Brushing toddler's teeth

[rosepetalsoup]

My DD is 21 months and has got all her teeth bar 3 molars. I brush them twice a day - or I try to. She doesn't like it and will only tolerate it if I sing a song, and even then I'd say it only lasts a few minutes. I'm worried that I don't quite get all the bits where teeth meet gum, and have seen some more yellow bits round there. How do people do it? My toddler simply won't grin teeth/pull back lips like you need to to get a really good brush.

Same issue here. I often have to chase him round the house! He used to love it. Sometimes giving him the brush and doing mine at the same time work.

Two minutes! I'm jealous. My two year old barely tolerates thirty seconds.

I think it's just an age thing. My son is 3.5 years old now & still goes through phases of not wanting to have his teeth done. When he's in one of these phases we pretend to see an animal in his mouth hiding. We started off with cats because that was his favourite animal & all he could say, now we're up to a herd of wildebeest, sometimes chased by a lion... If you can get a couple of minutes out of her by singing a song, I'd say you're doing well. Persistence pays!

When my DS's were that age I had the same issue, I read a tip in a nanny book and was totally sceptical about it working but thought why not... it worked really well and DS2 at 4 still likes to do it now and again.

So the advice is to make it into kind of a game, you press their nose and ding dong, cleaner here and then they open their mouthand you brush their teeth saying things like 'gosh look at all these muddy footprints on the carpet' and 'are i think somebody has been eating food in bed' etc

My boys loved it for a while and once the novelty had worn off they were in a good teeth brushing routine. I would love to say it lasted forever DS2 aged 4 still brusheshis teeth and sometimes dings the doorbell for fun, unfortunately we currently havea really tough time getting DS1 to brush his teeth (age 8) but that's a whole different issue!

Wow EnglishRose that's a great tip! I'll try it. tuckingfits lol - my song basically is that, about a variety of animals (chosen by DD) who love to brush their teeth, and what they sing while doing it.

Sometimes I think it's fun - but sometimes so tired and worn out.

Aqua fresh of a great toddler brushing teeth ap. It sings a song and the DC get to dress the blob of toothpaste as a reward.

Worked well with dd2 for about 2 months. Now I need a new idea - 3 and very stubborn - sigh!

Aqua fresh DO ..,

It's a pain in the arse but the only thing that worked for us was giving DS a toothbrush to hold and letting him brush my teeth, while I was brushing his. If you do lots of really wide mouth faces, they normally copy you. It's a bugger getting a toothbrush up the nose or halfway down your throat though!

I think you're doing really well OP. DD tends to let me in for about a minute, then I let her 'finish off' which she really likes. I also have issues with her trying to just suck the toothpaste off the brush the minute it goes in her mouth

Have you tried changing toothpaste? We were using some freebies that were supposed to be kids toothpaste and DS would SCREAM and fight, then used the same one that we do and have had no problems since.

Yes, changed a few times. Now have applemint one - dentist told me to use one with only 500 thingies of fluoride in the same dentist that said I should brush DDs teeth til she's 11

We had the exact same problem. What worked was watching much-admired slightly older cousins clean their teeth when they came to stay! Oh, and a turtle toothbrush.

Surely this is why we have baby teeth - because they're a bugger to clean effectively and if we didn't get new ones then we'd all lose our teeth before we were out of our teens.

It's very hit and miss with my DS, sometimes he lets me, sometimes not. I figure if I can get one proper(ish) teeth clean in a day we're doing well.

I go aaaaaaaaaah at varying degrees of loudness/pitch, almost like we're doing scales and he joins in- especially when loud. Sometimes it turns into a lion roar, etc. Usually gets his mouth wide enough to brush

Nice try Nora!