Tips for brushing teeth with toddler

[Bearbookagainandagain]

Hey all, anyone has some tips we could try to improve our toddler brushing?
He is almost 2 and we followed the NHS advice to introduce the toothbrush when he got his first teeth. It was fine at the start because we did it ourselves, but now we are a bit stuck because he absolutely wants to do it himself and refused to let us. And obviously there is no way he is doing it the right way! If we try to hold the brush he will either refuse to let us come close, or he will bite the brush.

We have tried asking him to brush our teeth and take turns, but that didn't work.
We have also tried singing a song.

He is very happy to brush his teeth, and he can brush for a relatively long time!, so a lot of ideas I find online are not really relevant for us.
Any ideas? Ideally we want him to let us brush his teeth first, and then he has a go.

Disclosing mouth wash / tablets will show if brushing well enough (but only if understands well enough not to swallow/drink it all). Then brush away the red (or I think you can get blue nowadays but that's probably even more alarming!). Maybe do on a Friday or Saturday night so doesn't turn up for nursery next day with red lips and gums looking like a vampire....

I find most successful technique at bedtime is that which my own parents used on me, which is have a soothing cuddle with him across knee and brush at the same time in a calm, winding down way, rather than singing and chasing him around with toothbrush.

Honestly, we use kids YouTube. She stands and watches it for 2 mins, her teeth get a thorough brushing. Then she can have a go. We turn it off and move on with our day. She protested soooo hard over having them brushed for a long time that this is what worked and still does.

My toddler has a turn first then it's my turn, and if he won't cooperate he gets held down. Not fun but toothbrushing is so important.

I hear that a lot "hold them down" on MN, but that goes against every advice from dentist, hygienist or the NHS I have read. They advise not to antagonise children against tooth brushing as it can backfire when they are older.

Also, we often do have to pin him down to change his nappy, to get him dressed, to put his jacket on, to get him in the pushchair,... They are all important things. I feel 2 yo get forced to do a lot of things every day, if we could find a way to make tooth brushing fun and not another chore that would be great!

Thanks, maybe that would work actually. We don't really like TV or similar but it could be worth it in this instance.

Thanks, I think he might too young for the colored tablets but I'll have a look.
We tried to have on our lap as that's what we used to do when he was younger but it doesn't work with him.

Magic timer on App Store.

Dental nurse here 👋 two toothbrushes so he has control and also you can get in there to check and be more thorough. Usually helps to stand behind them

You take turns but have a toothbrush each so you don't have to take the one off him.

who can say ahhh the funniest competition

There was a similar thread a month ago or so. One tip I followed was:
We had success with pretending there are things in his mouth (a tip I read from someone else online). I do different animals, vehicles or characters from their favourite shows or books. Pretend you can see them and ask them to open their mouth so you can see if it’s them and then say let’s get them with the toothbrush.

We've tried it with our DC and it's actually working!

We have the brush baby electric toothbrush that lights up and vibrates a bit. DS presses the on button himself.
It also has a suction base that makes a satisfying pop sound when you pull it off the sink. We “race” to the bathroom to see who is going to make the toothbrush pop. (I have to race in slow motion sometimes).

We also offer a choice of toothpastes (brush baby apple flavour or mint).

Ask DS to roar like a lion/ tiger (to open his mouth wide).

I don’t have him on my lap, he stands and I kneel on the floor in front of him at mouth height so I can brush properly.

If you can get a new toothbrush/ new routine and get him excited it might break the habit of him resisting.

One last one, when DS was younger I used to brush his teeth in the bath (not with the electric toothbrush). He was distracted with his bath toys and didn’t seem to mind.

I would rather hold a toddler to brush their teeth than have them have to have their teeth removed under a general anaesthetic at a dental hospital. Some things are just not negotiable. If you try everything and they resist it leaves you no choice. Yes of course it would be better if they just let you brush them but sadly children don't make good decisions all the time.

I'd be overjoyed that he's brushing them and for a long time!

I don't think you need to brush them as well? It's absolutely fine that he's doing it himself.

Songs! We found a couple on YouTube DS liked - we didn't have to have it on long for us (me) to learn the songs and sing them. Super simple songs have one just called brush your teeth. Very catchy and we still sing bits of it most days now, helpful as it
sings some of the actions etc

This worked for us too. Don't ask me why but my DD found it hilarious that every morning/night I had to scrub wall.e, Janet and bill and other aliens and monsters out of her teeth 🤷 worth a shot?

We had a very tough time with our toddler, I was adamant I wasn't going to hold him down. And glad we didn't, he's now 2yr 9m and things are soooo much better! Remember everything is a phase at this young age. I'm not saying he's completely out of making teeth brushing hard work, but I am pretty comfortable with the amount we brush (and I am an avid tooth brusher, I'm not blasé about it). But my point being, I don't think you need to worry about teeth falling out at this stage, just cos it's really bad now doesn't mean it will be for the foreseeable. You just need to make baby steps in progress.

We kept the same theme that he got to brush first, but mummy or daddy had to finish. We couldn't leave the bathroom til we had a go at the end. We kept it really calm, no stern words. He completely refused sometimes and we did have to just leave the bathroom at times if it ended in a meltdown, but told him after he calmed down that we need to do better with brushing going forward. And we went theough this process twice a day, so that he knew when it was coming in his routine and there were no exceptions. The consistent message has payed off, he now knows that mummy or daddy will finish his teeth after he messes around for a while. He sometimes protests but ultimately knows how it's going to end up!