# Is it REALLY necessary to brush 16-MO's teeth?



## nofrillsmamma (Oct 21, 2012)

Is it REALLY necessary to brush my 16-month-old's teeth? 

This may be an ignorant question. Well, it is an ignorant question. I don't know the answer. DD refuses, and I choose not to force her. The closest we ever get is her brushing her own front teeth a little. A very little. A barely little.

Am I doing her a disservice? She has her first four molars (plus the front eight teeth). She still breastfeeds, as well, which I seem to remember helps with preventing tooth decay.

If I can't get her to brush, is there something else I can do to help prevent her teeth decaying? 

Thanks!


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## The Harpy (Apr 1, 2008)

Honestly mama, I chose to force the tooth brushing issue so that the dentist didn't have to force fillings. Dental health is key from a young age and to ME as a parent, some things are not negotiable. I'm the grown up and I sorry you don't like it BUT ...


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## MeepyCat (Oct 11, 2006)

Breastfeeding won't stop bits of solids from getting stuck in her teeth and causing decay. Iirc, breastfeeding is better then formula in terms of causing decay, but it won't prevent cavities. 

If she'll chew on the brush, that will get her teeth clean, but it's slow, and hard on brushes. I'm okay with using spiffy toothbrushes and ridiculous flavors of toothpaste to cut down on the struggle.


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## nofrillsmamma (Oct 21, 2012)

MeepyCat said:


> Breastfeeding won't stop bits of solids from getting stuck in her teeth and causing decay. Iirc, breastfeeding is better then formula in terms of causing decay, but it won't prevent cavities.
> 
> If she'll chew on the brush, that will get her teeth clean, but it's slow, and hard on brushes. I'm okay with using spiffy toothbrushes and ridiculous flavors of toothpaste to cut down on the struggle.


Thanks, mamas. Any creative suggestions for inspiring her to open up and let me (and/or her) brush? I give her a toothbrush while I'm brushing, which she proceeds to play with. I've kind of given up the past several day but need to re-inspire myself to inspire her!


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## tadamsmar (Mar 26, 2014)

In principle, brushing once a day to keep biofilm formation disrupted should be enough. It would have to he thorough, habitually missing a spot would let the biofilms do damage.

Electric toothbrushes work better. I guess a better toothbrush would allow less brushing.

http://www.ineedce.com/courses/1685/pdf/toothbrushtechnology.pdf

Your brushing her teeth is probably functioning like punishment now. If you got a new very different looking brush with her fav character on it and you did not use that one on her, you just let her play with it only if she put it in her mouth and encouraged her with hugs, maybe she would start brushing herself.


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## rachelsmama (Jun 20, 2005)

Dd was willing to use one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Brush-Baby-Clear-Chewable-Toothbrush-10months/dp/B00344IMVI 
I don't think they do as good a job as a thorough brushing, but they might be a good addition to what you're already doing.


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## cynthiamoon (Nov 29, 2009)

I would definitely force the toothbrushing if necessary. I've seen in parenting magazines that often parents think baby teeth rotting is no big deal because they get new teeth, but there is significant bacteria and infection transfer and it will ruin her adult teeth too. Also, habits start early for parents. If we allow ourselves to slack on enforcing hygiene, it will be harder to enforce the rules later on, IMO. I struggled with this one too, but luckily my LO doesn't mind too much. She makes a bigger fuss about getting wiped down or washed off after dinner, and I am definitely forcing that routine on her! She got away from me once, and the couch may never recover, LOL.


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## tadamsmar (Mar 26, 2014)

I would try giving her an interesting toothbrush and then brushing your own teeth (or playing at brushing) in front of her to try to get her to do mimic you. If you show interest in brushing yourself then she might do it to draw your interest to her.


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## callahansmama (Mar 21, 2011)

I would definitely say its necessary. If I forget to brush my teeth my mouth feels horrible. And that's just several hours, not days upon days. I had to force-brush my son's teeth until he was probably 3.5. My daughter (almost 2) is much better but from about 12-18 months she would cry bloody murder. Now I talk about the foo she ate that day and she lets me brush. Both got glowing checkups last week at the dentist!


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## Lauran520 (Sep 9, 2011)

Yes, without a doubt. It is necessary.

