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Parenting

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Original poster

How do I brush my 2yr old daughter's teeth when she point blank refuses to let me ?!!??

30 replies

MissDBeautiful · 15/10/2014 19:57

My beautiful little madam is very strong willed, and very strong physically to boot. She point blank refuses to let me brush her teeth. SHE will brush it herself and occasionally, she will let me hold her hand and direct the brushing, but on other occasions she will not and I don't know if this is normal. My son was not a problem, but then boys are quite different to girls...! Any suggestions..???

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wheresthelight · 15/10/2014 20:05

My 1 year old is like this! I let her do it while I do mine and then let her brush mine and then she let's me do hers. might be worth a try?

purplemurple1 · 15/10/2014 20:08

Chewable toothbrush for toddlers

DomesticGoddess31 · 15/10/2014 20:10

My 3.4 year old is STILL like this. Tricks we've had temporary success with are: Aquafresh toothbrushing app, getting her an electric toothbrush and getting her toys to 'help'. Some days she just won't be jollied along and she gets put over my lap and the teeth get brushed for her despite the tears and tantrums. SO bored of this battle! Am considering threatening no more sweets, cakes, biscuits etc AT ALL until she brushes them without a fight.

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MrsKCastle · 15/10/2014 20:13

What always works for me is being 'silly mummy' and pretending to brush their noses/tummies/knees etc etc. Or pretending to put gravy/custard/butter or whatever on the toothbrush. It does take a lot of patience (and I've done it through gritted teeth on many occasions). But with both my DDs it would eventually end with them stood in front of me, mouth open going "Here, mummy- brush here!"

fishfingerSarnies · 15/10/2014 20:14

I tell my dd she can't have a go at brushing untill I have done it, I count out loud to 60 then it's her go. If she makes a fuss or messes around she doesn't get a go.
I also said she could choose her own toothbrush if she did good toothbrushing for a while. She's now got a lovely peppa pig toothbrush and most days is allowed to have a brush.

Booboostoo · 15/10/2014 20:15

Try breaking down it down into smaller steps and rewarding for each one, so she can have a sticker for opening her mouth, a sticker for letting you put the toothbrush in the mouth, etc. Don't expect to manage a full brush the first time but at the point at which she refuses make a big deal of the reward she is missing out on and walk away.

PinkSparklyShit · 15/10/2014 20:16

Yup, we're here too at the moment. Dd hates minty toothpaste but I haven't found one that's for kids under 3 yet. Tbh I let it go a bit when she was teething, now I'm more worried about the damage that not brushing does so she gets pinned down. I hate having a struggle with her over it twice a day, but the alternatives are much worse.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 15/10/2014 20:18

Sit on her (gently!) , and when she starts screaming/crying brush her teeth. Is a nonnegotiable here, and when this is learnt very few further issues. Obviously don't do this if she is genuinely scared of toothbrushing or something.

funchum8am · 15/10/2014 20:24

I have bitten the bullet with DD about 4 months ago when she was about 20 months and taken to pinning her down. The struggling eased up when I praised her a lot for opening her mouth, keeping her hands away, and it has gradually got a bit easier, so. Now she still shingles most times, but doesn't fully tantrum, so she can hear the praise and a bit of narrative (not long now, let's do the back ones, nearly done if you open wide) so she knows what is going on.

I also got a Peppa Pig book about going to the dentist for when I took her in August, and still refer to it eg "open wide like Peppa at the dentist" which she does for about two seconds. I am like another poster more worried about the damage caused by not cleaning theme properly over a long period than I am about the screeching. It is not nice but I am pleased I have taken a stand!

tomatoplantproject · 15/10/2014 20:27

I was getting in a stew about this. My solution is I play something like Nellie the elephant or the wheels on the bus on YouTube on my phone and she can only watch it if I can brush her teeth. It's the only way I got her to do it having tried everything else.

Oh and I brushed my friends dd's teeth in the same way when I babysat. They were shocked I had managed so easily (and called me a witch for my magic touch).

It is dependent on having YouTube on your phone but I was at my wits end and really didn't want to physically restrain her which I was heading towards.

