Brushing an unwilling baby's teeth!

[dodi1978]

Seriously... how do you do it? 10 month DS is a easy baby in every other aspect - sleeps well, eats well etc. But brushing his teeth.... whatever position I try it in - lying down on the changing table, sitting up on the changing table, sitting on my lab, he isn't having it. Tooth brush comes near - cue frantic eye rubbing so that nothing can get near his mouth. If I or my husband try to hold his arms down, he will turn his head away.

Any ideas?

Have you tried the brush you fit onto your index finger? It's very soft and works when they don't like the look of a toothbrush? Failing that, I'd just use my finger to get them used to having something foreign in their mouth with the taste of toothpaste :)

Brushbaby

We got DS to comply at about that age by holding him over the basin with the tap running slowly. He was so interested in playing with the water (and later, turning the tap on and off) that he would allow us to do his teeth. The main drawback is that it is very difficult to do single-handed - you ideally need a parent to hold baby and a parent to brush!

In the early days, and even now, I made an effort from time to time to brush my teeth while DS was watching. He was always very interested and would be more amenable on the days when he had seen me brushing mine.

DS is 20 months now and 80% of the time is compliant. Given his lack of compliance in other areas I am happy with that!

At 2.5 ds HATES getting his teeth brushed.

We watch brushing cartoons / show him us brushing ours / let him brush ours... still hates it.

I resort to a kind of, um, headlock some days. Dp and I have crap teeth - I'm making sure da has good teeth regardless!

DS is 22mo and since the start (he got teeth at 10mo) I've just let him suck on a toothbrush with toothpaste on it. Now that he's almost 2 I know this isn't good enough, but no amount of cajoling will let him brush them for him, and he still just sucks on the brush. For a few days the other week he let me brush a few times if I showered him with kisses afterwards, which he loved. But that lasted only a few days.
Now I brush mine when I want him to do his, and we both crouch infront of the mirror. He's started sort of brushing/imitating me now, but I still get the guilt that he's not doing them like he should.

I friend told me that her dentist told her that you should brush your child's teeth for them until they can tie their own shoe laces. But how do you do that, if they refuse to open their mouth for you?? I don't want to turn it into a battle ground/physical wrestle.

My plan is that in a couple of months, after he's 2, I may be able to reason with him more - I read on here one mum who just said "no teeth, no bedtime stories" and that was that.

Feels a little mean at this age, but over the next few months I may try this..

In the meantime, am hoping that at least sucking on the flouride in the toothpaste will help a little!!

Oh and he has almost zero sugar (well, other than fruit and dairy...no refined sugars) so hope this also helps.