Something you might try is to allow her to brush YOUR teeth while you brush hers. Just remember to keep your teeth together so the toothbrush doesn't get pushed into your throat. I have 2 flavors of toothpaste for my 2 year old; each time we brush I ask if he wants "Berry" or "Daddy Mint". I also count out loud for 10 seconds, since that is as high as my son can count. You can draw it out as long as you need to to make sure all surfaces are brushed (onnnnnneeeee, twwwwwwwoooooo, etc), and he knows when I will stop, simply because I am counting it out for him. And then, once I hit ten, I stop. He knows we are finished and he doesn't even fuss about brushing anymore. He even allows me to floss with those little floss picks for toddlers, which I found at Babies R Us. They have a monkey, frog, or turtle on them, and he gets to pick who flosses his teeth.

Choices are helpful, but it was the counting that made the difference for us.


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## sillysapling (Mar 24, 2013)

I breastfed for 3 years. I also needed a root canal as a toddler. Breastfeeding isn't a cure-all for oral health.

Do you brush your teeth with your child? That works for kiddo. Your toddler should be around the age of "I want to do everything my parents do", which is a really useful age for getting them to do things like brushing their teeth.

I brush my teeth, then kiddo grabs for the tooth brush, I get down to his level and let him grab it (I keep a hand on it for guidance), let him guide it to his mouth, get comfy with it. Because your toddler has such a problem with toothbrushing, you may want to do that a few times before trying to actually brush the teeth to get her a little more comfy with it. Yes, toothbrushing is important, but a few days to get her comfortable with it is a LOT less damaging to oral health than a lifetime of hating to brush your teeth. I know someone with a 9 year old who she still has to fight with on toothbrushing!

Once he has the brush, I do as much as he'll let me. Then I'll brush my teeth again and he'll usually grab for the brush again, and we repeat. If he gets bored before I think we've done enough brushing, I'll push a little bit further- but I don't want to develop a negative association so I'm not going to go to the point where I'm holding down a screaming child and shoving a tooth brush in his mouth. A _lot_ of adults don't have healthy teeth or good brushing habits- at some point, I'm not going to be able to physically overpower him anymore, and I don't want that to be the last day he brushes his teeth. Of course, I'm fortunate to have a baby with fabulously healthy teeth that can handle it- if he was already showing signs of bad oral health, it'd obviously be a different story.

When you brush your teeth with your child, you can use the toothbrush you want your child to use (and obviously only use a toothpaste you're okay with your kiddo having in their mouth when you do this!).

Now, for whether or not it's REALLY necessary...

I would do a lot of research on the subject of dental health and come to your own conclusions. My conclusions are very much out there and against the grain, but here they are:

It makes no @#[email protected]# sense for an animal to evolve to need chemicals to keep their teeth alive. I know of no other animal that does. Look at all the wild animals out there who live fairly long, tooth-filled lives without toothbrushes or toothpaste. We never brushed my cats' teeth, and they lived a long (for cats) life and died with their teeth still in their mouths. It makes far more sense that a truly healthy diet will produce strong teeth that can rebuild themselves and heal a fair amount of damage.

Now, animals do have ways of cleaning their teeth- but they don't involve brushes. There are some especially crunchy people who chew on a certain kind of branch known to have beneficial properties for teeth instead of brushing- basically what our toddlers do while teething. (look up whether or not that branch, or any other, are safe for toddlers before attempting to let your child try it, personally I don't) Honestly, I think part of the chewing instinct of teething isn't just help with the pain- it also used to be how we kept our teeth clean.

There's evidence of primitive societies with healthy teeth, of the modern diet leading to bad oral health in a single generation, anecdotal evidence of people healing cavities, etc. But, I admit, this was mostly just hypothesis and ideology until my toddler's tooth healed itself. He had chipped half of his front tooth off, now it's almost regained its full length. (he chipped it about 3 months ago) A tooth that can do that can surely handle a hole, so I'm not as worried about cavities as I would be. This experience combined with the number of people I've heard from who healed their own cavities makes it much easier to have faith in my toddler's body to do what it should and relax about tooth brushing.

