brushing 17mth teeth???

[milkyman]

Impossible, or am I doing something wrong? Have tried chewable toothbrush, brushing with him and a brush song but to no avail!

Also when do u got to dentist? He has 7 teeth.

[minipie]

Not easy. Things that help us (DD is 16mo):

• DD brushes her teddy's teeth, then her own (and occasionally lets me do a bit). the toothpaste goes on after teddy's had a good go but he occasionally gets a bit toothpasty despite best efforts
  

• if we read a book with tooth brushing in (Maisy books are good for this), she is noticeably keener
  

• brushing with mummy's toothbrush is sometimes more popular than her own (I'll take any brushing I can get)
  

• allowing her to brush my teeth
  

chewable toothbrush hasn't helped us. I've heard electric toothbrush can help but not tried it ourself.

In theory dentist visit asap but that's more to get them used to going. I have read they don't actually do anything till 2 years old. We've not been yet

[gamerwidow]

At 17 months you need to still be brushing his teeth not letting him do it. My dd always resisted teeth brushing too but we made it non negotiable even it it meant tears every time. It took a lot of months of fraught teeth brushing sessions but she grew out of it and at 3yo brushes her teeth beautifully (with a bit of help). Dentist wise I took dd with me to my annual appt at 18 months or so to acclimatise her to sitting in the chair opening her mouth etc. then she had 6 monthly appts from 2ish

[croquet]

I was in this situation and I had a couple of evenings where I forced her to let me brush them. Waited til she was in pjs after a happy fun bath then lay her down on our bed and pinned her down and said let mummy brush them then we can have stories and cuddles. She hated it the first few times but now lets me do it with little struggle, and almost quite enjoys it. I go 'bzzzzzzzz' as if it's an electric toothbrush. Only in the evenings mind you, I let her do her own in the AM.