Softly softly, fingers crossed & hope approach to teeth cleaning?

[Anticyclone]

So I'm giving my 13mo a toothbrush with toothpaste on it, and letting him get on with it on his own. I'm trying to get him to copy me, but I'm not brushing his teeth for him - he won't let me go anywhere near his mouth. Has anyone had any long term success, and more importantly not caused any damage to their DCs teeth doing something like this?

He has a pretty healthy diet, his teeth look good so far (he only has 6), and he seems to quite like the taste of the toothpaste.

I don't want to be causing damage to his teeth, but I'd prefer not to go down the physical force route if at all possible.

Anyone else done this? Did it work out OK?

I am quite forceful TBH - I'm very laid back about pretty much everything but I do not want her teeth falling out.
She's 17 months and was fine with us brushing them until about 13 months (she's had 16 teeth since she was one - ridiculous, she's like Ken Dodd).
I just had to keep myself calm, try reasoning with her, let her have a go first and then I do them. If that means pinning her down then I do it. Now she knows what's coming and will generally let me do it so it's worth persevering.

Good luck!

I let her play around with a toothbrush when she was a toddler, but my daughter only really started brushing her own teeth around 4, I absolutely didn't trust her to get anywhere with it before that. Even then, she got to do it in the morning only (and I would often 'finish off') and I would do the full evening brush. I have only relaxed about it over the last 6-10 months. She is eight now, and mostly does it herself, but I generally do what I consider a 'maintenance clean' about twice a week.

No cavities or damage thus far.

My dentist told me many parents stop brushing their kids teeth too early. And it can cause probs.

Pacific - I don't know what you are talking about wrt verruca treatment! Teeth are a totally different issue - having to see 4 year old ds have a general anaesthetic to have 4 teeth removed at the age of 3, really doesn't compare in the slightest to having verruca treatment.

My reasoning is - would you let your child brush your teeth (and you not touch them afterwards?) If no then they're not ready to brush their own teeth completely.
We had battles when DD and DS were small but I just said it had to be done. I held them down and did it. Fortunately the battles were when they only had one tooth so it was easy to clean even with a squirmer.
When they realised it was being done every night no matter what they stopped battling.
Now they brush and then I brush again to make sure everywhere is covered.

My DS loved having his teeth brushed between about 6 and 12 months. Then around the 12 month stage he became vehemently opposed to having his teeth brushed so we started pinning him down in a lying down position, but we still tried to act like it was a fun experience for him by singing silly made up teeth brushing songs and praising him for being such a good boy (despite the fact he was writhing around and screaming like a maniac).

He's 16 months old now and I think the pinning-down-cheerfully approach is paying off. I recently noticed that he wasn't struggling that much anymore when I went to lay him down on the ground for teeth brushing. So I stopped pinning down and he would still lie there fairly cooperatively.

After a few days of that it made me laugh my head off when I told him "it's time for toothypegs" and he toddled cheerily into the bathroom, laid himself down on the floor, opened his mouth and said "aaah"

Even better, he now stands up and opens his mouth and I just kneel down to his level and do it with ease. He doesnt let me do more than a few little brushes on each part of the mouth but I feel like its just about enough to get it clean.

So I would say persevere with this approach as you never know when they'll finally give in and cooperate nicely!

It's driving me loopy, but discovering the Elmo Brush your teeth song on YouTube has reduced stress with teeth brushing no end - my nearly 2yo will happily hold my phone & watch it while letting me brush his teeth solidly for the whole song (1.5mins!) which was previously unheard of (wouldn't open mouth/run away).
My 5yo does first brushing (under my supervision & appears to do a good job, but I still go over myself concentrating on molars and giving final brush over and can imagine continuing to do this until 7-8yo and then using the staining tablets every so often to ensure she knows to brush all over.

We made it a bit of a game and had a little song but occasionally that didn't work and we did the pinning down thing.
Still brush my 6 year old's teeth at bedtime but am starting to let her do her own in the mornjng sometimes.
Always had good reports from dentist despite not being ultra cautious about sugar.

Toothbrushing and kids is indeed something I hear other mums have a battle with a lot of the time, and I've found the solution with mine is to try and make it more interesting and fun so they're used to it being an essential part of their routine, plus, my secret weapon - having the right gadgets really helps! Theres this fab thing called a chewable toothbrush you can get from most supermarkets that they can use themselves when still a baby if they hate the feeling of conventional toothbrushes or someone else doing it for them, which I would thoroughly recommend. Plus don't underestimate the impact of electric toothbrushes, you can get them for under 3 year olds now and even with flashing lights etc. Most babies and kids seem to love them and it certainly holds their interest for longer and makes it more likely their teeth'll get a good clean! :-D