son is still getting a bunch of teeth, there's a chance that could be part of the cause. It always seems the worst right before a new tooth pops through.
We use fluoride toothpaste with our toddler. We put on a teeny dab (not even close to a pea sized amount...a smidge) and I brush her teeth with an electric toothbrush. I'm sure she swallows some but I am not worried about it. I did a TON of my own research on the fluoride debate when our town was voting on whether or not to put it in the water supply. Most US cities add fluoride -before they used to do this more people had a LOT more cavities than they do now. Our town voted no bc who wants fluoride in your baby's bottles etc? So, the local dentists then started recommending all kids in the town take fluoride tablets. We gave our son fluoride tablets daily from age 3-5 until we moved to where we live now. He never once had a cavity and he never got the white staining on his teeth from an overdose of fluoride. Anyway - so far using a teeny tiny bit and brushing well with an electric toothbrush makes our daughter's mouth very clean. She then brushes on her own with training toothpaste.
We switched to fluoride toothpaste when he could spit it out and not swallow it.
Flossing and brushing tongue will help with the bad breath.
You could try putting a little baking soda on the tooth brush (or with the toothpaste) and brush with that.
It will clean a bit better and make the toothpaste less tasty.
You can start him with floss and brush his tongue. My daughter likes the fun colorful animal shaped flossers. If he can spit out the tooth paste then you can start on one with fluoride, but I have found that most are also candy type flavors. If he is not ready to spit add some baking soda to the water, it tastes yucky but it will help.
My daughter was 3 1/2 when I got her to successfully rinse and spit. We didn't have her use regular toothpaste until then. I started using easy flossers when her second set of molars came in and they were too close to get a efficient brushing job. Wait of the regular toothpaste till he can rinse a spit.
If your son is swallowing toothpaste, I'd avoid the flouride. He'll probably swallow that, too, along with the artificial sweeteners. That's why they make the 'training' toothpaste. And added flouride will do nothing for his breath, it will only strengthen the surface of his teeth.
Since he will rinse and spit, you might try adding a touch of baking soda to the water. It will counteract the acids in his mouth, help control germs, and neutralizes many odors. Start with a little, then add a little more until you find out how much he'll tolerate.
But stinky breath can have many causes, including the kinds of foods eaten, and the general chemistry of the body. Often sore throats or indigestion are accompanied by bad breath.
