Struggling to brush 22 month old teeth

[Lizbiz89]

My 22 month old refuses to actually brush her teeth. She'll stick the tooth brush in her mouth and chew on it but not actually brush anything. If I try and help her do it, she just spits it out and refuses to open her mouth. Does anyone have any good ideas how to encourage her to brush properly. I'm worried she's not brushing anything at the moment.

my 16 month old has a baby electric toothbrush with a light on it from Amazon. his technique still isn't great but I'm hoping the vibrations will do much more cleaning than he does.

Bargaining
Bribery
Brute force

In that order. But teeth have to be brushed so at some point you may need to wrap her in a towel and prise her mouth open

You cannot leave it to her at this age! Get in there, and as PP says, do whatever is necessary to make sure you do a good brush. Perseverance is key!

Having the same issues! Why aren't there dentastix for toddlers. The electric toothbrush sounds interesting. Do you have a link?

I’m afraid I’ve no major solutions but my DS was the same. Nothing really worked apart from pinning him down. If my husband was about he’d make him laugh while I brushed but if I was on my own he’d usually just scream!
This is not my typical approach to parenting (the opposite in fact!) but I just think brushing teeth is so important. I still brush his teeth at night (age 5 now) but he’s totally fine with it now. I let him brush his own in the morning and they also do it at school. My DD is 15months and she’s still at the pinning down stage!

I don’t think ‘brute force’ is a good idea for anything. I don’t think you would say that for an adult...

I had real problems with my daughter and asked the dentist and he said model it yourself and make sure they last thing they have to eat is a while before bed, so do milk before bath-time so they’ve had time to change the saliva in their mouth. It’s going to sleep with milk in their mouth that really rots teeth.

I also do a thing where I do 10 seconds of brushes but ask my son/daughter what animal they want and then (say it’s a cat)
1 - meow
2 - meow
3 - meow etc

They like choosing the animal.

My mum (also a dental hygienist) once said that they most important thing is that they get into the habit of brushing twice a day. Once they are older, you can negotiate.

Finally, when my son was 3.5 there was a photo of black, decayed teeth in the paper. I showed him it and explained and he’s a great brusher now.

At that age (and for many years after!) ds was wrapped in a towel, and we just had to get on with it - it helped to use Collis curve brushes (which brush more than one surface at the same time)

Your 22 month old won't be able to brush their own teeth, you need to be doing it twice a day. It's non negotiable.

The habit is important but it's still important her teeth get cleaned. Children will need help brushing their own teeth till they are 11 but at 22mnths there's absolutely no way that they should be doing it themselves! Fine for them to stick it in and then you do it afterwards but you have to assume that she won't brush.

Tooth extractions are the biggest cause of General aneasthetics in children. Don't make your child have to have teeth out under GA.

If you need to hold her down to do it then you need to hold her down, imagine if she wasn't wiping her arse, would you just let her leave poo? No you would hold her down and wipe it. If you start letting them not brush their teeth when they play up then they will learn they can play up and not brush their teeth.

What you don't want to teach them is that tooth brushing is negotiable. It's something that you teach them needs to be done morning and night.

Maybe you all should go to the dentist and see what she/he says. I really don’t think they are going to advise forcibly holding them down.

Thanks for the replies. Ive managed to hold her down and brush her teeth tonight. I made it into a little game and she seemed to go for it. Will continue to do this from now on. Hopefully she gets into a good habit soon.

My son is 23 months and tooth brushing isnt a barrel laughs, however, it's non-negotiable for us. I basically sit him on my lap, secure his arms and brush. He tries to pull away, grab the toothbrush, turn his head away, and so on, but I don't allow him. I persevere until I'm satisfied they've had a good clean. After that, he can take it/chew on it/whatever. He likes to 'brush' our teeth so we make that into a little game, praise hi., Etc. There's no shouting, 'brutal force' or anything. It's always calm with singing and lots of praise after we've finished but it has to be done, end of. I might leave one area for a day or two if he's teething badly but it's done twice a day and that's it.

But I really world recommend going to speak to a professional. They recommend going from 2 anyway so surely that’s a better idea than a load of strangers on the internet?

Brush-Baby Baby Sonic Electric Toothbrush-color may vary www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00FGUUW16/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_gRmsCbPD5A2EN?tag=mumsnetforum-21

here is the link if it works...

I agree modelling is a great idea too. let them watch you doing it and see you enjoying it. and lots and lots of praise too. and a sticker chart too for those who have issues with refusal.

I disagree about brute force though. it's really tough. I agree brushing needs to happen and is non negotiable but it just sits uncomfortably with me.

I heard someone else suggesting signing baby shark when teeth brushing recently with the do do do bit being the brushing bit and repeating for each part of the mouth. worth a try maybe

Bribe them with sweets?
Or have I been doing it wrong

I don't really bribe them with sweets but sometimes a sticker will do the trick

We had awful troubles neither teeth but introduced some smiley face stickers. Every time she lets us brush her teeth without battles she gets to choose one and that has really helped. The dentist told us it really doesn't matter if it's very quick so I try and keep it very speedy so we can get it done, get the sticker and avoid it escalating into tears.

Tooth brushing is non negotiable for me so when ds went through a similar phase at that age I would count to three and if he didn't let me brush his teeth he would not have a bedtime story. If that didn't work I would wrap him up in a towel, put his head between my knees on the floor and clean his teeth.

There are also tooth brushing songs on you tube which helped. He grew out of the phase pretty quickly. Good luck x

DD prefers having her teeth cleaned lying down and I prefer doing it that way as I get a better view of her teeth. We discovered this because she was being a pickle re teeth cleaning so I tried lots of different approaches. She thinks it's great fun if I sit at her head end so my face is leaning upside down over hers (iyswim) while we brush.

We also fairly often brush her bath duck's teeth. Role play like that has turned out useful for a few things.

I had to pin both of mine down at that age and use the fact that they were crying with their mouths open as an advantage! Sounds awful but they have no cavities and I’d rather that than leaving it until they agree. My 3 year old now lets me brush her teeth with hardly any fuss and has done for about 6 months.

Yes! I had forgotten that d's used to be better if he was upside down....the dentist even used to get him to lie down on my lap with his head on my feet so they could see his teeth!!

It was also better if we took teeth cleaning out of the bathroom.

Just don't give up. If they get that it's non-negotiable they will be compliant eventually...

I found books about going to the dentist/tooth brushing helped, as did letting DD brush our teeth a bit and making up silly things/singing songs while doing hers. Spotting pirates in her molars etc.

So- after 6 months of battling to brush DS teeth the last couple of days have suddenly got loads better.
He knows the drill, I brush the front ones, then sit him on my knee to brush the back ones (usually complete with wailing, head butting and toothpaste all over the walls, our clothes, in his eyebrows etc.

And now its like he's just suddenly "given in." He's letting me brush the front ones, then sitting on my knee of his own accord to have the back ones brushed. I think he's realised that it's a lot easier to comply seeing as how he knows I'm going to brush them anyway! I'm so received I could cry. I've been having nightmares about all his teeth being rotten

You should brush kids teeth for them until they're 7. You can get disclosing tablets from boots and it turns your teeth purple- do that together brush all the purple away, turn it into a game

dd hated having her teeth brushed but enjoyed pretend play from a very young age so we turned it into a role play game and I had to be the dentist. It was pretty tedious, but better than having a battle over it.