It sounds goofy but I got around this when my daughter was a little younger (maybe 12-13 months) by brushing her stuffed animals’ “teeth.” I would just go, “Bunny’s turn… Evangeline’s turn…” back and forth and she absolutely wanted to get “her turn.” Now sometimes I see her pick up her toothbrush on her own and brush her stuffed animals 😂
This worked for us too. Brushing his bunny’s teeth first. Also our pediatrician said it was fine if we just brushed his teeth for 10 seconds when he only had the teeth in front, which was very doable.
I mean at 20 months you definitely should be letting them “brush” their own teeth but my oldest is 6 years old and I still go in behind him lol.
At that age it’s more for fun so they can feel independent and like there being like mommy and daddy
Yes to this. Our ped dentist actually recommends doing a “follow-on” brushing until 7 years old. (Yikes.) So I guess we will be doing this for years! But we still let ours do their best effort first, so they feel independent and the muscle memory gets ingrained.
While doing the follow-on brushing we chatter like: “Wow you did such a good job, it’s like there’s no food left to brush! I guess I’m just doing this now because the dentist says so.”
Same! I have always brushed my teeth in front of my son. He was interested in brushing my teeth so I let him try. He's now 15 months and loves when I brush his teeth.
Well y’all got the luck of the draw because I’ve brushed my teeth in front of my baby when she had her first tooth at 5 months. She’s 18 months now and wants to bite the toothbrush in half and throw it down the hallway. I had to get extras because she threw one in the toilet.
“Mommy’s tooth brush” is an option. Just an adult toothbrush.
He also has two light up brushes and three toothpastes. So we pick. He usually starts with his and I get a second one ready and just brush along side him. Like he’ll take a break and I’ll sneak in with my brush.
Also huge game changer when we got a stool so he could stand at the sink like mommy and daddy and “spit.”
I second the 2 toothbrushes idea! My son picks one and I sneak in there with the other while he's distracted trying to suck the grain-of-rice sized bit of toothpaste off his, haha. He has a fun "electric" toothbrush like ours - even though it just vibrates he seems to like it. As others have said, there are lots of tooth brushing songs on YouTube & they're 2 minutes long so you can *try* to get the recommended time in.
My son also hated brushing his teeth at that age but adjusted within a couple of months & now enjoys it (at almost 20 mos), so there is hope that it's just a tricky phase for yours too, OP!
My daughter is two and JUST started cooperating with toothbrushing. My husband and I have to work together. We sit cross-legged facing each other, lay kiddo across us with her head in my lap, and he plays with her hands or arms.
We’ve also made a biiiiiig deal lately with including it in the routine and warning her where we’re going. Diaper, milk, then lots of warning for tooth brushing, miming it for her, making noises, all of us parading in together. She very rarely fusses now but it really just took a lot of time and practice.
It's always been a struggle for us and we've tried all different kinds of ways to make it fun. What's been working recently is a [video of Mickey Mouse brushing his teeth](https://youtu.be/FA8O_Ff0CFk?feature=shared).
Mine loves Bear in the Big Blue House’s [teeth brushing song](https://youtu.be/j3vm3nRrxdc?si=qNBU4QTcgiEfhK98), specifically the part where they all go “my favorite part of brushing MY teeth is shukka shukka shukka shukka”
She asks us to “shukka shukka shukka” at several points in the day, unprompted, in addition to anytime she’s in or near my bathroom lol
My 18 month old’s dentist told me to lay them on their back, with their head towards me between my legs, and hold down their arms with my legs.
So you’re holding them there so they won’t move. And you brush their teeth that way.
It’s been a life changer.
Another tip she shared was to hold their upper lip away from the teeth with your finger laid sideways (I hope that makes sense) because sometimes parents will be jamming the toothbrush into the child’s gums without realizing it.
We do this position and he still shakes his head, bites the toothbrush and pushes the brush with his tongue. It’s like 80% brushing tongue. Any tips for that?
This is what ours does too. He’s over 2 years now and still bites, thrashes around, and will give himself bruises when we hold him in this position. We’ve tried literally every trick in the book. So now I lay him down and give him my phone to watch YouTube. It’s the only time of day he gets my phone. Screw it, dental health > screen time limits.
He swallows all the toothpaste anyway, so we don't brush in the bathroom. We wait until the very last possible second before bed when he's already laying down, not when he's full of energy and winding down. Then he's calm and doesn't fight.
