Toothbrushing drama - advice please!

[PirateWeasel]

My 21-month old HATES having his teeth brushed. He'll sometimes take the toothbrush and chew it for a bit quite happily but as soon as I take over to properly brush his teeth he struggles and cries and I have to pin him down to finish which is horrible for us both! Any tips for his age would be so appreciated. We've tried singing songs and brushing our teeth at the same time to show him what to do and jolly him along, but it doesn't seem to help.

Maybe his gums are quite sensitive? Try a softer brush? Try various toothpastes? My kid will only accept aquafresh, fussy little monkey.

My dd has only started willingly brushing her teeth since she's been 3 and I do mine at the same time. Dh times us and we have a race to see who can brush their teeth the best in two minutes. We know that doesn't make much sense, buy it works for her! We did an awful lot of forced tooth brushing before that.

Plus an unexpected bonus: if I brush my teeth at dd's bed time of 6.30pm - I can't face evening snacks because it's vile mixed with toothpaste - win win

My 20month old is the same! He was always fine with it until the last month or so and it takes me and DP to hold him down to do it properly. We've started watching the Hey Duggee toothbrush song which has helped massively because Duggee is his obsession. We have to be quick but he will let us do it now.