StrawberryMojito · 15/10/2014 20:28

My 3 year old gets pinned down if he can't be persuaded into it and I hate it but I don't see another option. He has 3 different toothbrushes including an electric Disney one, a flashing one and a crocodile one. We've tried different toothpastes, letting him brush ours whilst we do his, letting him do it himself then just finishing him off, time outs. Ultimately, if he's in the mood he'll go along with it, but if he's not which is probably 60% of the time, nothing will work and we have to just hold him down and do it.

I'm 25 weeks pregnant and am getting increasingly fed up with the twice daily battles and haven't got the energy.

tomatoplantproject · 15/10/2014 20:29

Oh and I found a strawberry toothpaste in my independent pharmacy which dd likes (having rejected mint).

PrimalLass · 15/10/2014 20:31

I swaddled mine in a towel and held them on my lap. No other choice.

PinkSparklyShit · 15/10/2014 20:34

Purple I had no idea there was such a thing, have just bought one online so hopefully they're as good as the reviews

TheBookofRuth · 15/10/2014 20:35

Ha, PrimalLass, I was just about to say that's what I did! Got the idea from getting medicine into a cat

gamerchick · 15/10/2014 20:36

You pin them down.

Sit on the toilet or bed with her standing inbetween your knees with her back to you. Pin with knees and put pinning arm around her over her chest. Bend elbow and hold chin holding head against your chest. Goldfish to induce scream and brush with other hand.

Take no crap with teeth brushing it's none negotiable.. you don't want the steely disapproving glare if your dentist as he tells you they're rotten and have to be pulled out.

They give in eventually and resign themselves to it.

TheMasterNotMargarita · 15/10/2014 20:36

We used to play Batman and flop her upside down over the bath to.make it into a game.
Or we would see how.many monster bits we could get to come.out of her mouth and see what shapes she could spit into the sink.
It will pass

EstellaSpitsEmOut · 15/10/2014 20:38

We have 2 toothbrushes- one for DS and one for me. I give him toothpaste on his which he chews off, but while he's holding his, he does let me clean his teeth with the other. When I'm done its his turn (more chewing and sucking water off the brush) but he's happy. Before this, lots of tantrums.

HappyNap · 15/10/2014 20:39

My 1 year old will only let me do it after a bath, when I pick her up with a towel and she is laying in my arms as a baby does, I quickly do it then. No idea how else to do it.

HappyNap · 15/10/2014 20:40

Sorry more like when she wrapped in a towel straight after bath.

NorbertDentressangle · 15/10/2014 20:42

An approach that worked with my DS was pretending that if he opened his mouth wide I could see what he'd eaten that day.

As I pretended to peer in I would brush away whilst saying things like "oooh, did you have pasta tonight? ....with peas?......and pineapple?! Not together I hope? Ooooh those look like Cheerios...." etc

He would laugh and giggle but, at the same time, let me brush

blacktreaclecat · 15/10/2014 20:43

2 person job here, one to hold down/ tickle/ sing the silly song and one to do the brushing.
Toothbrushing is non negotiable - it has to happen one way or another

firstposts · 15/10/2014 20:48

We got through this with the help of 'cavity dragons' they steal children's teeth, fly around the bathroom waiting for opportunities to pounce. They come in many colours and variations, and can be found hiding in mouths. It really really worked for us. Hopefully by the time his first teeth start coming loose he won't mind the white lies

hiccupgirl · 15/10/2014 22:31

We had the 2 person pin down and then brush regardless when DS was at his most resistant. This was of course after trying playing games, fun toothpaste, taking turns etc, etc, etc.

By 3 he understood that his teeth would be cleaned whether or not he liked it and games or taking turns worked much better.

Ouroboros · 15/10/2014 22:41

I have a couple of methods, I get him to make animal noises and then pretend that the animal is in his mouth and we have to brush it out, or we talk about what he's eaten, but the most effective at the moment is to say that the staff at his preschool (he's just started) say that we have to brush his teeth as they have to be clean for nursery. But there is still a lot of grabbing and pinning down!

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