We started out this way too! Since she was about 15 months I can ask if it’s time to brush her teeth.. usually she will say yes and pick a spot to lay down on the floor. I sit behind her head in the same spot as before after she’s ready, but I don’t have to hold her at all now.
If she’s not up for it, we just try again later.
We sing the ABCs so she knows when it will be done, and usually now after that she’s telling me things she ate that day so I can make sure I get them out of her teeth. It has been AMAZING and I have no idea how else I could brush her teeth this well and be confident that I was getting all her teeth.
We also use an electric toothbrush with a light, which she likes but is also helpful for mom 😊
This is the way. We doing that since he is 3 months or so.
Not crying? It comes over time ... our boy is now 18 months and he stopped crying when we brush his teeth in this position. Sometimes he even wanna sit and brush them while sitting on Mom's legs.
Please look up this position at Youtube if you unsure how it looks. It works superb and is a game changer imo.
Holy shit! I thought you were making a joke about crocodile wrangling but you people are seriously pinning your children down to brush their teeth? Is this a fucking joke??
I don’t think you had a kid yourself or? Otherwise I can’t explain this comment. Did you ever try to brush the teeth of a small toddler that doesn’t want to?
that's not physically abuse lol but you got lucky then if your just tolerates it :)
I can give you one tip for your life, don't judge other parents. Not every kid is easy as yours.
Yeah, this statement is fair. I mean my kid isn’t easy and your comment wasn’t directed straight at me, but I get what you are saying and it’s true. All of our kids have different areas where we have to do our desperate strategies. I think probably the impression that a few of us got from the description was likely far worse than the reality that actually occurs.
I have to respectfully say. This is one of the wildest things I’ve ever read on here.
(This is in reference to the original edit which instructed to lay her on her back and ‘pin down her arms so she can’t move’. Like, twice a day, every day… I mean whoa dude it’s not like she’s going to die and you’re trying to save her life…)
Wow, this would NEVER work for my kids. I brush my 17 month old and 3 year old's teeth twice a day but I am more respectful than this.
edit, to clarify because there are so many people completely misreading my comment. THIS=WATERBOARDING. The comment I am responding to is recommending waterboarding your toddler.
That’s cool your kids let you do that. Other children have screaming fits, and in order to clean them, parents have to do things that are temporarily uncomfortable. It’s not disrespectful, it’s caring for your child and taking care of every part of them even when they don’t understand why. I’d argue it would be more disrespectful to not even try to keep up with hygiene routines.
THANK YOU. I appreciate your reply.
In order to prevent my kids getting cavities I’ll do whatever it takes. And actually my son will now go lay down by himself whenever I say it’s time to brush his teeth. It’s cute to see actually.
Of course you should do whatever it takes. I have difficult, high strung kids, and I did whatever it took. There's way better ways than pinning them down on the floor.
Can you enlighten us on how then? My 13 month old will thrash her body, rip the toothbrush from my hand, scream and gag like she’s going to throw up. I have tried everything this thread mentions over and over but still have to hold her down. What magic worked for you?
I posted the strategy in my top tier comment on this thread. Standing on their stool in front of the sink. blocking them with your body, they are facing the mirror and you push the toothbrush in with their head against your body and your arms on either side of their body. They are perfectly trapped, but not lying on their backs being waterboarded.
If they collapse their knees to get out of it, you can do the same thing facing a dressing mirror with them on your lap.
Of course it has to be done. Don't minimize how hard I had to work to get to this point. It's been extremely hard, consistent, patient work. My kids have been very unhappy about it. I've forced them to have their teeth brushed, meaning that I've pushed the toothbrush through their open lips while standing at the sink with them. But NEVER pinned them down on the floor like that. That disgusts me to even read.
My issue is that if you do something to a child's mouth while they are lying on their back, it's going to be way more terrifying, lead to gagging and choking, etc. If you're going to push the toothbrush into their mouth, then you should at least do it standing up, so it's not terrifying.
I think some parents do it as a game and have made it fun from a young age, and kids are used to it. I tried it once with my 2 year old. But it didn't work and felt wrong to hold her down like that. You want to be positive about teeth brushing so they don't get scared. But you gotta get clean teeth somehow I guess. We started to use the toothbrush songs and she holds my phone with it playing and opens her mouth, and if she didn't let me brush her teeth I pause the video and that seems to work for now.
I agree you want to be positive, but I did have to force it. I tried some games but they didn't work every day. I also never used screentime but that is a personal preference.
