17 mth old won't have teeth brushed!

[stclair]

DD used to chew on her toothbrush with the toothpaste on it which was fine, she was probably doing a reasonable job of cleaning her teeth. For about the past month she throws the toothbrush down as soon as I give it to her and won't open her mouth for me at all. She has probably allowed me to clean them properly by opening her mouth wide about TWICE since she got her first tooth at 6 months! She now has 14 teeth and I'm getting worried that she is going to run into decay problems if this carries on. I don't want to force her and potentially run into long-term issues but what do I do?

Try a different flavour of toothpaste maybe? Take her shopping and let her choose her own brush so she's excited about using it?

I always brushed my teeth with DS and showed him how I was opening my mouth wide and brushing all of my teeth and he copied me. I also get him to show me how wide he can open his mouth, then I get in there quick while making "wow, you could get a whole dinosaur/bus/tractor in here" type noises which seems to help too.

Maybe a book on teeth brushing to get her into the idea?

we try the following with ds BUT if he is teething then nothing is getting in his mouth other than food or his hand!

• aaaaaah as loud and wide as you can till she copies or laughs
• sing a ridiculous song about how fab she is at brushing teeth eg "ah ah brush your teeth, ah ah brush your teeth, ah ah brush your teeth, coz * is so good!"
• let her do yours
• don't force it as it just makes ds more stubborn!

good luck!