Tooth brushing

[BedPig2013]

I know this has probably been done thousands of times before but how do you get your toddlers to let you brush their teeth?! I'm at my wits end with dd, 19 months and this morning ended up in tears because I can barely get the brush in her mouth and after the recent news reports on children's teeth I am even more worried about it. She's not been to the dentist yet but we are on a waiting list so I suppose another ring around all our local dentists is needed but in the mean time I want to feel like I'm doing the best I can for her and at the minute feel like I'm failing on this

Try not too worry too much - it's a really common problem and if your DD picks up on how concerned you are, she's likely to refuse even more - contrary little creatures! When my DD was at her worst I would sneak in when she was asleep and rub her teeth with a damp muslin. In terms of getting her to brush - making it a game worked well, as did letting her brush my teeth too. Then, to the tune of Mulberry Bush we'd sing "this is the way we brush our teeth after we've..." and then an activity we had done that day.

We had several months of DD wriggling and yelling and not cooperating while we brushed her teeth. I would pin her down and if necessary tickle her to get her to open her mouth and then brush. Ignored the protests as I could already see the tartar building up on her teeth. In fact yelling made brushing easier .

Then, just over a month ago (at 21 months), I tried playing a game of "what animal is in your mouth, let's chase it with the toothbrush". Which I had seen suggested on MN and tried before but it hadn't worked. Well this time it worked. Since then, near total cooperation and no more screaming. Revolution.

Anyway what I'm saying in summary is keep trying the little tricks and games, sing songs make faces, let her brush yours etc. One day one of them will work.

We now have to sing this is the way we brush our teeth, (to the tune of here we go round the mulberry bush) ds 2 is 18 months & recently stopped just opening up when we said "teethies". I'm afraid tooth brushing is non negotiable in this house though, we did go through a phase of having to pin ds1 down to clean his teeth.

Get the aquafresh brush time app on your phone. We've gone from very little brushing at all to her asking to get her teeth done for a full two minutes. Very effective.

Great suggestions thank you very much! We also sing "this is the way we brush our teeth" etc and I will definitely be getting her to brush my teeth, she already tries that with her brush at the minute I am having to pin her down which isn't nice and I can see at least 4 teeth just trying to cut the gum line so I can understand why she's really not enjoying it at the minute, thanks again for the advice it's made me feel a lot better