so how do you brush your toddlers teeth?!?

[americantrish]

ds, 2.5, is sometimes a nightmare when it comes to brushing his teeth. he bites the toothbrush and when not doing that, he actively struggles and resists.

we are having to result to using different distractions to get him to 'let' us brush his teeth. (we let him brush his teeth, but he mostly eats the toothpaste and chews his brush!)

so how do other moms out there brush their little ones teeth when the little one is adament against their teeth being brushed?

DS is almost 2. He has one brush and then I attempt to brush with another one

Other option is you brush your own teeth and then they copy you

that's the newest distraction we are trying. we let him brush our teeth while we brush his. its worked for a few days...

my dentist said that at this age effective brushing doesn't really matter too much - even just chewing the brush with a bit of paste will do

What about trying an electric toothbrush? We used one toothbrush with 4 changeable heads for a while. The buzzing noise can go either way - totally fascinating, or totally frightening - but mine have taken to it quite well. Tesco had kids' ones half-price last week, admittedly for 4+, but if you supervise, I can't see it causing a problem.

Agree with theBlonde, though. Our dentist said much the same, with the proviso that diet should be healthy, obviously.

Badly... I'm w2orried about even taking her to the dentist cos my teeth are lousy, and i think he'll give me a flea in my ear for not taking better care of dds.

What has helped is getting dd an electric toothbrush (she has a Princess one specially for kids). It means that she only has to hold the brush in the vague vicinity of her mouth for most of the grit to come off. It is also more interesting for her.

Cbeebies brush your teeth song was great for a while too - she'd come runnning for her brush when she heard it.

It's so difficult to pin them down to do it! DD2 is 3 and getting better, but she did excatly the same biting the brush and eating the toothpaste. I tried all the usual things, like brushing my teeth at the same time and getting her to copy me. You get through eventually, you just have to hang on in there!

Agree about elctric toothbrush , that certainly helped us during 'tricky' stages with both DS. Also our dentist said that the most important brush of the day was the bedtime one.

you are so not alone - threads passim here , here , here , here and here , all crammed full of helpful tips...

I've just bought an electric toothbrush for my DS - he only sucks the toothpaste off and chews the bristle - mind you he is only 15mo. But he loves having his teeth done with our electric brushes.

He is never left on his own doing it so I cant see the harm.

I tried letting him brush mine but he tried to ram the brush down my throat....

Bless

we got an electric toothbrush over the weekend for ds. he's terrified of it. so we're gradually trying to get him used to it. just not before nap or bedtime.

my worst nightmare for all this is that he will end up getting cavities.

we make sure the end of the night brushing is the best one.

sigh..!

i did the head-hold for a bit followed by lots of praise then sticker (only took a few nights for her to get the message that we're doing it anyway)

i found DD1 much more willing when we moved to this toothbrush here i think as the head is smaller and more compact there is less chance of hard plastic hitting their gums.

a "barbie" toothpaste worked wonders too...

i also say "bye bye yoghurt, bye bye cheerios, bye bye teddy biscuit" etc. going through what they've eaten. great fun (for them) it seems.

DD2 brushes and lets me brush her teeth quite happily - effect of watching big sis i guess.

thanks mrsbadger for those!!

and thanks amidaiwish for the link... it might be worth trying that toothbrush... we buy ds a new toothbrush about weekly since he chews/bites it so much. we use the colgate one for ages 2-5.