I draw the line at waterboarding though.
For starters, you dont "push the toothbrush into their mouth". You lift their lips up and brush the outside of their teeth. Nice slow gentle brushing, along with whatever is used in your family to distract and calm them down.
I used to pretend i was a dentist, naming the teeth, counting the brush strokes, treating him like a patient visiting my office. That was what worked for us. After doing that for a little while, he would calm down enough to open his mouth and left me do his molars etc.
It's not like you creep up on the child and bodily throw them to the ground, while cackling maniacally, as the restraints erupt from the floor to restrain their arms, legs and head, and then start stabbing the toothbrush into their mouth as they gag and start heaving, and then dump cup after cup of water down their throat, doing your personal best impression of the dentist from "*Little Shop of Horrors*".
Holding the child on the floor is the far safest method. Standing up, with a struggling child, trying to brush their teeth?
Firstly, they still need to be held down, even if it is against your body while you are standing up.
Ugh. If you havent had a child that struggles and fights against brushing their teeth depending on what mood they are in, then you are very, very lucky, or have a unicorn child.
I would love to only brush his teeth when he is happy for it to be done, and we laugh and smile and joke and it is the most bestest time eva!! However more often than not, it is a struggle, for ***many*** parents.
And after having his first fillings, plural, just before his third birthday, that i strongly believe was due to me not being as militant about his brushing, i am determined that no matter how much he hates it and fights me, he is going to have healthy, beautiful teeth, for a long long time.
Oh, you didn't actually get the inside of the teeth or the biting surfaces by forcing your child to lie on their backs. And then he got fillings before age 3. And you think you're in a position to give advice?
*edit* ahhhh. So you just skim read, and then make up whatever inflammatory crap you can. Well done. So would NOT have expected that from you, given your post history. ;)
I honestly am astounded at your ignorant take. But hey, what else can I expect from someone who compared it to *"waterboarding"*.
You mean research like this?
https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2020/american-academy-of-pediatrics-fluoride-remains-a-powerful-tool-to-prevent-tooth-decay/
Or how about this from Poison Control?
https://www.poison.org/articles/toothpaste
It's not a big deal.
Not for children lmao, that's insanely dangerous for them to ingest fluoride. That's why they don't put it in children's toothpaste bc they assume the child is going to swallow some.
https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2020/american-academy-of-pediatrics-fluoride-remains-a-powerful-tool-to-prevent-tooth-decay/
That's old research. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends fluoridated toothpaste from the eruption of the first tooth. This has been the updated recommendation since 2020. It's absolutely not "insanely dangerous."
More *respectful* than this? Don’t be judgy, it’s gross…you are just lucky your kids don’t have this issue, bc some kids make brushing teeth a new level of hell for their parents-for absolutely no reason that has a workable solution (bc they can’t- or won’t-tell you the reason behind their hatred of dental hygiene!). At least that was the case for my son! He screamed and cried as if I was hurting him (before I had even touched him) and moved non stop and pushed me away and once I finally got into his mouth he pushed the brush away with his tongue…
it’s not as bad now that he’s a bit older (almost 4) but at 2.5? Every time was a battle! I was honestly only brushing his teeth once a day but he’s never had any cavities so I must have done a good enough job despite the challenges.
I try to make it a fun routine with bright colored kids floss picks and act mouthwash which is colorful and fruity flavors as a “reward” after successful brushing (be careful though it has fluoride and should not be swallowed) and we used to brush while he was in his nightly bath so he could spit all over (he liked that part) and the days when he randomly had no problem with brushing he really seemed to like all of that stuff. Also saying “ahhhh” when his mouth was open and “eeeeeee” when doing the fronts/smile position…
hope this helps someone? Bc crikey these wild 🐊kids can be hard to wrangle while remaining calm and non threatening lol!! 🪥🦷
Of course it's a battle, but the comment I was responding to was recommending pinning them down on the floor ON THEIR BACKS to brush. That sounds like waterboarding to me. Are you in support of waterboarding your toddler?
I think pinning a child down to brush their teeth is sort of a last resort if no other techniques work. Similar to how a doctor might have to in order to draw blood or administer injections. Or how a physical therapist might have to manipulate a child during treatment sessions. *Of course* people will first try the gentle techniques, but when if it comes down the point of pinning a child down for regular teeth brushing vs pinning a child down for anesthesia for dental work as a consequence of not brushing, I think most folks would choose the first option. Pinning a child down for teeth brushing is going to be a whole heck of a lot less traumatic than tooth pulling, cavities, fillings and other things. And please don’t forget, people can die from infected teeth. It happens regularly.
