Brushing 1 year olds teeth

[Nahmfor]

Hi,

Might seem like a silly question but it's driving me mad!!

My 1 year old DS won't let me brush his teeth, he will happily chew the brush but doesn't let me nowhere near them, he is currently teething so I understand why he wouldn't want me to go near them. He's had them consistently brushed every day since 9 months when he cut his first tooth.

I bring him into the bathroom with me and let him see me do mine, hoping he'll try copy then if not I'll go over them but lately it's a full on meltdown and I feel horrible.

I suppose chewing the brush is better than nothing but, still he needs them brushing properly.

Any tips/help?
Thank you x

My DD was the same op. What worked for us was I gave her another toothbrush and asked her to brush my teeth, it distracted her enough that she let me brush her teeth for a good amount of time whilst she was busy brushing my teeth!

Give him a toy or something to hold in each hand, and sing a song while you brush his teeth?

My DC3 has just turned 2, but has been letting me brush his teeth for about the last 10 months. Initially (this sounds awful!) I would lay him across my knee face up, with his head hanging back towards the floor and tickle him, when he opened his mouth I would brush and sing the 'brush teeth song' by Raffi.
Later we did 'roar like a lion' and when he opened his mouth to roar I could brush.
Now he quite happily lets me brush as long as I sing the song or we both roar together.
I've found with all my kids that whatever you do, soon the novelty wears off and you have to find some new 'hilarious' game.
I wasn't as strict about brushing with DC1 and he had a filling age 5 so I'm militant this time.

3 toothbrushes - 1 in each of dc’s hands and 1 for you.

Brush animals out of their teeth. “Ooh, you’ve got monkeys in your teeth, ds. We better brush those out. Oooh ooh eeeh eeeeeh. There they go. But oh, no, over here you’ve got sheep! Silly ds. We better brush those out! Baaaah! Baaaaah...” etc etc.

Continue through entire zoo and farmyard until teeth all brushed.

I shout BLAAHH at the top of my voice with mouth open while I do mine then she copies while I do hers.

Or.. do them in the bath if he loves bath time?
In the living room in front of cbeebees?
Keep trying weird things and you'll find one that works.

These tips are great!!

Some of the popular shows have a tooth brushing episode often with a song... like peppa pig. That can be encouraging, and normalises what's happening.

Getting them to shout ' aaahhhh' so you can get a few sweeps in!
It's a long battle- just keep trying and them chewing the brush is a start.

Shouting Aaaaaaah
Brushing out the food - we used to go through what she'd eaten and I'd have to get it out of her teeth
If all else failed, grab hold & brush quick.

Nearly 3 and happily does them morning & night.

There's an Aquafresh tooth brushing app (with accompanying annoying song) that helped us a lot at that age. Turned into quite a performance with dancing etc but it did the trick and now both kids brush and let us brush happily.

It's called Aquafresh Brush Time if you search on the apple App Store

I agree with others that distraction is the best way ! Sometimes it’s a toy , sometimes it’s the tooth paste bottle to play with . Lately I’ve been playing a YouTube brushing teeth song on my phone 🙈! I hate that I have to resort to that but I gotta go what I gotta do !