Now, what "a truly healthy diet" means is up for debate. No one knows, and it likely varies person to person. I don't even know if my toddler has one. Also, some people are just genetically lucky (won't get cavities even if they eat nothing but sugar) and some are just genetically unlucky (get cavities just by thinking about sugar). One thing we sometimes forget in natural circles is that it used to be that a lot of people died without modern interventions- now those people live and pass on their genes. Natural toothpaste doesn't work for my partner, even though it works better for me. My partner is one of those people who does need to brush their teeth with the modern toothpaste, and our baby shares genetics so may as well. This is why tooth brushing is still very valuable, because you just don't know. Brushing your baby's teeth is insurance. If you could say with 100% convinction that your toddler had great genes and a diet that would prevent cavities (or allow any that form to heal before they get too bad)- that'd be one thing, but how many people can truly do that? I certainly can't. I had a healthy diet and still got serious cavities, after all.

*HOWEVER*: I know a lot of people on this site don't use store-bought baby food, but have you ever read the labels in the baby food section? Sugar. Loads of sugar. Too much #[email protected]# sugar. I'm not even talking toddler food, I'm talking _baby_ food. Food designed for babies under a year old, with added sugar in it! "Teething biscuits" with a butt-load of sugar- I actually tasted one and almost spat it out it was so sickeningly sweet! I heard someone put forth that a 9 year old today has already eaten more sugar than an average adult has in their entire lifetime. Cavities are caused by bacteria feeding on sugar. When we dump this crapload of sugar into our kids' mouths- guess what's gonna happen? So, yeah, I feel safe going out on a limb and saying that the increase of toddler cavities just might have a little something to do with the crapload of sugar we throw at them. To make matters worse, the ones with 'vegetables' in them are shameful- "apple and kale" stuff with 'kale powder' listed under "less than 1% of"! Any child that's primarily fed store-bought baby foods, especially finger foods, probably isn't getting much, if any, vegetables and is getting a ton of sugar. No wonder their teeth are crumbling.


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## newmamalizzy (Jul 23, 2010)

Have you tried any tooth-brushing games? My DD still likes the "OMG! There's a _____ in your mouth! We have to brush it out of there!" game at 4.5. I also sometimes used a toothbrushing song to the tune of the hokey pokey, which only required having the toothbrush in her mouth for short periods of time. That worked sometimes, too.


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## momotwo (Aug 22, 2014)

You will regret not forcing it in the future.


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## Ratchet (Mar 24, 2011)

Do the above suggestions to do what you can in there- and it should be completely a part of your routine- but I just couldn't get behind anything negative. I did not restrain my child and force something into her mouth while she cried, ever. She had an oral aversion (fairly mild) from being in the NICU, and so we worked with an occupational/ speech therapist on feeding issues, and some early brushing issues, and they are all about keeping it positive. I do believe that forcing something can make it worse, although not for all kids. Very gradually she got more comfortable with us helping, and better about doing it on her own.

A few additional things that helped:
- going to the dentist, for some reason. They were very positive, clearly didn't expect much, and DD was sort of mesmerized. At her last visit (about 2-1/2 yrs old) she let them do a full exam and polish with that gritty stuff and the electric spinner thing. 
- lots of choices- which mirror, which brush (I agree, electric is better, but DD goes thru phases...), me help, she does it, which tooth paste, at each brushing as well as picking out those accessories at the store. Sometimes all those choices added up to a crappy brushing but I was still respectful of her choices. And always something would get accomplished, because the act of her doing something with a brush is not a choice (sometimes it's just chewing on it or brushing her tongue). 
- give her some special toothbrush only toys (we have 2 smurfs. One brushing his teeth) that she holds while I help
-we didn't use them, but OTs have some fun toothbrush style devises for chewing on, like this http://www.arktherapeutic.com/Toothbrushing.html (looking at the web page, it really makes you respect a child's mouth and the complicated sensory/motor/ control issues going on there, even for a child with "normal" oral development)

But at 16mo, she wouldn't let us do much. Now she asks us to use floss (well,those flosser things). Be positive/fun, patient, consistent and respectful and it will get better. It feels to me like we have made a good investment.


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## mamalex23 (Oct 1, 2010)

We do brush and floss in our household, but would not leave that as our only strategy for preventing/reversing tooth decay. I don't know how old kids need to be to use a Water Pik or oil pulling (with coconut oil) but those techniques should be implemented to clean our gums after brushing and flossing. Additionally, tons of brushing without adequate dietary fats and minerals will not keep teeth strong (Weston A. Price, Ramiel Nagel). 

