Which dental care products did you use?

Which dental care products and methods did you use for your infant and toddler?
Gauze or "finger toothbrushes" or regular toothbrushes? Fluoride-free toothpaste?
Xylitol toothpaste? Did you start flossing and when? Your experience with electric
toothbrushes? I am just curious because it seems that every family takes a different
approach.

[Hope2OneDay]

I've been using the little rubber finger brush with my ds. It's the Gerber brand that says "Grins and Giggles". It comes with Fluoride-free toothpaste that tastes like fruit.
I started using it right after he got his first tooth. We have "real" toothbrushes now, but he won't always allow me to use it. Unfortunately, that means he is able to bite my finger through the rubber one! Ughhh...
Hopefully he'll let me use the real brush very soon!

As for the fluoride toothpaste...Infants don't need the fluoride yet, so it's best to wait on that.

[Trialanderror]

Thanks for your feedback! I remember being bitten through that rubber finger brush, lol...

As for toothbrushes, the Oral-B stages idea worked well with brush sizes catered to the size of a toddler mouth. For a while I was convinced my son would be hooked on brushing with the help of an electric toothbrush. Not so. Those things are way too large for a growing mouth to actually clean the cheek side of teeth. They are loud and the brush heads are rarely replaceable. It doesn`t take long before electric toothbrushes are used to clean the doll house or the toy cars...

We are still struggling with the children`s flossers. Some are as small as one could only hope for, the "bear face" ones, but a child`s cooperation can be so limited.  For us it only works if the flossing happens at a different time than the brushing.

With toothpaste, we only recently switched to a fluoridated one after 6 years. Pure watermelon flavor. Most kids seem to despise peppermint taste, even if it is mixed with fruity flavors, but maybe this is a way to make them spit out the toothpaste. We also tried kids` toothpaste containing xylitol which unfortunately only came in peppermint or grape flavor. Since grape or cherry taste is used for most children`s medication, it often brings back bad memories in a child. So, watermelon it is.