How I introduced the concept of oral hygiene to #BabyHashtag

I am writing after a loooong break! Why the long break you ask? Just. I found myself surrounded by a lot of toddler energy and my daily schedule went out the window when teething woes got added to the list.

While we are on the topic of teething, let’s talk oral hygiene. I’ve prided myself of having gotten though 29 years of my life without a single visit to the dentist. I never really needed it. I thought I was blessed with gifted gums but turns out my mother was a tooth fairy. She gave me good genes and a healthy oral hygiene routine, the knowledge of which I would happily pass on to #BabyHashtag.

#BabyHashtag started cutting teeth really early. By the time she was six months old, I could visibly see two white bits on her lower gum. They sprouted up within a couple of weeks and the next month came along another set of pearly whites on the upper gum. By the time she was 9 months old, she had 4 teeth and was biting everything in sight.

As was tradition, we went shopping for the baby every weekend. There was always something that we had to buy for her. Call it, new parent mania or whatever, we had it. So one of our shopping trips when she turned 6 months old, we bought her the booster seat and we also bought a set of training toothbrushes for her. These training toothbrushes for babies by Pigeon is essentially age appropriate gum and tooth cleaning aids that are shaped like toothbrushes so that the baby can learn how to handle them.

The third yellow toothbrush in this set is a miniature toothbrush and #BabyHashtag started using it a little after she turned one. Initially we did not give her a toothpaste, it was just the brushing she got used to. We guided her a few times, later she started mimicking us. Trying to use the brush like we did. It was endearing and heartening to watch her try and succeed after a few misses.

When I was trying to decide whether or not to introduce a toothpaste for her, I was sent the Mamaearth Berry Blast Toothpaste.

It is fluoride free, 100% natural and MadeSafe certified. It’s the newest product in their baby care range and I was all too excited for it. I also got another brand’s toothpaste in the banana flavour just in case she rejected this. She happily accepted the berry blast toothpaste. The other toothpaste we bought sadly never saw the outside of the packaging it came in. It’s cute to see her brush working up that little lather and getting totally excited by it.

Like I mentioned, the Mamaearth toothpaste is fluoride free so it’s ok if your baby swallows it while brushing. They naturally and instinctively try to mouth everything that either looks interesting or smells good. She’s taken amazingly well to the zingy berry flavour and brushing is well, a breeze.

You can buy the toothpaste on http://www.amazon.in or http://www.mamaearth.com