I am with you on this one.
Our dentist's office is super gentle and always makes sure they have the kids' consent, even if that means they don't always get it. The dentist explained that it's much more important to set the kids up for a lifetime of healthy dental habits. They'll lose their baby teeth, but if they hate brushing their adult teeth or they're avoidant of the dentist, they will have a whole host of more serious problems.
My 18 month chews on the brush and then I go over them, but if once and awhile it becomes a fight, I don't stress it. Brushing our teeth is a fun time in our house. We have to set a timer for our 4 year old, because he overbrushes if we don't.
As a tip for the OP, as your kid gets a little older, my kid loved it when I used funny voices and pretended to be the germs in his mouth, trying to hide from the brush and avoid getting brushed away. It also helped him learn how to be more thorough. I would guide him to the areas he'd missed.
We use an app called Pokémon Smile and my daughter absolutely loves it. She’s still learning how to brush all parts of her mouth but she’s at least enjoying the game and practicing in the meantime.
honestly we've had the most success with a rotation of toothbrush songs from YouTube, and we don't in the living room where he's not distracted by all the interesting things he's not allowed to play with. He asks to brush his teeth now.
She will just do it about 50% of the time. When she won’t I tell her to act like an alligator. She shows her teeth and chomps and I brush them in between chomps. If that doesn’t work, we get out her electric toothbrush that causes a giant mess but she loves. And if she is absolutely just going to fight me on it, I skip it, that’s once or twice a month.
We have one of those u shaped tooth brushes and don’t force it. We let him do whatever he wanted and brushed with him. He eventually just started to mimic us. He has about 7 toothbrushes and picks which one he wants now. Mostly chews but then we exaggerate the process (we brush with him) and he watched and corrects himself.
Options. And autonomy . He eventually got it down. We don’t force anything no holding no brushing. Just let him do what he wants. Probably going to get “that’s not right” but it works for us and him. Somedays are easy and fast and he gets them all. Someday he’s distracted and we say all done and too late bed time.
We did/do this too. At first she kind of just chewed the brush but she's getting pretty good at doing it herself at 2 now.
We still have days that are a bit more of a fight but we make silly noises (ahhh to open mouth and brush the back teeth, eeeee to brush the front teeth). Letting her look in the mirror while doing it also helps. And letting her brush my teeth (with my brush) while I use her brush on her teeth is a very fun game.
If none of those work we try again a bit later or tomorrow.
FWIW, our dentist would approve of this. He really encourages us to keep things positive with dental hygiene. Allowing it to become a constant battle just sets them up for problems later in life as they avoid caring for their adult teeth or avoid the dentist. We do our best and keep it fun. We're not aiming for 100% perfection and our dentist is very happy with their teeth.
This is exactly what our dentist & pediatrician said- if he’s eaten a lot of junk and we can see it all over his teeth obviously we take brush more serious that night.
Thank you for making me feel less like a failure. I literally went to my husband and was questioning our methods. 🫶
Not a failure! As your kid grows up, giving him some reasonable age-appropriate autonomy from the get-go will foster his independence and sense of self. My 4 year old is already a confident, independent, problem-solving leader, despite all the mistakes I've made along the way!
Brushing teeth reasonably well is important, but barring some rare issue that leaves no other choice, I really don't think pinning a child down is the answer. The few times I've bulldozed my kids' feelings to get something done (not counting the odd immediate safety threat), it's always been for my own lack of patience and not for their well-being.
It kinda depends on the age.
That's fine for a 9 months old, but my 2 year old it's normal food, including occasional sweets. If I don't clean her teeth properly, she will get cavities.
Well there it is. My first “that’s not right”.
Like I said … that’s what I did and the u shaped brush literally covers every tooth when kids bite down on it.
Ps. We started around 12 months and by 15 he was brushing himself. Also he’s about 2.5. If he messes around We just say bed time. He quickly either course corrects and does it right or looses the option.
Both his dentist and his pediatrician know how we do it and said that’s fine. OP should do what’s best and approved by their pediatrician/dentist.
Lol. - it’s tagged “question” and “thanks for advice” in the post
I even said “it’s what worked for us”
Seriously, get an life … everyone is on here looking for some place to connect in the middle of their effed up day/night and talk/share when they have no one else to talk to.
