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?

tickle, make her laugh, make a song out of it, let her brush your teeth fist and failing that bribe her.

first, I meant, not fist. sorry.

Hi there

I've always had problems getting my LO to brush her teeth...at the correct time. She would happily chew on a toothbrush during the day, but come bed-time she would kick up a right royal fuss.

Now she's 3..and tells me she hates the taste of her toothpaste. So I bought her a fruity one (yes, they are approved by dentists ) and she's fine.

Maybe this is the same for your DD?

Following a tip on here, I got my 19 mth a brush baby which is a chewable silicon (I think) toothbrush which you just smear with toothpaste and give your baby to chew on.

It's bristled all the way round so reaches the molars, and my ds happily chomps on it without throwing a tantrum:

www.amazon.co.uk/Brush-Baby-Chewable-Toothbrush-Teether-colours/dp/B003469LAM/ref=sr_1_2?s=baby&ie=UTF8&qid=1292360350&sr=1-2

Thanks for tips - I've tried brushing my teeth at the same time but that brush gets snatched from me and thrown to the floor too! She loves the toothpaste - sticks her finger into the tube and sucks on it which I guess means she is getting some fluoride ! I will give the chewable brush a try, perhaps something new will do the trick.

DD was like this: an almighty battle morning and night for months on end. We figured that a few minutes of thrashing was better than a mouth full of grey teeth...and then suddenly about 2 months ago she stopped protesting (we did stop entirely for about a week as she had some very painful ulcers on her tongue and it was really hurting her :() She now co-operates and seems to be happy to try herself too.

Dentist said anything you can manage is good and that he generally doesn't see children until about 3 (she had chipped a tooth which is why she went).

Persevere: and try a different toothpaste too.