My 3 year old daughter seems deathly afraid of trying to spit while brushing her teeth. We started her on a non-fluoride toothpaste but then wanted to switch her to a fluoride toothpaste since she will be going to the dentist when she is 4 and we want to make sure she is getting adequate help with keeping her teeth clean. However she screams, cries and downright bucks when I try to get her to try to spit out the toothpaste with a little bit of water, etc. My dentist's office says as long as she is getting toothbrush to teeth (whether it's with just plain water) is good enough and if she is getting fluoride in her water that's better than not. I don't know what to do. Thanks!
THANK YOU to all the responders to my dilemma. I truly appreciate it. I always think there are other things in the world that are far worse than her not spitting, but when you are going thru it, it seems just to take forever to be resolved. I had my hubby read the posts too so now we are more informed and are going to "lay off" and just have her continue to brush without toothpaste or even with the other non-fluoride one...who knows...she might just surprise us one night and spit! I remember when she was 2 1/2 and spitting was "the thing"...I should have capitalized on that at the time! :)
We don't use toothpaste for the same reason. My DS is 5 and still hates to spit in the sink. So he puts a little baking soda on his toothbrush and loves it and I don't have to stress about him spitting or not. He gets fluoride in the water, no need for it in the toothpaste. I don't use fluoride toothpaste either.
Definitely get her OFF the flouride toothpaste. It's a toxic chemical that they market to be "good for you" because it's cheaper than if they had to pay to dispose of it!!!
Our whole family has used flouride free toothpaste (and drink our own well water) for about 3 years now. Our daughter has been to the dentist 2 times already-- she just turned 4 at the end of March-- and has had NO cavities. We don't even remember to make her brush all that often. And the dentist says her teeth are great and to keep up whatever we're doing.
On that note, we do take care with our diet which I also attribute to her no cavities. We drink NO pop. Very little juice. Probably about 2 glasses a month. No fast food. And very few desserts. Plus we eat about 90% organic. So we are working very hard to have good health.
Good luck but don't let he swallow that floride!!!
I wouldn't push it. Flouride is not necessary for healthy teeth. We do not do flouride in toothpaste, and I'm petitioning the city to take it out of our water. I always post this when discussions of flouride come up. It's a 1/2 hour long, but worth the watch.
I agree with Kathy - Flouride is definitely NOT something you want to be ingesting - whether it's in toothpaste (what kind of non-flouride do you use? We use Tom's of Maine) or your drinking water.
It is one of the leading causes of tooth discoloration, and there is so much flouride found in city water that it should be considered contaminated and not fit to drink.
Just think about drinking a glass of city water from your tap. There's more flouride in that glass of water, than in the toothpaste your son wouldn't be able to spit out.
Stick with the non-flouride toothpaste and lobby your city for a non-flouridated water supply.
I think the only think you can do is trust your dentist's advice. :-) My 3 year old caught on to the whole spitting thing from watching us and her older sisters. But, honestly, IMO if your dentist is okay with brushing with water, it's just not worth a power struggle with a 3 year old.
If she is not comfortable spitting out the toothpaste yet, go back to the non-fluoride toothpaste you were using and try again when she is a bit older.
Flouride is not to make teeth any cleaner, it just makes the enamel stronger, and if she has it in the town drinking water, that is sufficient. I had an overdoese of Flouride as a kid, I lived in the country with well-water, so they had me chewing tablets daily, but then I went to school in town, and drank the water there, and our greade-school had monthly fouride treatments we all did, and we had flouridated toothpaste - I do have VERY hard/strong teeth, and at 31 years old have still never had even one cavity, BUT I do have yellowish spotted discoloration on my teeth (I have never smoked, and I brush very regularly) because of the excess flouride.
My grandpa and uncle are dentists and my Mom, Aunt and cousin are dental hygienists, they all have told me that the action of the brishing is what cleans the teeth, not the toothpaste. Stick with unfloridated until the aversion to spitting passes, and make sure she sees you and Daddy and big sister brush and spit, to imitate it.
I have the opposite problem, my 2 year old spits out the toothpaste before she has even brushed at all - she enjoys spitting right now, and she wants to spit everywhere, not just in the sink after brushing - the living room, the kitchen, the dinner table....so count your blessings! LOL!
Good Luck
Jessie
Stick with the non-flouride toothpaste or water for now. Eventually she will get past not wanting to spit. This is not worth battling over!
Try the baking soda, it doesn't taste that good though! If they don't eat lots of sugar your dentist's advice for just water is probably more than enough. If she wont use toothpaste though, its probably a bad idea to have any candy.
My son is 3 and I haven't worried about teaching him to spit yet. I second the recommendation for Tom's of Maine Kid's toothpaste though. It is more the consistency of adult toothpaste and not syrupy sicky-sweet at all. And it's flouride free. The physical aspect of brushing (friction of the brush on the teeth) is way more important to getting them clean than any type of toothpaste. If you're really concerned that she's not brushing well enough, you should get her one of those battery-powered toothbrushes (They even make Dora and Disney ones). The other thing that most people skip (including me) is the length of time you spend brushing. It's supposed to be a full 2 minutes, which, if you set a timer sometime, will probably seem like forever. What I do with our son is let him brush his teeth himself and then go back and go over everything myself to make sure he got it all.
M. - I would be very concerned about her not spitting out the toothpaste if it contains fluoride. Be sure to read the back of the label. Fluoride is a poison and the warning on the back of the label indicates you are to call poison control if you swallow too much toothpaste. I switched my family to a non-fluoride toothpaste made by USANA Health Sciences. We actually don't drink city water either due to the high content of lots of chemicals including pharamceutical drugs, I have a reverse osmosis sytem on our kitchen water. Fluoride is very over rated.
Good luck,
D.
Hi M.!
I recommend a toothpaste called Little Bear, it does not have flouride in it. Contrary to popular myth, flouride is not good for us. In fact if you look at the back of the toothpaste, I do believe it still says, "harmful if swallowed" Whats up with that? There are plenty of studies out there showing that flouride is bad for us.
My daughter is going to be 8 years old and is just starting with the Flouride toothpastes, at her last checkup, she still had no cavities. They keep asking me if I want her to have sealants, flouride treatments, and I politely tell them, "no thank you!"
Just get the Little Bear or look at the health food stores for non flouride, she will be just fine.
God bless your little one!
