Teeth Cleaning help / advice

[SJPfan]

I have an 18 month year old, he has 16 teeth and I'm having a real problem with cleaning them...as in he is not interested.

I have tried pinning him down (to which he screams the place down) and also letting him try it himself - lying down, sitting down and standing up. He just chews the brush, sucks of the toothpaste and throws it away.

I've done the getting cross, the pos reinforcement, the brushing mine at the same time but nothing seems to be working.

I really don't know what to do...any advice greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Singing toothbrushing related songs, eg "this is the way we brush our teeth" verse in Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.

Letting him brush yours with your toothbrush while you brush his.

Clapping and cheering and whooping every time he does anything remotely resembling good brushing, and completely ignoring him when he doesn't.

"Mummy brush for 5, DS brush for five - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, now your turn".

Saying something along the lines of "now where's the peas/ weetabix / toast - let me find it and just brush it out, there's some peas, brush brush brush, shall we find the tuna / pasta / yoghurt, ooh, there it is" etc etc. Works amazingly well on my DD (sometimes).

Now she is 2 and quite into the idea of letters and reading, she sometimes lets us brush for as long as it takes to spell out a word: eg "shall we spell birthday? B I R T H D A Y! Horray!". Bizarre I know (obviously she can't spell herself - she's not some child spelling prodigy).

Good luck! I feel your pain!

DS was a (& is) a late developer so only 2 teeth @ 14 months etc. Best thing to remember is that currently they are all baby teeth, i.e. will all fall out in due course regardless what you do know.

I tried EVERYTHING with dd2, everything

Nothing worked between about 18m-2yr(maybe a bit older). She just kicked off every time and refused

I used to let her get on with it herself (badly!) in the morning, but insisted we did it at night. So was frequently a 2-man, pin-and-restrain job, maximum screaming etc etc

But it was a battle I picked to win, because clean teeth, to me, are important

She grew out of it and is absolutely fine now

Just wanted to reassure that it DOES pass, and don't beat yourself up if you have to resort to enforcement techniques

No advice as my 4 year old still refuses to clean his teeth 75% of the time and I still have to pin him down to do it

Am v jealous of the 18-month old with 16 teeth...my 20 month old cleans his teeth willingly which is lovely, but he still only has 8 teeth

Molars don't fall out though do they? Or am I imagining that? I thought it was only the front ones that fall out and get replaced?

I have the same issues with dd anyway. Have to resort to a little bit of pinning down sometimes. She has a go with proper toothbrush first then we brush and then she has a chewing toothbrush which she often goes to bed with and really likes - see here - brush baby

You can order them online there but I've also seem them in big supermarkets.

i have probs cleaning my ds teth hes 3.8 so i have to do them for him quickley

My son is 15-months and refuses to clean his teeth too.
I have dropped teeth cleaning in the mornign because I have to tackle the cream argument for his ezcema and I'm choosing my battles.
At night I have changed his routine and it seems to be working thus far. He has his bath, cream then goes into his bedroom to get nappied and pyjama'd. After that its milk then a story. Then we play 'teeth tickling' and giggle alot when he is calm and on my knee. I get to tickle the top and bottom with toothbrush for like half a second then its over, its building up and he's not screaming so I'm going with this. After that its more stories then bed.
I also have found that changing his toothbrush every month helps, he likes to look at a new brush and so agrees to let me brush for a cpuple of days when he gets a new one.
Good luck, teeth, nails and hair are a real trauma!!!

with our 3+ yearold we did a sticker chart and it worked really well.

with an 18 month old I'm not sure - have you told him about the tooth devils? The purple one with the long tail hanging out of his mouth :o!

I have the answer to this one! (Maybe) I never have the answer to any posts on MN but I will give this one a shot: a children's electric toothbrush. Combined with not brushing every day, combined with letting it be known that eating sweet yummy stuff is only allowed if brushing happens afterwards. I do brush every day pretty much but it's not compulsory - I try the 'no big deal' route and brushing has never been stressy. Good luck!