As a general rule for keeping teeth healthy in our home we avoid oats and soda, because they contain anti-nutrients that leach or prevent uptake of certain key nutrients and minerals necessary for tooth health. Also we avoid all whole grains that are not properly prepared at home (with soaking/souring/fermenting). And we eat and supplement with the highest quality animal fats available to us (fermented cod liver oil and high vitamin butter oil, desiccated liver capsules, grass-fed butter, bacon, sausage, raw milk, raw cheese, pastured eggs and extra yolks, bone marrow and broth and coconut oil with plenty of nutrient dense veggies and small amounts of high quality meat and seafood).

Teeth that are strong from the inside out will resist tooth decay indefinitely, whereas teeth that are weak will succumb quickly. Do your own research, don't Just trust your dentist (who is in business for profit). And Good luck to you All- No mater what approach you take. Maintaining good oral health is certainly a wonderful gift to give our children.


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## mamalex23 (Oct 1, 2010)

*Also, breathing through the nose and sleeping with the mouth shut are very important for maintaining strong teeth and avoiding the orthodontist :wink:


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## sillysapling (Mar 24, 2013)

Some especially crunchy folk chew on a specific branch throughout the day. I don't know if this branch is safe for kids or not. It's not something you chew and done like toothbrushing, though, you have to do it throughout the day.

A lot of animals have ways of cleaning their teeth, and I actually wonder if some of the chewing instinct kids have isn't also a "tooth cleaning" instinct. You don't necessarily have to _brush_ your teeth, but some form of tooth cleaning is necessary and toothbrushing happens to be the most familiar/convenient for us modern folk. I won't say it's best, those who chew on the branch swear by its beneficial properties, but I'll admit I have no desire to chew on wood all day.

Whether or not to use commercial toothpaste is another story, but you can look into the pros/cons of it and homemade alternatives on your own.



> As a general rule for keeping teeth healthy in our home we avoid oats and soda, because they contain anti-nutrients that leach or prevent uptake of certain key nutrients and minerals necessary for tooth health.


You do realize you can soak oats, right? Just as much as you can any other grain. Actually, I've heard you can't soak rice (it doesn't work right anyways) so I don't know what that's about. You also need to soak nuts, which you didn't mention. I actually really like soaked nuts- they're easier on the stomach. Quinoa is the only other thing I can bother soaking, though. Can't stand the taste otherwise. There's a company that's making soaked/sprouted bread and pasta- have you seen that? I've found it in Stop & Shop. It's not GF so I've never tried it, but still neat.

It's honestly not necessary for everyone to follow it to the letter, and different people have different needs. My kiddo eats a fair amount of un-soaked grains (yes, including oats), we can't afford most of the grass-fed animal products, and he still healed about half of one tooth. I admit, he is on CLO/HVBO, which seems to have a big impact. WAP himself showed that just having one meal a day that followed his protocol then eating the standard diet the rest of the time was enough to have a huge impact. It's not all-or-nothing.


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## cynthiamoon (Nov 29, 2009)

Let me just say, that you have to exercise caution when you make evolutionary assumptions with no evidence. You also have to consider the world has changed. And many of our natural strengths are either moot or transformed into weaknesses in modern society. For one humans who lost their teeth to decay such that they couldn't properly eat probably just died. That's the natural answer... But not really the modern society answer. We'd rather keep chewing into our 70s, which means turning to man-made solutions for a natural problem.


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## sillysapling (Mar 24, 2013)

How much do you actually know about what you're objecting to? (can't tell if it was the chewing sticks or WAPF diet) Unless the answer is that you've done a good deal of research- you really shouldn't comment on what you don't know about beyond asking for more information. If you do know what you're talking about, you should be able to list specific reasons that our claims are mistaken. 

If you're claiming that my "I actually wonder if" is an evolutionary assumption... You may want to check out the dictionary definition of "assumption". It's not the same as "wondering".


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## mamalex23 (Oct 1, 2010)

WAP himself showed that just having one meal a day that followed his protocol then eating the standard diet the rest of the time was enough to have a huge impact. It's not all-or-nothing.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for bringing in this important aspect. It makes it MUCH more approachable to make this kind of lifestyle switch if you know just a LITTLE bit counts! The FCLO/HVBO has been shown to heal and protect teeth on its own.

