Toddler tooth brushing

[graysor]

Help! How do you brush your 2yo's teeth?

Dd is 2.2. We go through good and less good phases with tooth brushing but usually manage ok. But recently its become practically impossible.

I've tried loads of different strategies; offering a choice, trying to make it fun/ into a game, making it silly, having a special song, taking turns etc all now completely ineffective. Brute force is impossible too. She's too strong and wriggly.

I'm sure I could do it if I gave her a peppa video to watch on my phone. But I'm loathe to introduce a screen just before bed. And given the meltdown we get when we turn the tv off at any time I think this would just create a new problem.

Any bright ideas?

With her 2.2 you absolutely can do it by force unless you're seriously disabled or something! Lie her down on the floor, sit past her head, one of your legs over each of her arms, now you have two hands free for her head. Sounds brutal but actually works safely. We used to say "do you want to do it the hard way or the easy way?". Sometimes DS would giggle and go and lie down!

Roll tightly in a towel. Then distract as best you can! I find doing a very detailed recap of the day works quite nicely...

The only thing that works for mine is singing his favourite song (Wheels on the Bus) all the way through. The song stops when we're finished and he seems to tolerate this. It sounds like you've already tried songs though.

I'm of the opinion that it's better to 'force' them now than to have to console them while they get a filling at the dentist. Hopefully you'll have some better answers soon. Good luck!

I wish I could force it. It's easier and quicker that way, and used to when necessary. But I honestly can't! I have tried that technique relax, she flips over onto her tummy and slides away. How she does this when I'm basically pinning her arms and legs down I have no idea.

I could try wrapping in a towel. But I suspect she'd fight that off before I even got close to her teeth.

We got DS (2.11) a kids electric Spider-Man toothbrush in his Christmas Eve box and he loves it and wants to do it himself. Let her pick her own toothbrush and toothpaste and try and get her involved as much as possible. That's all we did and DS doesn't seem to have a problem and wants to do it himself, hopefully she'll come round soon

If I start singing she carries on fighting while wailing no mummy stop singing

A tooth brush buying expedition is a good call, will definitely try that. She's not keen on my electric toothbrush, so not sure that's the answer, but I'm happy to give her the option!

He loves pressing the button on it to turn it on and off and watching it whizz around. He was even trying to get the dog on Christmas Eve... I think they did a Frozen one as well or similar, I got it from Tesco's half price. I let him pick his own toothpaste as well then it's not as much as a chore when it comes to teeth brush time

I usually have to put ds in a headlock. Not ideal but as pp said, better than him needing a filling.

We're having similar issues atm and the brute force option isnt working due to surprisingly strong jaw muscles on DS2.

Only way I'm currently able to get a toothbrush inside his mouth at all is by letting him brush my teeth at the same time with a spare toothbrush. A little painful but the only way at the moment!

DS, same age as yours loves black charcoal tooth paste at the moment and gets really excited to brush his teeth with the 'black teeth' we only use a smear and it says it's suitable for children in the packet.

He also loves his electric toothbrush as PP said. He's ok at having the sides brushed but is sometimes a bit fussy about the front of his teeth. When this happens I get a muslin with toothpaste on and give them a good rub front and back. He likes this because he can try to bite my finger which he finds hilarious.

Getting a child's electric toothbrush helped us a lot as they play different tunes (I said it would only play when the brush was on his teeth). Plus I let him brush mine (terrifying ) if he was good for his. Lastly we practiced shouting 'eeeee' (teeth bared) and 'aaahhhh' (mouth wide, open) during the day and he found it amusing enough to replicate it for me to brush his teeth after his initial attempts in the evening.

Try singing this song to her & good luck ... learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/brush-bus

I used to get my almost 3 year old to roar like a lion, or shout, or anything noisy to get her to open her mouth.

Telling her I can see her toes wiggling when her mouth is open works well too

All bath toys out of the bath. Every last foam shape and bit and bob. Child into bath of water that is non bubbly and has nothing entertaining at all. Toothbrush in one hand. Toy in other hand. Toy is handed over when one tooth is clean. Max 3 seconds brushing at first per toy handed over. (Sets of foam bath sticker shapes are good - obviously you need at least 20 small items) Lots of praise for how grownup and marvellous she is for each bit of brushing.

One parent reads a bedtime story while the other brushes. The story stops unless she cooperates.

Yimini, she hates the bath almost as much as having her teeth brushed ( which I need a separate thread for!) so sadly that’s not going to work for us. I like your strategy though.

There was a thread about this recently, which I can't find now, which had a great idea that's worked really well for us.

Tell DC mouth is full of animals that need to be cleaned out, and brush them out, complete with noises. 'Look, I can see a lion behind your tooth. ROAR, ROAR, ooh, I've got him, I've brushed him out...' And then you can sort of act like the animal is flying out of her mouth.

And then onto owls, cats, whatever you fancy.

DD (20 months) LOVES this. Opens her mouth, and keeps it open. Suggests animals. Goes 'again, again'.

No force needed.

My lo is hit and miss too. I showed him a YouTube video of a dentist cleaning a small child's teeth and she said she was 'getting the sugar bugs' and it seemed to peak his interest so now I tell him we're going to 'get the sugar bugs' and pretend I can see them and I'm trying to get them with the toothbrush. On other days I just hold him down and do it. It's tough but has to be done. My friends a dentist and he says that ideally you'd clean their teeth two minutes but as long as you can get at least a minute (at this age) it's probably enough so I just try and hold out for that and hope that as lo gets longer we can extend it! Good luck!

The aquafresh brush time app worked for my son for about two weeks...

Sit on lap side ways, pin child’s near arm under yours, use your arm to pin other arm to their body. Cross leg over theirs. Free hand brushed teeth. Thank them for opening their mouth as they scream.

Rain we used that strategy successfully for quite a while, but she’s not falling for it anymore!

My ds is a handful and not one you can force to do anything

Spider man brush really helped as as others have said

Consistency and patience were the 2 things that worked best

Just do as much as you can

Lots of praise

Tell them which part you are doing and touch that place on their cheek “bottom side, top side , bottom smilers, top smilers”

Take a pause between each section for them to swallow and catch their breath

Remember it’s a really invasive thing to have someone shove something inside your mouth and ram it around while clamping your jaw

In the beginning we weren’t that successful but I knew if I turned my ds against it we would end up with a major problem on our hands so had no choice but to take my time and build it up slowly

OP, you mean it runs out?!?!

When dd was preschool I had the same problem. I went on you tube and found an American cartoon with a bunny or teddy giving instructions on how to brush teeth. It worked!! Also can your child pick a toothbrush paste etc?