My Son Will Not Spit When Brushing His Teeth

He's still a little young to spit. I'd keep letting him use the toddler toothpaste with no fluoride for another 8 months to a year and then he should be able to spit.

My 2yr old does the same thing. He imitates spitting but nothing really comes out. It is something that they learn with age to do. Just give it time and be happy he is even intrested in brushing his teeth!!!

S.

Do you have him drink water from a cup to rinse his mouth? I think he would spit it out then if you told him not to swallow.

Hi D..... My son is now 4 years old. He also refused to spit at age 2. We started playing a game. Much like the game you use to potty train a boy - ya know... you give him a target. I put something... anything that amused him, a toy, a cheerio, whatever... into the sink by the drain. Then " I betcha can't hit that with your spit! " Gave him a big sip of water and had a contest! Sometimes, I'd do it with him... I'd take a big mouthful of water and spit into the sink and hit the target. It worked for us! Good luck!

Not to worry, it shall come in time...it's very common.

Hi, my son did the same thing.. i found out he liked the taste of the toothpaste a lil too much. So, I had to start tricking him. I am now a stay at home mother as well, but, at the time I wasn't... I make him brush his teeth with less toothpaste on it. And I say let mommy start and he can finish, I even get daddy involved anmake sure he watches daddy spit.... Like a big boy.. It's crazy how he may do it more if daddy is right there vs mommy... But, opther than that you may try having him rinse his moth out after each row of teeth. It'll take extra time but....

my daughter used to do it also. i found getting a toothpaste that doesn't taste good works until he gets the hang of it.

Hi D.,

This may be a silly question but... is he putting enough water in his mouth to rinse that it's full and it has to come out? If he's rinsing thoroughly and he's still on non-fluoride toothpaste, the spitting part should come eventually. Believe me, every little boy learns how to spit! :)

***Just for the moms that don't know, FLUORIDE can KILL a child if swallowed. It can do much, much, more damage than a tummy ache.

Hope I helped D..

Regards,

S.

I agree w/ everyone else. My daughter didn't get the hang of it until she was probably 3 1/2. I can't get my 2yr old to stop biting the brush. It is just one of those things they will learn in time. No need to be frustrated. I think the fact that he is trying is great. He gets the concept but his body isn't able to follow through. It will come, don't worry. Awesome that he is trying.

A little late to be putting in my two cents... I'm sure you have heard this already... He'll "get it" eventually -- until he does, keep doing the flouride-free toothpaste until then. Keep up the good habits!!! Yay!

My daughter had this problem. She is 3 and has just recently learned how to spit. She watched me do a few times, until finally her light bulb came on, and she said, "Oh, so that's how you spit." Ever since then we haven't had any problems. I was making her use her baby brother's toothpaste(Oragel training toothpaste), and told her when she learned how to spit like a big girl, then she could go to the store, and pick out her own big girl toothpaste. He will learn. In the meantime actually getting him to brush his teeth is the most important thing.

D., my son is FOUR and we STILL have this problem. I would love to hear any solutions you are offered! Good luck!

My daughter did that, too. I think it just takes a while to work out the mechanics. She's four years old now, and does a better job spitting, but still won't be winning any spitting competitions. As long as you're using just a pea-sized amount, everything should be okay if he swallows some of it.

You may have to watch the entire process so you can catch him before he swallows and remind him "now spit or brush along with him children always do what they see! Also put a little water in his mouth and ask him to spit it out just to be sure he knows how to "spit" and oh one other thing having the children's toothpaste taste sooo good that could be why he's "eating" it.

With my daughter, we practiced spitting clear water out first. After "warming up" with the water, she was better prepared to spit the toothpaste. It wasn't always perfect, and I noticed that sometimes she would swallow while we were brushing (which I assumed meant she just wasn't able to control that yet). I also noticed that it was easier for her to spit when I used lots of toothpaste as opposed to tiny bits, because it creates more of a mouthful to get rid of. Hope you find something that works!

Don't worry about spitting. Once a boy does learn it he'll never stop. My first son did it at 2 1/2. My second son got it at 3 1/2.

I have this same problem with my 2 year old. I spoke with his dentist about this and I was told that most children don't spit until around age 6. The dentist said it was perfectly fine to just follow his lead. Just keep modeling the correct way for him so that he will know what to do.

He's still a little young... just give him a little more time. I was told by the dentist not to expect this until they were 3!

it's just something he's going to have to grow into. I thought my son would NEVER learn how to spit and one day he just did it. My daughter learned really early , she was around 18months. My son is almost 4 and he's only been spitting for prob 6-8 months.

Hi D.,
This will come to him in time, dont worry too much about it. I would definately keep him on non-fluoride toothpaste until he fully has this concept. Fluoride is a toxin when ingested and does much damage. My child was on the non-fluoride one until 3.5. Once we switched, she got a cavity. Really makes me wonder...Lol. Good luck to you guys:)

I agree with everyone who suggested he may be a bit young. I had a student who I started working with when he was three. At that point he hadn't ever brushed his teeth, so I started teaching him at school. We used the toddler toothpaste to begin with, but when he got a couple months practice, I took him outside with a basin of water and a couple of cups. We took turns putting water in our mouths and spitting it as far as we could. It was so much fun that he picked up on it very quickly and we started with flouride toothpaste the next day.

Please make sure to use toothpaste without Fluoride if he is not spitting and instead swallowing the toothpaste. My oldest daughter was doing the same thing as a child and also sneaking and using the Fluoride mouthwash more than once a day. She absorbed too much Fluoride and when her permanent teeth came in they were severely discolored with rust colored stains. My sister-in-law who worked for a dentist was the one who told me my daughter had Fluorosis. She was so self-conscience about her teeth, she never gave a full smile, only a closed mouth smile. It wasn't until she got braces that she smiled(mainly because the stains were hidden by the braces). Once her braces came off, our dentist was able to use an acid wash to remove the worst of the stains. She still has some discoloring, but she uses teeth whitening strips to make it less noticeable.
The whole experience had such a profound effect on her, she is now going to school to be a Dental Hygienist.
May be if you tell them the story of what happen to a little girl named Ilissa, they'll start spitting.
Good Luck!

my four year old still can't spit out the toothpaste but knows how to spit..she swallows it everytime (still on the training toothpaste) i'm afraid if i graduate her to big kid toothpaste she will swallow, get sick, and then NOT want to brush her teeth again!

My son is 22 mos and will not spit either. I think they are fine since it's toddler toothpaste. They probably just don't really know quite how to spit just yet; and this will come naturally soon enough.

They are too young to know how to do it yet. He will learn. SMILE!

There is a possibility of him swallowing the toothpaste but depending on the toothpaste some of the toothpastes will not create foam. If it is creating foam then he would have something to spit. The Orajel toothpaste for kids doesnt really produce foam. I think the toothpaste has to have fluoride to produce the foam. I noticed that once I moved the kids to kid Crest, etc. with the small amount of fluoride it started producing the foam to spit. Once there was foam built up in the mouth my kids had no problem spitting it.