What happens if a child always swallow toothpaste?
My daughter will be 3 next month. She loves to brush her teeth. I try to teach her to spit the toothpaste out like mommy. She swallows it and then spits. Of course nothing comes out because she already swallowed. Can this harm her and any ideas on how to get her to actually spit the toothpaste out?
Yes I do use childrens toothpaste. And I put less than a dime size on her brush.
May 10th, 2011 at 4:28 am
Providing you are using childs toothpaste with low flouride and don’t put too much on, it’ll be fine. My son does the same, keep telling them and they will get the hang of it but try not to make a big deal about it. Give it 5 years you’ll be begging them to put toothpaste in their mouth!!!
May 10th, 2011 at 4:41 am
Ironically, if you swallow toothpaste regularly, your teeth can get discolored. Most dentists say to skip the toothpaste entirely until your daughter learns to spit properly. It’s the brushing that’s getting the teeth clean, anyway. To make up for the lost fluoride, choose fluoridated water and make sure your daughter is starting to go to the dentist this coming year.
May 10th, 2011 at 4:51 am
I use Oral-B children’s first toothpaste. It says on the label that it is safe to swallow. It doesnt have very much flouride in it so you need to make sure your child drinks flouridated water. My children’s teeth are really white so I don’t think it will discolor the teeth at all. My son refuses to spit his out so I made sure to ask the dentist what I should do. He recommended the Oral-B toothpaste with Little Bear on the tube. Hope this helps! good luck.
May 10th, 2011 at 5:40 am
I dont think there is any real harm in her swallowing a little bit of toothpaste. At least shes spitting! Maybe try spitting out your toothpaste and showing her how different it is now that youve brushed with it! it starts as a gel on the toothbrush and after brushing you can look at it when you spit it out in the sink “look its all bubbly now!! and it got all the germies off our teeth! lets watch it go down the drain!” My son gets all pumped watching his spit/pee/boogies/ect go down the drain. Maybe your daughter will too and want to watch her own spit go down the drain
May 10th, 2011 at 6:09 am
Hello,
Choose a children’s toothpaste that does not contain fluoride. I have also switched to all natural toothpastes as I have discovered that many of them contain artificial sweetners? Who knew?!?!
If your child gets too much fluoride, she will get white spots on their teeth. This is called fluorosis and the spots will not go away. My dentist recommends only giving fluoride drops to my son every 2-3 days (instead of everyday) because he has seen an increase in fluorosis since everyone is pushing fluoride so much.
Pick a pediatric dentist and be sure to ask at your visit. If you are giving drops and your daughter is swallowing the toothpaste, you want to be sure and know what he/she recommends.
As for the spitting out… can you put a cup in the bathroom and see if you can make a game out of spitting it into there? At 3, they definitely do their own thing!
Good luck!
Also, I use floss picks to do my kids teeth. Much easier than trying to cram my fingers in their little mouths.