Brushing teeth....forcibly brushed my DD's this morning, feel like an evil parent now :(

[sugarhoops]

My 5yo DD is a complete nightmare when it comes to brushing her teeth. Her breath often smells bad because she refuses to do it. We have endless arguments about it morning and night. I usually end up doing it, but she ducks away / closes her mouth / shouts stop throughout the whole thing.

This morning, before school, I'm embarrassed to admit, I lost the plot abit with her. She refused to brush her teeth, I asked nicely several times. I explained the importance of doing it. I then said I would count to 3 and she needed to be brushing by the time I got to 3. She refused.

Much shouting followed (by me). In the end she said "you do it for me" so I did, but in a really horrible, rough way. She screamed, cried, I've felt like a really crap, shitty mum all morning (because I know I lost the plot and handled it badly).

We have bought her barbie battery powered tooth brush, masses of different sorts of paste (she hates mint, hates strawberry etc etc).

I am at my wits end about such a ridiculously simple thing. PLus worry I'll have scarred her for life with my nasty rough / forcible brushing this morning.

ANyone have any great ideas about how to make teeth brushing easier at this age? MY 7yo and 2yo happily brush their own teeth.

you will not have scarred her for life, if you ask her why does she not like it or won't do it?

is this the only thing she won't do or are there lots of battles about lots of different stuff

she won't thank you for lots of fillings / gum disease later because you backed down

as a dentist brushing is actually more important that toothpaste so if she hates taste can you get her brushing with no paste to start with ideally she should brush for 2 minutes but try starting with 30 seconds

try brushing after your evening meal no TV/playing till they are done

Hi my 3yo has been through a v difficult phase with teeth brushing.

My 100% foolproof, works every time, solution, is to put Peppa Pig on my mobile so she can watch as I brush... It works like a charm. Might not work for your dd but thought I'd share just in case!

Oh wow teacup - thats abit of a revelation about the no toothpaste, it could just be another excuse to not do it, but she ALWAYS complains about the toothpaste, hence we've bought a million different sorts.

Will try tonight with distraction techniques and no paste.

Thanks for advice

Have u seen the aqua fresh app. It's a song for them to brush their teeth to ,certainly helps mine x

I am not saying that toothpaste is not desirable but brushing without toothpaste is much better than no brushing at all which is maybe what is happening get the brushing sorted and see if you can get fluoride tablets instead

referring children for multiple extractions is no fun, giving injections and taking teeth out of 4-6 year olds is no fun either,

round here extractions will not be done under GA unless child under 4 or SN

Well we did teeth tonight with no paste, and DD was much happier (i.e. she brushed herself, whether that was because she is still scarred by this morning ).

I have also downloaded some reward charts for teeth brushing and have set a challenge for all 3 kids to brush morning and night and get rewards (non-sweetie!) at the end of each full week.

Phew, calmer bedtime tonight

Dd hated having her teeth brushed until we found the Morrison's berry flavour as it has sparkles in it.
She now (18 months on) uses the purple Colgate one as this has sparkles too but is a very mild mint.
I used to just sit her on the loo and brush them no discussion at all and if she kept moving her head it would just take longer. (Although there were times when I literally pinned her down and brushed them)

I hear you

I recently installed the Disney Magic Timer on my phone. It's free and guides the child to do 30 seconds per quarter too. Even too-kool-4-skool DD (9) loves it. If you can scan Oral B stuff you get extras but we haven't got that to work.

I second the aquafresh app, it's amazing! there's a catchy song and your DD can win points everytime she brushes for 2 mins.