17 month old won't let me brush her teeth any tips, please!

[emmawill]

Hi my 17 month old has got loads of teeth but she just won't allow me to brush her teeth. I don't want to make dental care an ordeal but get very worried when she won't let me brush her teeth for days somtimes. Any tips on this would be very gratefully recieved, thank you.

Sing to her. We sing the teeth-cleaning song to DS1 (clean your teeth, clean your teeth, it's time for you to clean your teeth, count to ten and back again, it's time for you to clean your teeth, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one!)

He's a bit older now though - just over two - and he did put up a struggle at about 17mo, iirc - just keep doing it. And good luck!

Oh hec, I've tried almost everything, singing, talking toothbrush, roar like a lion, but unfortunatley I had to resort to holding DS2 in a headlock! Sounds terrible written down but it wasn't that bad, fortunately he soon got the message and after a week or 2 he now just lets me get on with it. Perseverance (sp?) is the key I think.

We wnt thro this a couple of months ago Agree with Mrs mILLs - perserverence is the key - tooth brushing is something that is not negotiable IMO - oh and DS loves it if I brush mine at the same time - will "do" them himself and then I quickly finsh off for him

We sometimes have a similar problem with our 19mth old. I have found that if I give her my toothbrush and allow her 2 brush my teeth (well poke hell out of my mouth) at the same time she lets me clean her teeth. Worth a try.

I've had this problem with DS and I'm about to try buying another toothbrush for him so we can both do his teeth together instead of him trying to grab the toothbrush/close his mouth/try to see what i'm doing/try to bite me!

Does she try to do it herself if you just give her the toothbrush with the toothpaste on it? My dd hates me trying to do it for her but if I have hers ready when doing my own teeth she happily brushes her teeth for the same length of time I do mine. I know she will obviously not be cleaning them as well as I would but she likes copying me and and if she is moving the brush about for as long as I do then she will be doing a pretty good job on her own and can only get better each day. The toothpaste alone in her mouth will help try not to stress too much and good luck.

Occasional headlock but mostly let them brush themselves while you brush yours (morning) and then do the one, two three four five once I caught a fish alive song. It has about five beats for each area of teeth top back left, front top, top back right etc.
Then they know exactly what to expect it isn't so awful.
You might need to headlock until they get the hang of it first.

Sorry it took me solong to reply to screaming children driving me up the wall . yes she is a very independant little girl who doesn't like eating, sleeping or brushing her teeth unless its on her own terms, she will take the tooth brush and try and brush them herself, but she isn't brushing them more stucking the tooth brush and chewing on it.

Thanks for all your replies.