Teeth brushing: how to make a more positive experience

[TheRhythmlessMan]

8mo has, up until now, smiled at the sight of her little toothbrush but the last few days has started pulling away and winging, even firmly closing her mouth. Before this gets out of hand I want to ask, does anyone have clever tricks up their sleeve to make teeth brushing a positive part of the routine for this age group? (I've read that older children use timing apps etc!)

I try to smile and even sing, tried making it into a game etc but to no avail.

Hi @TheRhythmlessMan I have three toothbrushes on the go I let my DS brush his own basically bite it and fling it around, I use the second brush to distract his other hand and then brush his teeth with the third the things we do . I also have the bbc iPlayer song "brush your teeth" going he seems to like the little video and I sing along not well

Thanks mommy I'll definitely try those things!You sound like you've properly thought this through 😂

Just tried the teeth brushing song and it seemed a bit better tonight, even if it's purely from the distraction point of view

That's great news @TheRhythmlessMan some times it's just distracting that works I find! Good luck for today!

I spoke to my dentist about this and they said as babies and toddlers teeth are so far apart nothing really gets stuck in between them to cause decay. Therefore if you're being careful with sugar content and ensuring a toothbrush with appropriate paste is going in and being moved around the mouth it should be fine.

As DS has gotten older, we've sang the tootbrushushing song, watched YouTube, yodelled and hunted for buried treasure in his mouth.

You need a lot of tricks up your sleeve so you can cycle through them all.
I've brushed mine's teeth while holding her upside down which was pretty effective, she laughed throughout. Letting her do it and then just take hold briefly now and then to do a proper brush. Brush time song, hunting for food, race against someone else, let them brush your teeth while you brush theirs... I'm sure there are more but that might get you started. Definitely avoid making it a battle, good luck!

I use the back of the brush to massage the skin underneath her bottom lip/above her top lip while making a silly noise. She then laughs and opens her mouth. I cheer whenever she opens it and stop when she shuts it. I cheer more enthusiastically when the brush makes contact with the teeth and give her loads of praise, applause and a special toy to play with afterwards.

It works well for DD, though I swear she rolled her eyes at me once when I was cheering and applauding afterwards!