What Toothpaste to Use for 9 Month Old?

My son has been using the orajel training toothpaste since he got his first tooth. He is now 2.5 and still uses it and will continue to use it until hes old enough to be able to spit it out after brushing.

Are you concerned because it is called INFANT toothpaste, and your son is now older? I think that's just semantics; this type of paste is recommended till the child is 3 or more years, when you can trust him to spit out. Orajel was among a couple recommended by my friend the orthodontist.
Personally I use Earth's Best because it seems to have the most natural ingredients and does not have lots of chemical sounding things, including lauryl sulfate, however harmless. And my daughter seems to like it.
But I think you're fine to stay with the Orajel.
Brava to you for brushing!

We use infant orajel and a finger toothbrush and it seems to do a good job. Every toothbrush with bristles that I have ever seen was for toddlers, but it might be appropriate if your daughter is ahead of the average 9 month old on growing teeth. However, at 9 months toothpaste is still optional, not mandatory. You can use a finger toothbrush or even just a baby washcloth wrapped around your finger. As long as you are able to get the food/formula/breastmilk out of her mouth you are doing a good job. As a matter of fact, I prefer to use the toothpaste only once a day, but I use a wet washcloth three times a day (after meals). With a light colored wet washcloth you can really tell when the food has been eliminated from her mouth, because the washcloth will come out of the mouth clean.
Other than that, I would suggest speaking to a pediatric dentist.

Why the change? I still use that toothpaste for my (she just turned 3 today) little one. The only thing I have changed over time is the toothbrush. At 9 months I used the finger brush. I didn't use any toothpaste or brush when my kids didn't have teeth.

I will add that all four of my kids -3 year old being the youngest- have excellent teeth.

Kiss My Face has a line for Kids, and i love all their stuff. Completely all natural and none of the bad additives. We use their toothpaste and soap for the kids.

Training toothpaste is all flouride free. That's the dangerous ingredient. As long as it says flouride free or training toothpaste (which will say flouride free on it) you're good. Wal-mart has training toothpaste in bigger containers than other stores (I was tired of paying $7 for 1.5oz)

Toothbrush, go to wal-mart and find the kid's toothbrushes. They have a 2 pack for $2, one is a blue lion and one is a purple penguin. They are cute and have suction cups on the bottom to stick to your counter. They have very small brush heads that are perfect for young kids. My daughter is 2 1/2 and she loves them.

Keep using a flouride free toothpaste. Switch to one with flouride when your child knows how to spit it out. They're not supposed to swallow toothpaste with flouride. My son is almost 3, and he still used flouride free toothpaste.

I too use the Melaleuca apple flavored non-fluoridated toothpaste (I also used the Orajel Training Toothpaste) and I started using an electric toothbrush at about a year (I figured since I usually could only get my sons to do about 30 seconds at that age that the electric would be more like I was brushing for longer...lol). It took a little bit for my sons to get used to the tickling vibration of the electric, but both have had excellent check ups so far. My son is now old enough to enjoy the character brushes that they get from the dentist so we now alternate electric and his "dentist" brush every few weeks (at my son's request). My sons are age almost 2 and almost 4 and both like to "brush" a little themselves while I brush the other brother's teeth. Another suggestion (when my son was your son's age)...I used to allow my son to just chew on a kid's toothbrush while I drove or when he was sitting in my lap...helped with his teething and brushed his teeth at the same time! Good luck!

I would stick with infant Orajel or the Gerber one. I think we kept those until the girls were 18 months old each. There are also some children's character toothpastes, but you want to make sure that they're NOT fluoridated.

You can move up to a soft compact children's toothbrush. There's such a wide variety out there.

Go to Tom of Main's website and they will tell you exactly why they have their ingredients. I love Tom's and will be switching all of our tooth pastes as soon as our others run out :D

Yes you should worry! Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is a known "bad ingredient" (go to safecosmetics.org to see what it does to you).

The best and only toddler toothpaste I've seen thusfar is Jason's Toddler Toothpaste - it's fluoride free, swallowable, SLS and paraben-free. Jason is the only brand out there without SLS or polypropylene glycol in it. And no, I don't work for the company LOL.