We just try to eat as much of the good as possible (especially at home) and minimize the MOST harmful foods as much as is polite and practical. My kids still eat hotdogs in buns sometimes, and occasional mac and cheese, and some Lundberg organic white rice (lowest arsenic) but sine we don't eat many grains, we eat them refined when we do, and soured if possible (sour dough bread), since the anti-nutrients are in the bran and germ. And we always try to pair grains (and also nuts and fruit) with traditional fats, which replenish key nutrients that may be depleted.

It is about balance and also keeping it fun. I'd say we focus on our diet more then stringent toothbrushing, but we do enjoy the foods we eat (even weird ones you would never believe) and brush when it feels good/we want to.

I know this goes against mainstream ideas and maybe should be restricted to TF's forum(?), but I thought it was useful to chime in about the important nutritional aspect of oral health. I wish my parents had known this when I was little!


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## Ratchet (Mar 24, 2011)

Regarding the branch chewing- in addition to the brush/floss like action of it, it makes you salivate a ton. Our dental hygienist made some comment about kids having great teeth due to having so much saliva, which is so true (I mean about my daughter being full of saliva-I realize not all kids have great teeth). Is that why sleeping with your mouth open is bad? It's so drying? How do you prevent it?


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## sillysapling (Mar 24, 2013)

mamalex23 said:


> It is about balance and also keeping it fun. I'd say we focus on our diet more then stringent toothbrushing, but we do enjoy the foods we eat (even weird ones you would never believe) and brush when it feels good/we want to.


This is actually the most surprising change about ditching commercial toothpaste- I DO want to brush my teeth! I used to hate doing it, I'd do the bare minimum (once a day, just enough to say my toothbrush touched every teeth, spitting out and rinsing out immediately). When I first switched, I actually brushed my teeth twice a day for the first time in my life and was happy to. I was never before able to stand brushing my teeth for a good 2 minutes, now I can. My teeth are dentist clean and it takes missing at least a full day for them to get even a little fuzz on them, so it's not that they're just gross- I just enjoy brushing my teeth now! It's not even like the toothpaste always taste nicer, my homemade stuff is a little salt heavy.



> I know this goes against mainstream ideas and maybe should be restricted to TF's forum(?), but I thought it was useful to chime in about the important nutritional aspect of oral health. I wish my parents had known this when I was little!


Mothering.com itself tends to go against mainstream ideas. That's kind of the idea.  Also, it's 100% relevant to the topic- how necessary is toothbrushing for a 16 mo?

My personal opinion is that diet is FAR more important and that I'd much rather encourage a healthy, positive relationship with toothbrushing than force it at the cost of developing a negative association.

It's also important to remember that some of this is genetic and other factors. If my toddler showed signs of unhealthy teeth, I'd want to push toothbrushing to avoid invasive dental procedures. I'm fortunate enough that my toddler's teeth are strong and remineralizing, which makes it a lot easier to be lax about toothbrushing.



Ratchet said:


> Regarding the branch chewing- in addition to the brush/floss like action of it, it makes you salivate a ton. Our dental hygienist made some comment about kids having great teeth due to having so much saliva, which is so true (I mean about my daughter being full of saliva-I realize not all kids have great teeth). Is that why sleeping with your mouth open is bad? It's so drying? How do you prevent it?


Yeah, sleeping with your teeth open is drying. It's why natural toothpaste options don't work for my partner- they have allergy and such conditions that makes it hard for them to breathe through their nose overnight, so their teeth are awful. (they also had a REALLY bad habit of drinking juice throughout the night to handle dry mouth)

I don't have any suggestions for how to handle it. My only experience with it is a medical condition that my partner's doctors/dentists haven't known how to fix. 

The branch chewing also uses specific trees that have beneficial properties (ie. anti-bacterial), so it's basically got built-in toothpaste. Just pointing that out.  The salivating thing is really interesting, I never heard that before.


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## MeltCandy88 (Jul 1, 2014)

newmamalizzy said:


> Have you tried any tooth-brushing games? My DD still likes the "OMG! There's a _____ in your mouth! We have to brush it out of there!" game at 4.5. I also sometimes used a toothbrushing song to the tune of the hokey pokey, which only required having the toothbrush in her mouth for short periods of time. That worked sometimes, too.


Amazing idea. ANy other nice suggestions from wise mamas?


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## bunnybran (Sep 17, 2014)

I definitely agree with the facts of brushing a 16 month, as my family dentist Rockville suggested me for the same.


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