Boring, teethbrushing - but I really need your help!

[Rycie]

My nearly 2 year old absolutely hates having her teeth brushed. I have tried making it into a fun game where we do it together, I have bought a variety of different toothbrushes, we have a Dora story which we read and she loves - she even 'brushes' Dora's teeth herself on the pages. We also brush her doll's teeth etc. However she refuses to have her own teeth brushed, or do it herself.

And it has got to the point where I have to physically restrain her and forcibly brush her teeth, which is just awful and she is getting very upset and I feel that this is making it worse. If it was any other issue I would leave it seeing as she hates it so much, but she has a full set of teeth and they must be brushed.

Has anyone got any suggestions, I really need some help with this?

get her to look at her teeth in a mirror and say gosh aren't they beautiful and sparkly white, to keep them that way we need to brush our teeth. Practise without toothpaste first?
(I told mine if they didn't brush their teeth they'd turn brown and fall out but you might not want to be that extreme). It has worked however.
Also get them to pretend to be a shark, but that depends on the child.

Am watching with interest - my dd is only 14 months but she screams when we do it (specifically the top teeth). I really need my husband to hold her while I prise open her mouth. I dread it. Someone did mention her frenulum (bit of skin that attaches top lip to her gum) was very low and would need snipping so I'm wondering if that may be hurting her when we brush.

Her teeth are going yellow too - I'm at my wits end. (She only has 4 teeth as well - feel we've failed already!)

Thanks Endangered, will try that. She loves the toothpaste, would eat the whole tube if I let her!

It sounds a bit stupid I suppose, because I explain all kinds of other things to her, but she is only starting to talk and do you think she'd understand the "sparkly and white" thing?

But I will definitely try this tonight. Any other suggestions?

well you could rephrase it in words she'd understand, like "you've got teeth just like a beautiful princess / dora the explorer or whoever" and then explain that all beautiful princesses have to brush their teeth...

Also I still occasionally do "shark face" with my five year old to get him to open his mouth wide. If she likes imitating animals this might work. As you brush you can explain that sharks also brush their teeth.

Thanks a lot endangered, I really appreciate your advice.

You could try doing yours at the same time? Or get your husband to do his and you help her with hers at the same time. I do remember my DD going through the same sort of issue at about the same age and it did resolve itself fairly quickly. I think I may have bribed her with promises of reading stories afterwards ...