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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Toddler won't brush his teeth

22 replies

Mothership1 · 20/04/2012 17:30

Hello all, can anybody give menany helpful tips on brushing my Ds pearly whites!!???
I have always let him hold onto abtoothbrush since getting his first Peggy, just to get him used to it, now he is 18 months and and a complete meltdown when intry to brush his teeth, he literally clamps his teeth on the brush as soon as I put it in his mouth! I don't want it to be a traumatic experience for him I even make him laugh to open his mouth but as soon as that brush goes in he loses it! Any advise would be very welcome!!!! xxx

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Nagoo · 20/04/2012 17:32

I used to let the toothbrush flick hideous toddler spit over me so DS thought brushing was funny.

headfairy · 20/04/2012 17:33

he could be getting a new tooth so it may be sore for him to brush... try one of these dd will occasionally use it. She's another toothbrush refusnik. My dentist did say that actually it was better to endure a few tears and holding her down to get her to brush her teeth. Its much better to do that than hold her down to have fillings.

Siddhartha · 20/04/2012 17:36

brushing teeth isn't going to be a trauma in anyone's life! just get it done - its a small inconvenience in his whole day and if he hates it, he'll hate it for two minutes. i have q4mo who's the same, i just wait a minute when he clamps, then carry on when he relaxes.

ProcrastinateWildly · 20/04/2012 17:37

Ds hated it at one point, but he soon realised that it's going to happen whether he likes it or not, and he is very compliant now

Siddhartha · 20/04/2012 17:38

14 mo! ...not q4mo whatever that is, duh!

TooManyBubbles · 20/04/2012 17:39

Sorry, I'm in the h

Original poster

Mothership1 · 20/04/2012 17:40

Ha ha i will try all of the above!! I guess your right it's better to hold them down to brush their teeth than when they're having fillings!! That will be my inspiration for tonight's attempt!! Xxx

OP posts:

Siddhartha · 20/04/2012 17:41

...ot tub?

[intrigued emoticon] Toomanybubbles !

ProcrastinateWildly · 20/04/2012 17:41

That's my inspiration, too Mothership, it definitely make me a determined brusher, whatever reaction I get!

Petrean · 20/04/2012 17:41

My DS is 2 I let him brush his own teeth on the morning, usually just sucks the toothpaste off the brush before announcing 'I finished' but in the evening I'll brush them and that involves me siting on the toilet (seat closed obviously), clamping his legs between mine, holding his hands in one of mine and using the other to give his teeth a good brush. He hates it but it's a minute of his day he can deal with it, his teeth are too important.

TooManyBubbles · 20/04/2012 17:42

Oops!

I'm in the holding down (gently) camp. Brushing teeth is non-negotiable and they both learned that fairly quickly. We only had to hold them down for a little while and now they are very compliant and not in any way traumatised!

TooManyBubbles · 20/04/2012 17:46

Siddhartha sorry was jumped on for a very enthusiastic cuddle by my DS and posted too soon!

Good for you OP, your little will get used to it soon. My two think it's really funny when we tell them they used to need holding down as they down remember.

TooManyBubbles · 20/04/2012 17:47

^ little one goodness me my typing is dreadful today!

PinguFanatic · 20/04/2012 17:47

Something that got us past this period was to let my son brush my teeth with my toothbrush, and then while he was doing that I was able to brush his teeth with his toothbrush. It just seemed important to him that he was able to hold a toothbrush and play with it. It was a bit messy, and not all that pleasant when he tried to stick it down my throat. It worked though, and now he happily brushes his own teeth.
I was also told by our dentist that as long as I was using a floride toothpaste then it didn't matter if he was just chewing on the toothbrush, so for a while I let him do his own teeth and he just chomped on the toothbrush.

Every kid is different though, if I tried to hold my kid down to brush his teeth it would just become more of an issue until he wouldn't go near the bathroom. He's a stubborn one... just like me

Original poster

Mothership1 · 20/04/2012 17:50

Thanks guys, it's almost bath time for him so I will let you all know how it goes!!!!! Fingers crossed!

OP posts:

MadameOvary · 20/04/2012 17:53

DD was never very keen, but i used her love to Charlie and Lola to explain that the same sort of germs/bugs mentioned there also liked to eat her teeth and we had to get rid of them with a toothbrush. Employed lots of sound effects and sometimes she asks me to brush her teeth and "kill the bugs Mummy!"

cheekylittledevil · 20/04/2012 17:57

I hold DS down to clean his teeth. He's 12....

TheSoggyBunny · 20/04/2012 18:00

We have the toothbrush monster, he comes jumping and snarling into the bathroom. Dd is giggling so much by this point its easy to get 20 seconds of really good brushing.

Dh usually does the monster whilst I pin dd down on the pretext of a big cuddle to hide her from the monster.

Works for us!

LetsKateWin · 20/04/2012 18:03

I did it in the bath for a few nights and then DD realised that it's not at all traumatic.

CornishKK · 20/04/2012 18:07

DS used to do this, we developed a huge range of tactics - very popular was pretending he was an animal and cleaning specific food from his teeth e.g squirrel/nuts, lion/meat, cat/biscuits, of course you MUST make the noises & feign massive enthusiasm

I also let him clean his own teeth, then Mummy had to check & count each tooth individually and tell him what a great job he'd done.

Then of course there is the tooth brushing songs......

At the moment we're getting him to sing scales/pretendy opera to get in there!

Someone on Mumsnet posted the advice that you should pretend to be a children's television presenter when dealing with toddlers, it works. I channel the mad bint from Mighty Mites

Original poster

Mothership1 · 20/04/2012 18:47

SUCCESS!!!! slight pinning down and tears but I Showed him who was boss and got the job done!
2 mins later he is dancing away to iggle piggle and peace is restored!
Thanks for all your help very much appreciated

Xxxx

OP posts:

headfairy · 20/04/2012 19:26

glad to hear it Mothership... the thing about toddlers is that they bounce back so quickly. One minute they're wailing and weeping over something really trivial like having to wear boots instead of shoes, the next minute they're singing twinkle twinkle little star. They forget so quickly, I think by the time you've reinforced it's part of his daily routine, he'll have forgotten any minor upset that reinforcing caused.

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