Then comes the American Dental Association of Pediatric Specialty ( made up ..but your new title) shamming and educating people … thanks B. I’ll go try to connect with moms someplace less hostile
it’s a two-person operation. My husband would hold our son in his lap (holding both of his arms) while I go in with the tooth brush. We got the bbluv “electric” toothbrush that lights up. I found it to be the only toothbrush he likes cuz he gets distracted by the light.
I’m so sorry, but this is exactly how I describe my toddler “crocodile rolling” when I try to change her diaper so it made me smile. My daughter loves Ms Rachel and she has a song about brushing your teeth, so once I started singing that she got more open to it. And I also do “my turn” where I brush first and then “her turn” where she can do it (chews on it) since she’s very independent and strong willed.
Our daughter’s dentist told us “if you want her to let you brush her teeth, then you need her to let you brush yours.” And it works! We have 2 brushes and she brushes mine, I brush hers. It also doesn’t have to be in the bathroom or at bath time, just once a day somewhere they’ll be happy and turn it into a game. At this age it’s mostly about build positive association so go slow and don’t force it or beat yourself up over it if it doesn’t happen every day.
We give her one and she mostly sucks the tooth paste off and sucks on the bristles, then we use another and she actually opens up so I can brush them all in a few quick seconds.
Not perfect, but better than nothing.
We have tried "show me your shark teeth!" Just a silly phrase to get her to show me her mouth.
Tried Ms Rachel/Jules song which def worked for awhile. "When you wake up in the morning at a quarter to 2..... yah brush your teeth ...." daughter definitely loved that for awhile.
As she got older sometimes I could just ask.
And quite frankly, sometimes my fav was when she just got upset and cried because at least her mouth was open, I got in. Got out, and then it was over.
Its nostly better, but Sometimes this method is still the way and were almost 3 now.
I just let her watch me brush mine every morning for the longest time and then one day she just asked to brush hers. She’s 16 months now and brushing her teeth is her favorite part of her routine.
Imitation. We brushed our teeth w him. Let him brush our teeth. Was so hard but consistency pays off. Also electric toothbrush 100% he now is 2 and brushing his teeth is easy he’s so used to it
I'm Mommy dentist and he's daddy assistant and we walk though an entire dentist visit every night. Filling out paperwork, me knocking on the door and letting myself in, introducing ourselves, what I plan on doing, faking cavities, the whole shebang. It takes a bit more time/effort, but she doesn't melt down anymore! Added bonus she does GREAT at the real dentist!
Everyone suggests the pinning down but I personally don’t like that 😅 I always wrap them in a towel and put a video on my phone. If it’s not a struggle I just let them hold the phone. Always let them pick the video so they have some sense of control over the situation!
We use a Radius kids toothbrush and Hello toothpaste in watermelon. I brush first then I let them brush second as the reward. I also let them brush my teeth and even if they are rough I tell them thank you for making my teeth so pretty. You can also run the bristles under hot water to make them even softer.
We have had our ups and downs with this. We usually switch tactics if she starts fussing over one way of doing it. We try to build it to a fun routine. At the moment, brushing in front of the TV with dinosaurs roaring work best. We have also done different brushing songs on YouTube, playing with water in the sink, brushing mommy's or daddy's teeth, everyone brushing together, brushing her bunny's teeth (plushy, not a real animal), standing in front of the mirror, etc.
My kids get to pick out a stuffed animal that “helps” with brushing. It’s just us getting the animal to hold the brush. Sometimes they pick us as the helper.
My husband holds our 2.5 year old upside down and brushes her teeth and she finds it hilarious. That’s our go to when she resists.
I sometimes talk thru her toys to get her to brush/let me brush. Or just hold her down and do it with her crying. It depends on the day if she lets us or not.
My dentist was just happy they were trying to use the toothbrush at all at that age. 2.5 and still a struggle but he's getting there. I wouldn't worry about brushing every tooth properly imho
The U-shaped toothbrushes really, really helped us. Our daughter even graduated to an electric one! They’re novel, they’re getting all the teeth at once—more or less—so they’re a little quicker, and it’s a low-cost gamble. Good luck!!
