Toothbrushing...

[Elfina]

We're really struggling to brush DD's teeth. She purses her lips and runs away! I guess we could 'force' it by holding her arms! but is their another way? We've tried letting her do ours, but she's interested for a second, and it doesn't translate into being able to do hers!

Oh, and she's 18m...

You could either give her a little toothbrush and get her to brush your teeth, or ask her to do her dolly or teddy. Normally they open their mouths copying you and you can nip in with the brush.

I'm having problems with Ds and brushing at the moment. I'm having a bit of success with pretending its no big deal! I put toothpaste on his brush then leave it in the side of the sink. Then I just carry on with my own teeth etc. and don't mention it at all and he eventually comes and picks up his brush and starts. Once its in his mouth he'll let me help but uf I approach him with it he goes nuts.

Its not quick but its the least stressful way around it for us. The other thing that's helped is our lovely cm making it a tutorial by demonstrating on the dog then sitting all the kids in front of a mirror at the dining table with a bowl of water, a toothbrush and toothpaste. Might be worth a try?

He's just tuned 2 btw.

Give her a choice of toothbrushes & toothpaste. It help des my ds feel he had control, then would concede some & lets us brush. Role play with teddies helped too. He did teddies, we did his.

We also did no bedtime story if no tooth brushing at times.

Just drum into them it's a non-negotiable. Ds at 2.5 suddenly turned into an absolute delight as he finally got that no brushing = no chocolate!

My DS is 18m. I give him the toothbrush and let him potter about first for a bit (often while I do mine), then pick him up and I do it properly. I try and keep it light, making buzzy noises and saying 'say ahhhhhh' 'back ones' 'front ones' etc so he knows what I'm doing. Some nights he does the clamped mouth routine but I try and make him laugh or whatever to get going. He is starting to get that teeth are non negotiable.

We are having some success with using hand puppets... donkey and hippo (xmas presents from an aunt) compete to brush DS's teeth. She finds this really funny and is amazingly compliant. Previously it was a regular battleground. (She's 2.5 yo.)

DD's teeth, not DS's. (He hasn't got any teeth yet...)

Does your dd like Peppa Pig by any chance? May I suggest the episode where Peppa goes to the dentist (he's an elephant but there's only so much you can do!!) and he says say 'aah' etc. tbh we did a combination of coaxing and wrestling with dd1 at that age.

After trying everything, DD eventually let us brush hers while she was in the bath and we sang a made up song (tune of row row row)- brush brush brush your teeth etc etc I think after a bit of persistence they just succumb to the fact that it's going to happen whether they like it or not. Now I just say teeth time and she will skip over to me and open her mouth (she's now 2). We even tried a vibrating baby toothbrush, it was wick don't waste your money on stuff like that!