Cleaning teeth tips for a 14mo

[Bumperlicious]

DD is 14 months with five teeth. At the moment when I try and clean her teeth she lets me try and brush them for about a second, but puts her tongue in the way and then clamps down on the tooth brush. It ends up with me just let her chew on the tooth brush for a bit.

I was just wondering if anyone had any tips for doing better and whether or not it is really important to clean teeth after bedtime milk before bed at this stage. At the moment we just manage them once a day in the morning when I do mine .

I haven't got around to moving evening teeth brushing to after milk yet as dd has her milk in bed and goes to sleep with it, which although isn't ideal, I'm hoping it isn't the end of the world.

My current trick to keep her mouth open for a while is to open my mouth wide and 'hum' her favourite songs (to the sound of ah) and get her to copy. It's working at the moment. DH gets her to hold something in each hand (toy/book/toothpaste) so that she doesn't grab the brush off him.

She does like to hold my toothbrush and 'do' my teeth while I do hers but she's not quite dextrous enough and ends up shoving it in my throat or at my lips, which hurts, so I wouldn't recommend that trick!

I think just getting used to the routine of it and gettting the toothbrush in her mouth is important to be getting on with - don't make it too much of a battle!

We get DS to say 'ahhhhhhh' while we clean his teeth and make a big deal out of how well he is doing etc etc.

FWIW though, we have only been 'brushing' his teeth properly for about 8 weeks (he is 20mo), at 14 mo we were just giving them a quick brush then letting him chew the brush much like you are.

do it in the bath

do it together

borrow an older child to copy if she doesn't have a big siblling

say "oh look I can see carrots/raisins/whatever she's last eaten"

sing the tooth cleaning song which we made up for ds and I've temporarily forgotten but will hopefully remember soon!

let her chew on the toothbrush, that's what 14 month olds do

Pin them down with a knee on their chest, prise their jaws open with a spoon handle and put ear plugs in for the screaming. It always helps to have a good story for SS.

Sounds like I needn't worry too much. We do usually do it together, I could try and make a thing about her opening her mouth and saying ahh.

Thanks for the replies.

DD1 was a nightmare, I used to have her strapped into the highchair, stand behind her and attack her from behind.

DD2, much easier. On my lap, angled back, head in the crook of my left arm. Toothbrush in my right hand, open my mouth wide and say AAAH at her, she joins in, and we're done in no time.

Do it with an electric toothbrush. You just hold it there and it does the back-and-forth brushing for you, so you get more brushing done in 0.05 seconds than you do with an ordinary toothbrush. The vibrations are good for easing teething pain, too.

I sing "this is the way we clean our teeth clean our teeth....on a cold and frosty morning" - it seems to pacify ds (16 months) long enough for me to have a quick whizz round, I then give him the toothbrush to chew on.

Same song, different words for washing face, cutting nails etc etc. He seems to understand that if we are singing the song its a game.

Electric toothbrushes are not suitable for 14 month olds (heads are far to big). No magic tricks I'm afraid. Try as others have said - in the bath, various games (roar like a lion) etc. The things you can control at this stage are diet, so limit amount and frequency of sugar (check labels on food - the higher "sugar" is mentioned in ingredients the more there is).

We look for pirates in DS1's mouth. I get him to say Ah-Haar (in a piratey voice!) while is scrub furiously at his molars.

Comeoveneer - you can get the wee battery powered kids ones - are they shite? Best just stick with baby milk teeth brush?

You can buy flashing toothbrushes, which flash for 60seconds, apparently as long as they need to brush their teeth, so we say they have to let us brush their teeth while it flashes. Keeping the mouth open is definitley a struggle, we get ours to roar like lions, as this involves the mouth being open. I also sing a song that I make up, usually slightly different each time. Usually to the tune of Clap your hands and wiggle your fingers, or whatever they have been singing in the day. Mu son loves Something Special so we include in the song the idea that he is brushing his teeth like Mr Tumble. Hope that helps!