cleaning 13m-old teeth, always a palaver, worried about forcing it

[time4tea]

DS2 is 13 months, easy going usually but hates having his teeth brushed, clamps his jaws shut and won't let me brush them. I do persevere as much as possible but don't like forcing him because it doesn't feel good for anyone to use force on a child in this way, plus I'm afraid of making his unwillingness worse.

I've tried modelling toothbrushing with DS1 (4yr) and although DS2 has a quick go it is nowhere near what you need to keep your teeth in good health.

thanks for any tips

T4T

We went through this and through luck we cottoned onto a solution which works for DD. We let her use a sonic toothbrush. It massages their sore gums so they like that and buzzes and again, they like that. Also because it's sonic you get much more cleaned before they wander off.

Works for us anyway. The only faff is that now I have to switch heads when I want to brush my teeth and it's always flat as she recreationally brushes.

Also try brushing when he's in the bath. The distraction of the water sometimes works.