Tuesday, August 15, 2006

HELP NEEDED


OK, here's where all you ladies with kiddies can help me out, and PLEASE DO! So, Elliot has had teeth for a few months now - two of the cutest, itty bitty teeth on his bottom gums. My husband and I would like to keep them healthy. We've read loads of places that we should brush our baby's teeth as soon as they arrive, and we know it's important.. but how? There's differing advice as well, twice a day, once? If it's twice a day, then no problem in the morning - it's just the nighttime brush that would cause concern. We normally feed Boy a bottle last thing at night and he falls asleep. How am I going to maintain said sleepiness if I have to swish a mini-kid toothbrush in his mouth and then rinse for him? What did everyone else do? Am I making this harder than it's meant to be? Please help!
*Edited* I forgot to mention - I was going to go the health visitor this week and then realised I couldn't for whatever reason (boxes are being delivered - because we're moving! and doctor's appointment - what do you reckon a 'liver test' is meant to be?) and frankly most of the health visitors have been pretty useless in the past.
And is anyone else noticing my movie quotes? I've left the titles of where it came from off for a reason. It's bloody difficult to remember to add them, but I still think they're fun!

Samantha: It's really human of you to listen to all my bullshit.

9 comments:

  1. Thats very good question!When you know the answer, please, I need help too!In my case I breastfeed which might make it even worse!!!Other question that have been bothering me for some time:how on earth will I break the routine breastfeed=>baby sleeping?....Not easy job being mother!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was wondering what those quotes were at the bottom of your post!

    I have no advice about the brushing, I've been looking for answers for that too :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I brush my son's teeth at night, and in the morning (if I can remember). I also use an electric kids toothbrush, the kind that twirls around really fast. That helped when he got rebellious about brushing teeth.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I too got the electric one for my son. He just fought me so much that I couldn't hold him down and use the manual brush. At one point, when I used the manuals, I would stock up on different ones because he lost interest so quickly with them. It helped but it was pure madness.

    This reminds me that I should be paying more attention to the girl's and I haven't been doing so. I know these aren't main teeth but I'm like you, I want them to be healthy.

    Oh I've now started brushing his teeth when he gets his bath because he knows after shower time it's bed time so he can't complain.

    Ok, since you feed him a bottle before bed time my only suggestion to you would be to brush his teeth before you do it and immediately when he gets up.

    I did notice the quotes but I had no idea what they were.

    (I haven't even finished putting together my 100 things. Maybe I'll get through it some time this week.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey,

    Not that I have my own child but I have a massive irritating family and the general opinion is once a day is perfectly fine, until they are old enough to brush themselves. The other recomendation is to use bubblegum flavour or other stuff as mint can be a bit strong for a baby and few tend to like it.

    I love the movie quotes especially the wedding singer song...though the other song he write about linda had me in hysterics for years.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I guess we could brush his teeth after his bottle, although it'll be difficult. I would think that people only brush in the morning to get rid of that bad breath, which is cool because, babies don't eat rubbish, and, as such, don't have bad breath. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. We brush our little guys at night after his milk. The toothpaste we use doesn't require rinsing. It's good to get them to learn to fall asleep without the help from milk. Hard to do in the beginning of starting a new routine, but babies are extremely smart and resilient...just need our guidance.

    ReplyDelete
  8. There is a slight difference with falling asleep with breastmilk in the mouth, and falling asleep with milk/formula in the mouth. The sugars in milk can eat away on tooth enamel, and cause tooth rot. Breastmilk does not have the same kind of harsh sugars, and therefore do not attack the teeth. That is why it is important to not fall asleep with milk in the mouth. And if they do, that is why it's good to brush teeth in the morning...just trying to be helpful...

    Smile!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Well, since the subject is "babies" look out for the book Im loving at the moment: "The science of parenting" - Margot Sunderland...

    ReplyDelete

HI! Thank you for leaving a comment, you've just become my new best friend :)