Using phone videos to help with tooth brushing, or a bad habit?

[t1a1c1h]

Our daughter hates having her teeth brushed so we've started watching videos on our phones as a distraction. The alternative is pinning her down whilst she kicks and screams and its like torture for all of us. But there's so much anti-phone/screen stuff out there now I'm worried we're doing something wrong despite it seeming like the lesser of two evils. Its usually about 3-5 minutes of bluey, or genevieves playhouse. Shes started asking to watch stuff at other times and we say no despite the ensuing tantrum.

It is a bit of a bad habit, but also do what you need to do to. Three minutes of Bluey is less problematic than not brushing her teeth and legs stressful than fighting over it.

The only thing I would do is try using Bluey as a reward for after teeth brushing rather than doing it during teeth brushing. This will weaken the association between the two and make it easier to wean off if necessary later down the line.

It worsens behaviour in my experience. They soon start refusing to do stuff UNLESS they get Bluey. I always pinned mine down between my legs. After a while they learn it's non-negotiable and from around 18 months they would both actually lie down between my legs happily about 80-90% of the time when i said it's toothbrush time. Pin him down, do it quickly and at the same time every day.

My parents were lax with my baby teeth because they didn't want to torture me and thought it wasn't that big of a deal but I have had a lifetime of dental problems because of it.

I wouldn’t. It teaches zombieing out in order to do something rather than working through it. She’ll kick off because she gets two minutes of something at seemingly random times and then she’ll start demanding it in order to do other things. Toothbrushing is a life skill she has to learn.

What age is she? When younger I got mine to help me brush my teeth too. Don’t pin her down, make it fun. We brushed teddy’s teeth too. If she’s older get her an electric toothbrush with a favourite character. Have an incentive afterwards like bedtime story after brushing teeth at night. Ikea has fun timers you can stick on the wall in your bathroom.

Don’t do it. My early years colleagues get 4 year olds starting school whose parents say they must have an iPad at meal times or they won’t eat or sit down. Needless to say they don’t get the iPad and they do eat and sit down at school.

Use it as a reward if you must. But I’d do a sticker chart with the reward at the end of the day is Bluey

I used the hey duggee toothbrushing song and got DD to do some on her own building up to doing it on her own fully. Worked for us. (Also in the night garden has a 2 minute toothbrushing segment).

If you have an audio player like Yoto or Tonie they have toothbrushing songs. I think introducing screen time like this stores up problems for later - you say she’s already asking to watch at other times too.

We did this and no lasting damage. My daughter had damage to her teeth due to severe silent reflux.

We started with the "tooth" videos but quickly moves away from them to other videos. We did colourful pasta videos, how to make crayons and Lego etc. Once she got better at doing her teeth we weaned her off them. We did avoid cartoons though.

She's nearly 6 now and rarely watches cartoons and screen time usually involves watching YouTube videos exploring in side the statue of liberty etc, watching the repair shop or the great pottery throw down.