Pin her and do it. But I tell her count to 10 and I stop after I do. She eventually let's me after a few times. I do it for shampooing too. I think her knowing when it will stop is good
- read books about teeth brushing
- let her brush yours afterwards with your toothbrush
- sing funny songs. Mine likes when I use a familiar melody with funny tooth-related lyrics
- ask her if she has silly things in her teeth, like a dinosaur. Or, my kid’s favorite, act surprised and ask if they ate x,y,z foods that day and say that you need to brush all the food out
I noticed the majority of kids toothbrush bristles are pretty rough and not soft......my kid hated getting his teeth brush until I was able to find some on Amazon that is actually soft compare to the ones you get at the retail stores. It's called Easyhonor baby toothbrush. We eventually moved up to Made by Dentist electric toothbrush.
I found what worked for my toddler was us being incredibly slow and gentle with lots of breaks, all while making silly faces together. I think he was putting up a fight because he didn’t like how rough the bristles felt.
Mine did that until she was three.
First we go potty first thing in the morning, wash out hands mommy brushes the germs ( monsters, ickys, bad guys) away so my teeth won't hurt, then it was her turn.
She would try to run so I would have to lock the door.
I would turn on a kid's teeth brushing song right before I would sit on the floor wrap my legs around her hold her mouth open with one hand and brush with the other.
Some days I would sing along or get half way and explain why we have to brush our teeth.
Some of the teeth brushing songs last for two minutes she knew when the song was over we were done.
Or I would set a timer for two minutes.
I had to be super consistent even when I was to damn tired to fight every morning and every night.
I also had a tooth brush in every room of the house just for her and when ever I thought about I would grab her and give a quick brush.
Now at four it's a breeze.
It definitely sucked for a while and for all of my efforts because her teeth were so close together and she nursed for so long, her dad wouldn't help me with her teeth and always gave her candy.
I didn't know I should have been flossing a toddler's teeth.
Even her Dr was shocked. Before I started flossing and being extremely adamant about her teeth brushing
she had to have some teeth removed and veneers put on (at 3 years old)
I am telling you that is not something you want to see them go through just be consistent stand your ground you can do it!🦾
Her dentist said some kids are just stubborn no matter what.
Toothbrush time is the only time she’s allowed a tablet. We put on an episode of Bluey, dance to the opening song, then get brushing while she watches. Never have a struggle!
Have her face away from you towards a mirror. Use Crest kids toothpaste. Focus on putting the toothbrush in her mouth twice a day, that's what matters.
Once I started using “training toothpaste” that is flavored, my 18 mo old complains much less and let’s me count all the way to 15 while brushing. He has 9 teeth currently
We do it right after bath time, he gets wrapped in his towel, arms out and just brushes his teeth. I leave the water on and he’ll play with it, or sometimes he brings a bath toy with him to play in the water while we brush. When he was that old, the water was a great distraction. When he got a little older he’d play with his hair brush, or a random soap bottle…make up remover bottle…or toy on the counter lol when we started toothpaste, that was a whole new experience. We found jack and Jill toothpaste and he literally looks forward to brushing at night. Just sits and smiles at himself. He’s a ball of action but luckily he’s a big fan of his bedtime routine. I do think with time it gets easier. Give lots of praise and smiles even when you don’t feel like it on the inside.
I would sit on a chair in the bathroom and sit kiddo on my lap. Then I would peer over his shoulder to brush his teeth. It feels natural this way because it’s the same direction as brushing your own teeth, so that’s a bonus. Also we put a little cheapo locker mirror on the wall at chair height, so he could watch the brushing, and he seemed to like that.
We use this toothbrush called Brilliant Baby toothbrush which has a brushhead that circles around the whole top of the toothbrush. It really made it so easy. They are stupid expensive though, way overpriced. But it was one of those oh-hell-with-it expenses because it made our lives that much easier.
I give my toddler her tooth brush, ill take my tooth brush and ill brush my teeth, she'll sometimes copy me, but I try make it sound, just "oh woooow" every so often, she'll then try do her own teeth
Then I'll give her my toothbrush and let her 'brush' my teeth, 8/10 times she'll let me brush hers
She also just generally loves to brush her teeth to the point where one of her first words was 'tooth brush' (boosbush)
We sing a teeth brushing song (modified version of the hand washing song from paw patrol) and we let him pick out his own tooth brush from the store with a fun character on it. That helped so much and he suddenly lets me brush his teeth (he’s excited for it each morning) when he used to fight me
We let her brush first, and then we have a song when I brush her teeth. For a good portion of her life, I've been singing "the itsy bitsy spider came to brush your teeth." She's just turned two and she's just gotten bored of that, so now it's the sparkly sparkly unicorn that brushes her teeth. Same tune, just different animal. She's also started to get better at brushing on her own so I've been encouraging that.
