Baby Products,  Bean,  Milestones,  Parenting

Pearly Whites

Bean almost has all of his teeth already.  He got his first one when he was about four months old and since then he’s pretty much always been cutting something.  Unless he’s cutting an incisor or a molar, he’s been pretty good about cutting teeth.  He runs a little bit of a fever a couple days before, but he never gets too cranky.  With his incisors and molars, he got really, really irritable a couple days before they came through, but the minute they broke the skin, he was back to his normal happy self.  I think we’ve been pretty lucky.

At our one-year doctor’s appointment, the pediatrician said we should go ahead and start brushing Bean’s teeth with a child’s toothbrush and toothpaste.  So, I bought Thomas the Tank Engine toothpaste and the tiniest toothbrush I’d ever seen.  And then I giggled for two days.

The only experience I had brushing someone else’s teeth was brushing the dog’s teeth and that is never a pleasant experience, so I was dreading Bean’s first time.  But, turns out that babies are a lot easier than dogs!  Bean loved it!

I’m sure there are a ton of ways to brush little dude’s teeth, but here’s how I did it.

I wet the toothbrush and then put just a dab of toothpaste on there.

Then, I showed Bean how to open his mouth by opening mine and saying, “Ahhhhhh….”  He mimicked right back and so I started brushing each area of his mouth.  Occasionally, he would bite down onto the brush and when that happened, I’d just open my mouth again and show him how to say, “Ahhhhh….” and he would open right back up.

When all of his teeth had been scrub-a-dub-dubbed, I rinsed off the toothbrush and then let him run it around in his mouth.  I figured this would get some of that toothpaste out since he’s not really able to spit yet and I also thought this would give him the experience of brushing his own teeth.

We brushed Bean’s teeth right after his bath.  Our pediatrician recommended that we only do it once a day, since right now we’re really only doing it to get Bean in the habit and it isn’t really doing too much so far as cleaning goes.

I can’t believe he’s old enough to brush his teeth now.  I can’t believe he’s old enough to have any teeth to brush!!!  Wasn’t he just an teeny, tiny, toothless newborn yesterday?!?!?!

25 Comments

  • Marie

    That’s just too cute! You’re lucky he’s so good for you to stand there and let you do it. Looks like he’s really enjoying it as well!

  • Sarah H.

    So sweet! He’s growing up! The only experience I’ve had with brushing teeth is my cats–apparently if you do it when they’re wee little ones then they get use to it, and it helps them live longer. Sounded like a great idea when they were 12 weeks old! But I gave up on it after a bit, and now even if I had a cat toothbrush (yes they make them!) with tuna water on it they’d hardly be interested in me brushing their teeth. Do you still brush your dog’s teeth? My thought is€”what do they do in the wild?? No one is brushing a feral cat or a wolf’s teeth-certainly not.

  • Lori @ I Can Grow People

    We actually started brushing P’s gums right after he cut his first tooth. We had one of those tooth/gum brushes that you wear on your finger–just so Porter would get use to the idea of brushing his teeth. Of course, he also liked to chomp down on my finger while it was capped in that brush thing (that wasn’t fun.) But about 6 months ago we moved onto a “big boy” toothbrush and that Thomas toothpaste.

    Sidenote: Our baby toothpaste selection at our local CVS was Thomas or some Pink Unicorn something or other. Really? We can’t have a gender neutral toothpaste at toddler age?

    PS: Porter has those same pjs–with the plaid pants, right?! They are the cutest!

  • Rachel

    Just have to say the first picture in this post is so stinking precious! Of course all your pictures are good, but that one really captures something sweet. Glad to see Bean’s loving having his pearly white clean!

  • Katherine

    You do realize that with pictures as ridiculously cute as those, you often make other girls’ “ovaries chant” when THEY ARE NOT EVEN SUPPOSED TO BE CHANTING YET?! 😛

  • Tressa

    Oh dear Lord, if I have a wee one now, when I’m ready to become a grandma, I blame YOU and BEANIE!! 😉

    He is to precious and your pictures are awesome! Thanks for sharing with us.

    Have a great weekend!!

  • Mindee@ourfrontdoor

    My prediction: In the next week or two we shall see a post about how Bean is now stealing yours and Chris’s toothbrushes and running around chewing on them and then screaming bloody murder when you take them away.

  • Megan (Best of Fates)

    I’m not going to lie – when I read the title of this post, I weirdly assumed it would be about whitening Bean’s teeth. But no, as I should have expected, you’re a normal mom. One who doesn’t whiten her 1yr old son’s teeth.

    And I admit – it sounded like a weird, though interesting post.

    And I was just a teensy bit disappointed.

    ‘Cause well, just brushing teeth didn’t live up to my craziness hype.

  • Candy

    I don’t comment too often but read faithfully. Just wanted to let you know how much I’m enjoying watching Bean Boy grow!

  • Amy

    I think our boys are just a few weeks apart and I keep seeing my life in your posts about Bean! Elijah absolutely loves brush time but becomes a terror when it’s time to put the toothbrush away. I have to pry his fingers off one at a time while he screams in protest. Some day I’ll have to bribe him with m&m’s to get him to brush his teeth.

  • Megan

    We started this a few months ago as well. It went really well at first. Q-Tip would let us brush for a couple minutes and then we would let her brush. It’s has gotten a little more challenging. She wants to brush them herself all the time now. So I got a cheapo toothbrush and I gave it to her and told her to brush mine while she brushes hers. She thinks it’s hilarious and I feel good knowing that they are brushed as good as can be by me before I let her take over. I wrote a post about when we started awhile back…

    http://reddirtandcrazy.blogspot.com/2010/04/time-has-comefor-dental-hygiene.html

    Megan

  • Nona

    I so agree it seems like you just got him on your site a few weeks ago! He has to be one of the cutest boysI have ever seen.
    Enjoy your time with him he’s just going to be more fun everyday!!

  • Sarah @ BecomingSarah.com

    We started brushing Charlotte’s teeth when she was about seven months, right after she cut her first two and we started giving her solids. And oh my goodness, now she’ll hold the toothbrush on her own and try to brush them herself. Toothbrushing just gets cuter and cuter!!

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