I’ve wondered for a while now about when would be an appropriate time to start baby off on brushing his teeth. Though he’s already 15 months old, he hasn’t got a full set of teeth. It’s quite strange that he seems to have stopped teething after having something like 10 beautiful little teeth. But as he is eating more and more types of solid food, I am increasingly worried that he might get food stuff stuck in between his teeth and therefore brushing may become necessary for good oral hygiene. I believe these things should start young so that it naturally becomes a part of life and a good habit to upkeep.
Pictured above is baby’s first toothbrush. It’s also called a baby gum massager. It’s pretty intuitive how you use this brush on baby. Just slip a finger into it and ever so gently brush baby’s teeth with it. You can also gently brush against his gums. The brush is very soft and gentle so it should not hurt baby, provided you do not press it hard against his gums.
You can use a safe baby toothpaste to clean baby’s teeth but we decided now’s not the time yet (I wrote about a safe toothpaste for babies here). It works just fine for us to clean out whatever crumbs that could be stuck in between his teeth without a toothpaste.
I found that cleaning baby’s teeth is a very easy experience on us simply because baby doesn’t mind it. In fact, he looks forward to it. Whenever we ask him to open his mouth while holding the brush in front of him, he readily does it, and opens it wide and nice for us!