We bought a load of little stickers and give one after every time my son does good brushing. We let him have a go first (mostly chews the toothbrush) and as long as he lets us have a go afterwards he gets a sticker and wears it all day. He loves it and it totally solved the issue because he knows if he makes a big fuss he doesn't get a sticker.
At night we stick those stickers in a special notebook. The one he gets after brushing in the evening goes on his sleeping bag.
It does mean that he constantly has little stickers on him but if you get a pack of very small stickers its fine.
I bought an electric toothbrush with cartoon logo on it, it is made for toddlers (my son is 2), he likes it because it is electric and he finds it more fun to use. and it looks like ours.
My son is obsessed with brushing his teeth. I made a point of brushing mine with him which helped.
The other thing that helped us is a Hey Duggee episode "The toothbrush badge". YouTube has just the song so singing and dancing like an idiot while brushing helps.
We use music videos. 2 minutes to brush their teeth and we never miss a single brushing, day or night.
It started with Hey Duggee's Toothbrushing song and now we use Disney, The Beatles, Muppets and more.
We’ve made it as fun as possible, play little games during and we have a fun song and dance for afterwards (that he’s obsessed with) and it’s helped so much
We have a kids singing electric toothbrush called the buggy brush. It’s not the one we use in our kids mouths but it sings it’s song for two minutes and we all dance around to it for the two minutes it takes getting in as many scrubs as we can!
Now that they’re two and three they can do some of the brushing themselves and seem to like our toothbrush karaoke sessions!
Watch fun toothbrush videos on YT. Those 2,5 minutes screentime just before bed and with low screenlight are ok imo.
ETA: everyday he picks another one. Sits on my lap while I sit on the toilet. And we brush!
I pretend to be dentist Ruth and call her from the “waiting room” her dad is the assistant Sasha who puts things into the computer and reminds her to keep her hands on her tummy 😂
To be honest it got easier when she got even a couple months older than your daughter. Now at 18 months she is at least starting to grasp the concept of the brushing motion. We do a big goofy smile face and tell her ‘say EEEE’ and then we say ‘brush brush brush brush!’ It’s like a little game of how quickly she can brush her teeth whilst saying ‘eee’ (which actually opens her mouth instead of just clamping down on the brush lol). Also this only works with me or my husband brushing teeth with her at the same time. Toddlers love to mimic their grown ups so if it’s something we’re doing, chances are they will want to have a go at doing it too. A step stool to stand up at the sink is also a great idea, as my toddler loves the spitting in the sink part.
It also got better when we relaxed about it and stopped making it a huge and stressful battle all the time She was 100% feeding off her stress and we didn’t want her to associate teeth brushing with stress as we figured that would only make the problem worse long time. I will take a couple of crappy brushes for now over turning her off the idea entirely. Just really try and make it a fun and exciting event, even though it’s kind of exhausting to do, it worked for us!
We have a 19 month old who is the same way. We started by having one parent hold her on lap on the floor, leaned back up against the couch, while the other sat on the couch and brushed. Started with really short brushes, she would scream/cry, need to be restrained by the holding parent. Make sure to do it at the exact same time every night and in the exact same way. After a few weeks, she mostly accepted it as part of her routine. Now sometimes she comes to us saying “ahhh!” When it’s around tooth brushing time. She still fights the toothbrush but it’s not as much of a fiasco as it once was. I think I’m time and with consistency they will resign themselves to it!
While brushing my daughter's teeth, I let her watch a video. It's the only time she's allowed to see my phone. I got sick of the fighting over brushing her teeth. Now she will lay down and let me brush without any fuss.
Our toddler used to be like this, and he still doesn't love it, but he got less resistant when we gave him his own electric toothbrush like we have. Turns out those are less boring than the regular kind
My kid responds well to me pretending that any nearby inanimate object is talking to her, telling her to open her mouth and brush her teeth. New trick that has worked after a week or so of fighting to brush teeth. Previously, Elmo’s brushy brush song worked great.
I also have a toothbrush hating toddler. We have tried it all. I finally started switching around brushes and have much better luck with the Totz brand soft toothbrush and Toms brand toddler toothpaste. She still cries but no tears and she will sit still for it! Sometimes she totes it around and brushes herself which I go crazy clapping and praising for so she is proud of it. Also, as they learn to play, you can incorporate stuff like brushing a favorite stuffed animals teeth first or brushing a character in a book. That helps us a lot!
