How the blinking crikey to get DS to clean his teeth?

[herbaceous]

Hello there

Hopefully this hasn't been done to death, or at least not recently, but we're having something of a battle getting DS (2.1) to clean his teeth. He used to let me do it, but now just clamps his mouth shut.

If I encourage him and sing endless songs about cleaning teeth (including the Tombliboos one), he'll give his front teeth a quick scrub, but that's it. I've bought him numerous different types of toothbrushes, including an electric Spiderman one, but he just likes turning it on and off again. If I go anywhere near his mouth with it he's too scared.

I've denied him sweets during the day, saying he can't have them until he learns to let me clean his teeth, and shown him lots of clips of his favourite characters cleaning theirs. I clean mine at the same time, and invite him to join in, or help me.

NOTHING WORKS.

I don't want to hold him down and force him, as that doesn't seem the way to develop a healthy attitude towards it all, but don't want him to get tooth decay or gum disease either.

Any handy hints?

Well my one seems to work although it is a bit weird. I say oh my goodness there is a chicken in your mouth! Quick I need to get it out! They seem to find this very amusing then I chase the chicken around their mouth making squarking noises. This works for any type of animal and I also use the electric toothbrush as a 'laser' to kill the chickens, cutting off their heads etc etc.

I need help

Works though

Thanks AngryFeet! I tried that tonight - but with mice - and it seemed to work! At least for a bit. He seemed to think it was rather fun, or at least humoured me while I had fun chasing mice round his mouth.

Will try again tomorrow, perhaps with a different animal each night.

There's an Usborne book called "Max & Millie clean their teeth" which has a very obvious plot but DD (22 mo) loves it and has got much better at cleaning her teeth. She now goes right to the back, gives a scrub, pulls the toothbrush out and says "like Max" etc. She also likes doing the "clean teeth" dance like they do in the book.

I used to say 'Either you brush your teeth or I have to do it', followed by 'Hamster face!' - grab ds, grip him between my thighs, squeeze his cheeks, and waggle the toothbrush about inside. Sometimes this was a bit of a token effort...

But he usually likes brushing his teeth after I took him to a large Boots to choose a new toothbrush. It's a hideous pink cat-shaped one with a clip-on cat head to cover it, and he loves it and wants Kitty Toothbrush to be happy, which obviously means getting to brush teeth!

The Tweenies did an episode on toothbrushing which also helped, and getting tall enough to rinse his teeth himself helped a lot, so 9/10 times there's no issue any more once I get him to the bathroom.

Well, DP did AngryFeet's technique last night - with elephants - and it once again worked. But thanks for the other suggestions, which I shall employ if once 'animal in mouth' technique wears thin!