advice needed! 16 month old won't let me brush her teeth.

[natmeistergeneral]

I'm really worried that her teeth will go manky! I've tried everything i can possibly think of from involving her toys and brushing their teeth, bribery(she's really too young for that one to work!)and letting her have a bash herself. I am concious of the fact she gets teething pain so i imagine thats part of the reason she clams up. Can anybody think of a way i can sort this out?

Sorry, but you've just got to insist! I am afraid I have no qualms about (gently) pinning DS3's arms to his sides and just getting on with it! (He's 17 months btw.)

They are too young at this age for persuasion, I'm afraid.

Will she let you rub her teeth with a little toothpaste on a muslin? That's how my dd had her teeth cleaned for months, until she relaxed about letting me get in there with a toothbrush.

my 14 month old has always put up a fight and I admit being a bit slack with perseverance sometimes. I noticed brown decay on one of her molars yesterday and wish I had been tougher.

The muslin sounds a good idea but its difficult getting into her mouth at all sometimes! once i tried to be a bit more forthright as dinosaur suggested but i just ended up by jabbing her in the gum as she was thrashing her head about.

Try giving her one toothbrush and you hold on to another and taking turns?

Say you are just going to do the tiny one with food on at the front and then pretend to see more food on others.
I try to stay calm and make it fun as IMO the more of an issue it becomes the worse the child will be.

First off, I wouldn't worry too much at this age: I asked my dentist (he's a modern, up to date sort of dentist) and he said they do'nt get plaque under 2, and the most important thing is their diet (minimal sweet drinks/sugar/dried fruit) not the brushing.

Secondly, my DD was a nightmare with teeth until about 19 months - at which point she stopped teething at all, and also got more patient about it. Still with 'off days' but better. I worried too, but she's now 2 and lets me swipe most surfaces at least once a day if not twice, and has a stab at doing it herself.

No 'tricks' worked all the time, but telling her that we had to clean her teeth to stop them hurting later on seemed to interest her most! Followed by new exciting toothbrush, and doing my own teeth at same time.

Good luck!

novelty battery toothbrush mine loves my oral b plaque remover wants to clean sink as well ofcourse. let her clean yours and make a big thing of new brush and she might like the buzzing of electric brush. Sorry what age is your child?

We began teeth brushing at 12 months - ds didn't get teeth until late.
At first he was very interested.
Now 23mths and suddenly doesn't seem to like it.
But seems to like the teaste of toothpaste.
So, I put a blob on.
Give him the brush.
he sucks it off.
Then I take the brush, put a tiny bit more on, and just firmly, insist of giving them atleast a bit of a brush.

Like Elibean says, it is not crutial, at this age.
But it is good to encourage good habits.
I think you just need to be gentle, but firm.

I was worried about this for a while and my HV just said 'dont worry about it too much' but I really dont want my DS to have bad teeth like mine so I persevered and stayed calm. What works for us is telling him that mummy will brush for the count of 25 (slowly) and then he can do the reast himself and lots of praise!

I was just speaking to a friend who had problems brushing her dd's teeth, and she got her dd to open her mouth by saying "Oh ... whatever is that I can see in your mouth? Oh my word, it's a mouse ...", her dd would either laugh (and hence open her mouth) or open her mouth wide so that her mother could see the mouse. She'd clean a couple of teeth then, when her dd was getting bored she'd say "Oh my word, there's a crocodile in there as well", and so on until all the teeth were done. She swears it worked for her dd, although she says it took ages to get the teeth clean because of all the laughing that usually went on as well.

my dd is now 20 months but got her first tooth at 4.5 months. she has only just started letting us do her teeth, we always had to force her before with lots of screaming! i let her stand at the sink while i do mine, and she has the brush and then i take over. lots of praise after etc.

Yes, we do a version of WWB's friend's thing...pretending we can see bits of everything she's eaten. I agree firm but gentle is right, and we have been doing teeth twice a day since about 12 months, but we've never got to the screaming stage or battled that much - just don't think its important enough, tbh, on advice of dentist. And as she gets older, she's just doing it more and more willingly.

my 2.3 yr old has only just started doing it properly - for us it was blue parrot berry toothpaste that finally persuaded her that teeth cleaning has to be done. Also, perseverance - she has now accepted that it is something that just has to be done night and day and has got tired of fighting us. Like Dinosaur we have always taught her that there is the nice way and the horrible way and have no qualms about the horrible way if she refuses

many thanks for all the advice!I just quickly popped into baby clinic (don't usually bother as the queue ia normally half a mile long!) and the health visitor suggested sitting dd in front of mirror with me behind and show her what i was doing. Also she suggested that after every meal to give her a drink of water as that helps to swill out any bits of trapped food.

My 16 month old baby would not allow me to clean his teeth and tongue. will hold his tooth brush and bite. what should i do, please advice.