How do I brush her teeth? Help?

[Katiepoes]

My 18 month old has decided for about a week that we can no longer brush her teeth. No problem before, but now she wants to do it herself, and her version is just putting the brush in and grinning around it. I have visions of holes and rotten teeth haunting me, what on earth do we do? Even if we manage to get the brush in she bites down and holds it, how on earth do you go about this?

She can do it herself after you. Or give her a brush and you have one too.

I did a lot of getting ds between my thighs (excellent exercise...) and squeezing his cheeks, telling him if he didn't brush his teeth, I had to do it. Usually led to him shouting 'I do it!'
Doing it for him to copy helped, too. And letting him choose the ugliest toothbrush in the world...

But the dentist says not to worry too much, a bit of a waggle of a brush with toothpaste for 0-3s, and a token rinse, and leaving it, is just fine if they aren't eating sticky sweets, just keep doing it daily. Not that said dentist has managed to see ds's back teeth properly yet!

It's not a huge issue at this age if they just suck the toothpaste off the brush and make a token effort. Offer gently to give it a go, perhaps pulling silly faces that she can copy. But mostly, don't worry about it. Give a piece of cheese or other acid-neutralising food last thing. Diet is more important than teeth brushing at this age in contributing to good oral healthcare.

Yes also told by the dentist establishing the habit is more important than extremely thorough brushing at this age.

She can have her go as long as you can too. Getting a touch of toothpaste on as many teeth as possible is the important thing. Also we were told spit not rinse to keep the fluride working.

If you are brave let her do yours to make it fair.

Thank you all! I have myself convinced she'll look like Shane McGowen by the time she's three, I've gone through the wars with my own teeth so I'm paranoid.

I guess we just keep at it, as I said until a week ago we were 'allowed' do it. I didn't want to force her in case we put her right off, maybe she'll give in if I let her do mine. (Sadly Elmo and Teddy have no teeth, otherwise we'd sue them). Will try tonight, wish me luck!

You may be horrified to hear that where I come from children used to start brushing their teeth around 3-4 years of age. We were all absolutely fine and still have lovely teeth :-)
Totally agree that creating the habit is important so it's probably a good thing that your DD wants to do it, she can get really good at it by the age of 3 :)

We used to get DS to roar like a lion in order to do the back teeth, and continue to roar til they were finished. He then used to Squeak like a mouse in order for me to get the front ones, and after I had finished doing his, or before, he gets to have a go himself. it stopped the biting down trick.

I had the same problem with my toddler. Sorry to tell you it may go on for months. But keep trying! One day she will let you!

We bought DD a chewable toothbrush like this and she uses that at night - when she is more stubborn about refusing to brush - and a normal brush in the morning. She really moves the chewable brush around, right to the back of her mouth, and chews on it for a while so I hope that her teeth are at least getting a good wash with the toothpaste but she still gets to practice proper brushing in the morning.

Oh I like the look of that, thank you!

DD loves it and now asks to do her teeth which is great. I don't know whether it is as good as a normal brush but for us it's better than having a battle with her at bed time. Good luck.

DD likes to watch me brush my teeth, so I pretend to brush mine with her brush and when she opens her mouth I quickly brush hers, then repeat this about 4-5 times. I also let her hold the toothpaste while were doing it!!

Got mine a mam learn to brush set. It has a little brush for them and a big one for you. Found that really helpful.

During the toddler years we had the same issues. This gave us the inspiration for a product we thought might help.

We have just released an app to help keep her, and yours, on task with tooth brushing. It's called Brush with Jackson and works on iPhone and iPod touch.
He brushes along to music for 2 and a half minutes.
We had other families test run him for us and all reported back that he is a great distraction/ inspiration.
We have a website if you want to check him out. Rosiesplaytime.com.
Happy to hear your comments or opinions of how we can improve him.
Thanks for reading. Ps he's £1.49

Diana

Something that helped with DS (but he was probably a little bit older) was to pretend that if he opened his mouth really wide we would be able to see what he'd had to eat that day.

So...he would open wide and whilst we brushed we'd say things like "hmmmm, I think you might have had some Cheerios today because I can see the little hoops in there....ooh, did you have some pasta too?.......and is that a banana I can see there?" he thought it was great and would nod and look really surprised when we got it right

It would be non negotiable with me. They can have a brush and a go, but they will also be brushed.
When my 16yr old wasn't cleaning his properly with braces his orthodontist told him 'you either clean them or your mother will do it for you'!! If he can say this to a 16yr old then I think you can with a toddler!! (he cleaned them properly there after)