need help with brushing teeth

[junkfoodaddict]

... my 21 month old does - not me!!
He got his first tooth aged 8 months exactly. Prior to this we have always encouraged him to chew on a MaM teething toothbrush for 6 months+.
As soon as he got his first teeth, we've always brushed his teeth with an age appropriate toothbrush and toothpaste, but over the past few months, we have had a nightmare time trying to brush his teeth.

As far as I am aware, we have tried everything.

1. DS choosing his own toothbrush - he owns 4!
2. Turning it into an 'Aaaaaaaaah' game - worked for a month.
3. Singing.
4. Allowing him to 'brush'.
5. Brushing his teddy bear's teeth

Next on the list is an electric toothbrush, though I am not hopeful. Our dentist saw him aged 18 months and couldn't even get him to open his mouth and so it was a failed visit. I would also add that we can't even get medicine into him unless we put it in a small adult mouthful of diet coke .
At the moment, he runs away and hides. He does begin by laughing as we 'chase' him but then he starts to thrash about when we catch him. It has resorted to us having to 'pin him down' and hold his head whilst one of us gets the brush in. We do try to be gentle but the teeth brushing lasts a meagre 10 seconds at best.
My mum says it will get better but I'm not so optimstic!
Anyone got any solutions or can offer me any hope that this teethbrushing nightmare will end????????

Try getting him to brush YOUR teeth, at the same time as you brush his. He will enjoy the novelty, hopefully.

We're doing a mixture of:
1 Earning a Peppa Pig sticker saying "I've brushed my teeth" & nursery making a fuss of him if he has one + other kids coveting a Peppa Pig sticker.
2 Emotional blackmail "it makes mummy sad when you won't brush your teeth" including turning my back on him till he comes back in the bathroom
3 "no bedtime story if you don't brush your teeth"

He's 26 months & Generally it works....so far!

My 23 month old enjoyed watching this video about brushing teeth - he has been much more cooperative ever since! We do have to sing the song as he brushes every time now. brush your teeth

Our 16 month-old went through a phase of refusing to let us brush his teeth - think it was when he was teething and it was really sore; he got his first teeth at 22 weeks and now has all except the upper and lower second molars. Seems a lot of teeth for such a little boy to be honest so we've been working on getting the brushing sorted for a while.

Things have got a bit better with our latest approach though which is two brushes, he gets one and we get one. He gets to brush for a bit then it's 'Mummy's turn' or 'Daddy's turn' and he comes over for us to brush a bit. Also, making him smile or giggle while we're brushing sometimes keeps the mouth open a bit longer - sort of vibrating the toothbrush leads to giggles which gives a small window of opportunity for more practical brushing technique!

Wouldn't say it's the most thorough cleaning ever to be had by a mouthful of teeth, but we do it twice a day and hopefully it's doing the job for the time being.

Had the same problem with DS (2.2) for a few months. He sometimes let me brush his teeth whilst he was lying in the bath but the best success has been letting him watch video clips of diggers on my phone whilst I do the brushing. Distraction seems to work for now and I'm hoping this is a phase he will grow out of when the painful molars have finally come through ..

Hey there, I know what you're going through. My son used to just open his mouth and I would brush away then one day he clamped his mouth shut. I tried everything and had to pin him down in the end. Then one morning, I thought I'd try something new. Put his bath toys in the sink and left the water running, few bubbles etc, then made it fun as he stood on his stool, as he was so engrossed in playing, he let me do it and I was gobsmacked! I read your post and had to reply as surely worth a go, good luck!

I think they all go through this phase. We had epic battles for a couple of months. What worked here was talking through everything she had eaten during the day, and that we could see a bit stuck to x tooth & we had to get it off. ie "oh no, I can see some weetabix on that back tooth, we'd best get that off & is that a piece of your banana" etc etc

We use a combination of distraction (iPad/TV) and wrapping up in a towel it works best when dh can help by lying him upside down on his lap (much easier to see teeth and get in there when they are upside down!)