Don’t know what to do about brushing teeth

[Rubbermaid]

My dd is 16 Months, has her top four and bottom four teeth plus molars on the bottom left. I’ve been brushing her teeth since the first ones emerged at 6 Months and although she’s never exactly loved it, she did at least tolerate it, after having had a bit of a chew of the brush herself.

However for the last couple of months it’s been absolutely impossible. She completely refuses to let me brush them, (clamps mouth shut, shakes head, wriggles, pushes, kicks etc) and although she’ll hold the brush herself she won’t put it into her own mouth. I’ve tried everything I can think of, letting her play with it for ages first with no attempt to brush her teeth, playing with the brush in the bath to associate it with ‘fun’, brushing my own teeth, etc etc. I’ve just bought her an electric one designed for babies as I thought, even if I manage to brush for a couple of seconds with that then it’s better than a couple of seconds of a manual one.

However she is just not having it and I’m getting really worried as I obviously want her to have healthy teeth and gums! It’s made bedtime really stressful which is of course not what anyone wants.

What do I do?

Not me, but when my mum did this with my little sister, I got the lovely job of asking infront of her if mum could brush my teeth too.
Awkward couple of seconds of having my teeth brushed (15 years old) by my mum my sister soon wanted to join in, has your daughter got older siblings or maybe try with your OH?
Sounds bonkers but it only took the once!

Good lord! You know that bit in Ratatouille, where the food critic has a vivid flashback when he eats the ratatouille? I've just had that about fruity toothpaste, used to have it when I was little.

Might have to try it on my son, he's the same age and brushing his teeth is... problematic. I generally can't brush his teeth properly, but he will take the brush and chew it. I ended up getting two brushes, one for him to chew, and one for me to try and brush!

at you aged 15 having your teeth brushed! No unfortunately no siblings or OH - the joy is mine alone!

At what point do you just give up and swaddle them in a towel, like when you have to give medicine to a cat?!

You pin them. Screaming makes it easier.

Tooth brushing is non negotiable, they cave eventually. I used a similar be behind them method a PP described but I squeezed cheeks to make a goldfish face. The more they screamed the bigger the mouth open.

They don’t get to dictate this one.

Brushbaby? Jojo sells them. Our DC had these for the first 2 years I think, and a dentist relative said they were fine to use. Then we tried normal kids brushes but they weren't keen. Both ended up with electric toothbrushes like ours, which they generally like. You can get a mini electric toothbrush from Jojo but we found the battery connections were dodgy, so not reliable. Ended up with the kids Oral B ones.

I have swaddled both of mine

They both went though this stage. I tried everything - electric toothbrush, mummy’s toothbrush, novelty brush, different flavour pastes, apps, singing, in the bath, on a stool, with a mirror...eventually I just a had to pin them down. Brushing is non negotiable here. No lasting psychological damage and they both grew out of it

If it’s spoiling bedtime could you brush on the kitchen or cloakroom before bathtome to separate the two things a bit?

I used to sit on mine!

DD is also 16 months, she just chews the toothbrush at the moment while I sing 'this is the way we brush our teeth on a cold and frosty morning'. She does hers in the bath. I haven't thought to do them properly for her yet or do mornings..she's got about 6 teeth (I think). I started brushing her older sister's teeth at about 2.5, she does them then I do a quick scrub after. No pinning down or anything. I didn't know it was a big deal at this age

DS is 21 months, he's only just letting me get a good brush once a day. We don't brush everyday (because he acts like it's torture) but 3 times a week I do get a clean wet flannel, dab a bit of toothpaste on it and I give his teeth a good rub when he's deep into his sleep. He's too young to understand any 'no sweet if no brush' bargaining (plus he's in someone else's care all day while I work), but I plan to use that once he's older.

Keep trying, you'll get there

We were told by dentist you have to do it.

So, it's a two man job. One wraps dc in towel and lays down on floor. The other tickles them until they laugh, they open mouth and you quickly clean the teeth.

We used this method on dd and it has caused her no lasting trauma. She has good teeth now.

My daughter isn't too bad now at 2.5, but I did (and still do if necessary) pin her down to have them brushed. Teeth are brushed twice a day and that's not negotiable - I dare say she'd find having decayed teeth extracted in hospital more traumatic! Not generally one for physically overpowering toddlers, but make an exception for tooth brushing.

I couldn't disagree more about persisting. You have made it into an issue, a tug of war and she is fighting back.
Leave it for a good week, then try a new way of doing it very gently with no pressure. So leave it for a week so she forgets all about the war. Then perhaps let her brush your teeth or just hold tooth brush casually whilst doing something else. Ease up to maybe little dab of tooth paste in. Back off immediately at any signs of stress. Dc change so much every day at that age, leave it and you should be back to it in no time, try different tooth paste and brushes

BTW my own dc both went through different periods of resistance and as per my advice I dropped it and both have great teeth now, oldest is ten. Teeth are not going to decay and drop out with a few days brushing missing. Even with brushing and good diets much decay is genetic

Try brushbaby - they even have tooth cloths so at the very least you could put tooth paste on that and get in with your finger under the cloth iyswim

Ps lay off acidic fruit and juices and chocs etc while she is refusing

Cheese is a good food for creating a healthy environment in the mouth

I have the same with DD (2.5), as a last resort I pin her down. I have found that she is mostly OK because she knows I will persist until it is done. Sometimes I give her a choice of her brushing my teeth too or her sister (11) brushing her teeth. We do "ah" and "ee", I sing "this is the way we brush our teeth", we brush the toys teeth, read the Peppa visits the dentist book, explain we need nice clean strong teeth to eat yummy food etc

Bribe with sweets?

Do baby teeth not all fall out or what. Has that changed now?

What's the point of all this trauma until the permanent set start to grow?

As you can see I have no children but surely at sixteen months it is just a wasted excercise.

Uh Oh, I await the dental nassies.

cathyclown I presume you're not serious. You do understand that baby teeth can rot, causing serious and permanent damage to the whole mouth, including the permanent teeth that are already in the jaw? Not to mention gum disease and how dangerous (even fatal) that can be.

We have to pin DD18months, she has to open her mouth to complain and we just get straight in there. We use an electric toothbrush for kids, although we have had occasional success using our adult one as she finds the strong vibrations funny. Also our dentist told us to use adult toothpaste as it was better than the flavoured kids ones, especially if you're not getting much brushing done.

Jesus @cathyclown I’m assuming you’ll learn more if you do have children but yes it is very important to brush a child’s teeth!

Those recommending to see a dentist- ours won’t see them before they are three!

Really @baffledcoconut? I was told to take my son from 6 months.

Those recommending to see a dentist- ours won’t see them before they are three

I'm surprised by that, DD is 1 and has seen the dentist twice (1st time at 6 months due to early teething (had eight already)) and second time at a year - also scheduled for every six month FOREVER...