Toddler teeth brushing trouble

[SuperFurrySlippers]

It's becoming quite a battle. 20mo DS is very independent (so he thinks!) and likes to do everything himself, this includes brushing his teeth, however to him this means sucking the toothpaste off, and little or no actual brushing. DH & I will try to brush for him but he either clamps his mouth shut or won't let go of the toothbrush. Lots of protesting and wailing going on (and that's not just DS!) Any suggestions for effective tooth brushing without the struggle? thanks

My DD is 18 months and does the same. I worry all the time that her teeth will go bad. I always offer her water after meals and milk hoping it will wash out part of the food, but helpless otherwise. Tried to brush my teeth with her so she could copy, but she just plays with the toothbrush.

I know it's a nightmare isn't it, battery toothbrush is what we are trying now dentist said it was fine for dc at 22 months. There is also a sort of rubber chew thing you can buy sometimes dc just bites down on that for about 20 minutes with toothpaste on it and we count that.

We have two tooth brushes. DD has one tiny one and we have her proper one. Both get tooth paste on.

Sometimes she does my teeth, sometimes her own, often both (yes its not ideal but at least we're getting them brushed).

I can then focus on doing her teeth either at the same time as her or when she's finished.

my DH resulted to pretty much pinning her down and doing it for her (sounds soooo much worse then it was!! He's suffered with his teeth so it really does come from love!) And it worked very quickly! She happily (most of the time) does it herself, properly, now (she's also super independent and wants to do everything herself) although I do wonder what the neighbours think when they ssometimes still hear 'right, well I'll just have to sit on you then!', threat works every time tho! And to clarify, the bathroom windows always open, he doesn't shout it!

I've found with DS (21 months), he's sometimes more cooperative if I let him brush my teeth/poke me in the face with my toothbrush while I'm doing his. He also likes to take his brush out of the holder, hold it while I put the toothpaste on etc. It doesn't always work though.

we had the same problem with DD (2.6). we bought her a "big girl" box to stand on by the sink, let her choose her toothbrush and me or DH brushes our teeth at the same and she will copy....before that i had maybe 2-3 second of scrubbing before she started playing up. we just perservered really, and tried our best to make it a fun thing to do - i think in the end she realised it was something she was going to have to do morning and night regardless of how she felt, and now she's quite happy with it.

she especially likes the spitting out bit
x

Thanks everyone, some good ideas there and glad to know it's not just us!

Will keep perservering. This morning he whacked his head on the bathroom door trying to escape and now has a lovely lump

My DS went through a phase of not letting us brush his teeth at this age. I read some old threads and a few people suggested to make it a game and say you we're looking for things in his mouth. It worked straight away. We would look for cars, trucks, Mr men etc all over his mouth and brush them away! He would sit with his mouth open and have a good giggle! Worth a try!

Attention, we followed your suggestion tonight and it worked a treat! DS was giggling away and telling us what else was in his mouth - turns out most of his friends from nursery were in there - and we got some good proper brushing done. Thank you so much!

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