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Parenting

Tooth brushing tips for one year old

4 replies

SRK16 · 10/09/2020 20:20

My son is nearly one and has seven teeth. I ‘brush’ his teeth twice daily but I’m worried it’s not effective. He doesn’t let me brush properly, tolerates me moving the brush around for a couple of moments then just chews it. He’s perfectly happy chewing it but as his teeth are at the front I imagine it’s pretty ineffective.
I try brushing my teeth with him but he just thinks it’s funny that I do it. I know there are songs about teeth brushing but he’s a bit young to understand. Any advice?

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crazychemist · 10/09/2020 21:17

Just keep trying. You can get chewable things that effectively brush their teeth as they chew, you just need to keep going through the motions with the brush so that it becomes routine. I used to pull faces to make my DD laugh as that exposed the front ones for a decent brush!

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MrsWolf2 · 11/09/2020 12:10

We used the Hey Duggee toothbrush song on YouTube. I don’t think she understood it but it hypnotised her for long enough for us to get the job done anyway.

I didn’t want to use screens to do it, but it was the only thing that worked and I decided a bit of screen time was better than unbrushed teeth!

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rosydreams · 11/09/2020 15:56

just turn it into a game tickle tickle with the toothbrush his sides his cheek his side and then tickle tickle his teeth go back and forth

making them laugh gets them to open their mouth

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SnowdropFox · 12/09/2020 14:11

I second hey duggee! It mesmerised kids! Now mine is 2 she is much more tolerant of brushing and will try herself after I've gone over them. She is still chewing it though.
They'll grow out of it, we just need to keep on top of it and keep their sugar content low.

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