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@josina: My son eats SO MUCH. and he still refuses to brush. 5 months ago, we had to tackle him down to brush and he would bloody scream. Then he started pointing to his teeth and telling us it hurts and cringes when he bit down on certain food. He was a few months shy of 3 years old at that time. We took him to two different pediatrician dentist to get a few opinions. We know for sure he has a cavity in the front top between two teeth. We can see it. The first place said it is very very tiny and not to worry about it but just keep brushing as best as we can. (They knew how bad he was when we needed 4 people to hold him down just so they can check his teeth- and all they did was open his mouth to look). Both dental place said that the front cavity is very small and that they don't see any other cavities. We were so relief. Just to step back, after the first place, he was still cringing and saying something hurts, so of course we were still worried, so we took him to another, and they said the same thing. One additional thing they told us was that one of his last molars was just 2/3 in and she suspected maybe that the tooth trying to come in was giving him some discomfort. 2 weeks later, he wasn't cringing anymore. Phew! but that isn't the last of our worries. Now 5 months later, he has gotten MUCH better at letting US brush him, no more bloody screaming. He still doesn't know how to rinse and spit out water. We are still working on that but he keeps drinking down the water (we give him bottle water just in case he swallows it). We've tried every trick in getting him to learn to spit it out. No luck yet. So here we are just praying he'll keep his teeth in tact until they are ready to come out on their own. The dentist said that they wouldn't be able to do any work on him with his behavior, even with the options of laughing gas, they need him to be "somewhat good". I couldn't even comprehend giving him laughing gas, I feel so bad thinking about it.

Hi everyone! I'm curious as to how your dentist diagnosed cavities. We've been going every 6 months since 2 but we haven't had any x rays yet. We are a milk at bedtime and middle of the night which is a terrible habit but works so well. Our dentist told to me to floss in between the molars which has me wondering if he saw something but didn't mention any cavities.

@Elizabear: They don't normally do xrays until at least 5-6 years of age if i remembered correctly that's what they said. They basically just look for visible cavities and our question to them was "what if the cavity is in between two teeth?" We went to two places for a 2nd opinion, and both places told us that if it's in between two teeth, the cavity is minor and no cause for concern and not something they would treat at the moment for their age.

@Adira: Thanks for the comment on gummy vitamins, we normally give them around 8 a.m. but we don't brush until about 12:30 as part of his nap routine. I am going to rethink that now.

We have used a pea sized amount of flouride-free toothpaste since he was about 8-9 months. At 2 years old I started getting nervous about cavities so we added in a grain-size amount of fluoride toothpaste, in addition to the othertoothpaste, to mask the taste.

The ADA recommendation is to use a grain size amount of fluoride as soon as the teeth erupt.

I haven't ever encouraged LO to spit, but we wipe inside his mouth with a towel briefly.

We use an electric toothbrush, which hopefully gets more.

@gingerbebe had a great tip that we use: have/make your child lay down between your legs, with their arms under your thighs, so that they are immobilized. Brush quickly while singing a simple song. At the end of the song, stop brushing and cheer and clap.

@josina: So glad it went well! Both girls have an appt coming up this month; I'm so nervous!