Teeth brushing for toddlers

[Katieandthekids]

So one of my 22 month old twins is so naughty about having her teeth brushed. We get the toothbrush in her mouth twice a day but I wouldn't say we manage to do a thorough job. I'm so worried she's going to get tooth decay I'm already paranoid that her morning breath is noticeable.

Any tips? Pin her down and force her? And tools you can recommend? Help!

I should add they have healthy diets and only drink water or milk

I would love to know if there's a magic solution too!

Currently still pinning 27 month old DS down and persevering with a good scrub through the screaming 🙈

Have you tried the hey duggee song? Worked for us for 3 days.

@Tinkles78

I would love to know if there's a magic solution too!

Currently still pinning 27 month old DS down and persevering with a good scrub through the screaming 🙈

Have you tried the hey duggee song? Worked for us for 3 days.

Yes I think I just need to be more forceful to be honest.

Does your dentist have any advice op? They must come across this a lot?

We get DD to make silly noises whilst we do it. "Aaaaah" for wife open mouth doing the back teeth and "eeeeeeeee" for a bared teeth face so we do the front ones. It's not a magic bullet but it's definitely helped us.

My daughter is a bit older so might not work, but I make tooth brushing also a "singing" time and tell her to copy me and sing Ahhhhh... And while she's engrossed and copying I get in a good scrub

We did the excited "oh my goodness, I think I see a tractor in your teeth, let me brush that out for you". That worked for about a month. Now I'm back to pinning down. Good hold is to hold like your breastfeeding, one arm is trapped behind your back and hold the other arm, then do it quickly, but I'm not sure we are ever really getting a good brush.

I've had a magical miracle breakthrough with making up a song. Honestly, try it. Just pick a nursery rhyme tune and make up some words about brushing teeth while you help them brush.

For instance, Frère Jacques:

Brush our teeth, brush our teeth
Left and right, left and right
Brush them up and down now, brush them up and down now
Clean and white, clean and white

Personally I wouldn't force it so that it turns into a negative event, risk of putting them off even more. Creating aversion.

Mine is 2 1/2 , what a handful- toddler twins- hats off to you. Pick your battles.
Sometimes mine is brilliant, sometimes very much not so. Crikey my grammar is all off, apologies!

I remember one really useful thing from one of the many parenting things I read first time around, was that kids seek attention be it good or bad. So if she gets more attention by you desperately trying to get her to brush.. hmm maybe she'll do it some more? I'm remember now it was in relation to picky eating and dinner battles. If you remove the battle and all the 'go on just one more bite' , play it neattal, don't get wound up. It gives their behaviour (which you don't want) less power.

Repeat again... This is a phase...

It was a non negotiable for us. At that age I had to clamp dts between my legs. Sing stupid songs, get the aqua fresh app with an incredibly irritating song and they weren't let go until it was done.

Used to tell DS a dinosaur/monster/unicorn had run in his mouth then try and brush it out. It would hide behind teeth and we’d drag it to the front of his mouth before getting him to spit it out (although it usually jumped back in). He’s 6 now and great at teeth brushing. Use a battery/electric toothbrush too and don’t rinse. Seem to remember the dentist saying just getting toothpaste in their mouth is as good as brushing in the beginning.

Completel non negotiable in this house. My dad is in his mid 80s and has a full set of his own straight white teeth. Good teeth has followed down in his generation to me as when I was growing up very good oral hygiene was instilled.
I let my daughter think of it as a game that she's very good at.. I ask her to get a cushion and lie down, usually she tells me to hide.. When I hide she's lying down and waiting for me with her mouth open ready for toothpaste and toothbrush 😁.. I praise her for that. Another thing i do is whilst brushing her teeth is give her a tooth brush with a tiny dot of toothpaste and say to her if she takes the bottom teeth ill take the top teeth, then we swap.. Usually works. Mummy does the thorough job whilst she's learning to brush her teeth.

There are lots of tooth brushing songs on YouTube that might help? My kids loved this one

The Pokemon Smile app was a
Godsend for us (a bit of a faff-on but no more tantrums!)

Thank you all! Woken up to all this fab advice! I will try them all. She's definitely at the age where she can begin to understand games like suggested as we do them for other things like putting shoes on etc so I will give it all a go. I also don't want it to have a negative association. Sounds mad but I love brushing my teeth

I found a solution- it's the one and only time in the day I let her have my phone 😂 good brush twice a day 3 days running now haha

That's great news, you have to do do what you have to do lol

18m DD has just started to accept it. We used to use a silicon brush for first few teeth, then we moved onto baby first toothbrush and she would
Throw an absolutely fit and clamp her teeth closed. Then one day she was watching me brush my teeth (electric brush) and she just about snatched it out my hand for a go.. so I brought her a child’s electric toothbrush at about 12 months old, never looked back. Does a thorough job, she is happy to sit and say ‘ahhh’ while I give them a thorough clean and then she sits and does it herself for a few minutes.

Eletric toothbrushes are advertised for 3+ years usually but to be honest, I worked as a dental nurse for years and we recommended electric for kids and never mentioned age.

If it’s something you want to think about I got a wisdom kids electric brush from home bargains, the head is much smaller than the oral B which is what I would recommend when they’re a bit older!

@MyMabel thanks for the advice! Definitely something to consider xx

To add to the previous advice, we found getting a child's electronic toothbrush helped a lot (Colgate do them for less than £5).