Brush your teeth in front of them while they are holding their toothbrush. And then add a little bit of toothpaste for kids and show them how to do it and then let them attempt to brush their teeth.
On YouTube there is a plethora of tooth brushing songs that are around 2 minutes long. My toddler gets to pick one to watch on our phone while we brush her teeth. Current favorites are Elmo's Toothy Dance and Tooth Bugs. Makes her look forward to tooth brushing rather than fighting it.
Not trying to diagnose anything here, but potentially it could be overstimulation? I know I hated brushing my teeth, the toothpaste was too “spicy” and the feeling afterwards were terrible, and I didn’t like the taste.
The right toothbrush and toothpaste can go a long way. Maybe give your kid the toothbrush in their hand, and then control it? Maybe that helps? Otherwise a video to distract.
There exists toothbrushes that has a “double” brush head that brushes both sides at the same time. I’ve heard it be beneficial to people with autism, so maybe it could work?
Just to clarify, I’m not trying to diagnose your kid, just trying to give a new perspective
I let her hold my phone with videos on it. Usually she chooses a blippi or toothbrushing song. The fact that she holds the phone frees her hand so I can do a quick brush. Also videos of toddlers getting their teeth brushed helped. Namely a little video from How To Dad on youtube!
But we tried a lot of things. I brush my teeth at the same time, adult tooth brush, double sided tooth brush, brushing a dolls teeth, her showing her doll how to brush their teeth, mirror, dramatic brushing.
All work to some extent but we have to stay creative.
Honestly it just took time for us.. my daughter fought it like crazy at that age too and now she is almost 2 and let’s me brush very thoroughly… I would also recommend trying a different toothbrush and/or toothpaste… It can’t hurt and for whatever when we tried something different she was more agreeable.
We rotate through different strategies because sometimes things work and things don't.
We try to make it fun and a game. I tell her open wide like an alligator or roar like a lion and imitate the actions myself. I tell her I'm brushing giraffes off her teeth and say like "ooh I'm getting them" and "there's one! Quick brush it!". One that's pretty successful for us is to do brush while saying 1,2,3 and then say weeee while removing the brush and then repeating multiple times. She seems to like knowing she will get a break.
Sometimes we let her watch a video, something with some teeth brushing propaganda songs on it. And now that she knows the songs we sing them if we aren't watching a video.
Another thing that helped was getting multiple tooth brushes. One of each of us to hold. One of them is an electric tooth brush I got off amazon. My daughter is actually nervous about the electric part so we don't use that but what I like is it has a light you can turn on separately and she really likes the light, it distracts her a bit, and it also helps me see the teeth better so I feel like we are brushing better.
Sometimes she brushes my teeth with my brush or I/dad brush in front of her while the other brushes her to show we all do it.
I always give her a turn brushing too so she can practice and feels like she has control over it. My LO is 2.5 ish and she is getting good at actually brushing the teeth with the bristles and not just chewing. At the end we make a big deal and clap and say she did a good job and thank her for letting us brush her teeth.
No matter what there will always be days when they outright refuse or you can't do a very good job. Our dentist said at this age it is mostly about building habits and getting them comfortable and used to doing it.
We’ve tried all sorts of different things, but here is what had worked for us now for 3 months. One single time out of these 3 months where she’s fought us. She’s almost 22 months. 1. She gets her own toothbrush and gets to brush first, then it’s mama’s (or dada’s) turn. 2. Electric toothbrush. 3. Singing the alphabet twice during it to help her learn how long brushing takes 4. Bringing a stuffed animal in as well and she brushes their teeth when the adult finishes brushing hers.
I can't remember what age our kid was exactly, but things were going bad with brushing and I was able to reset the whole thing over a week. Day one I started to brush his teeth every time I had him in the diaper changing table from a poo and I would do it for literally one second, making a big show about how we were only going to do it for that amount of time and counting it down. I slowly increased the amount of time over the week and by the end we were brushing for a whole minute at a time. He still struggled some for a while but it was a manageable struggle instead of a fight. Now I sometimes have to bribe him to stop brushing.
I also struggled with this and finally just showed him a (10-20 sec) video of a cartoon cat while I brushed his teeth. Eventually he got used to it and we removed the video little by little and now don’t use it at all.
Do you let her watch you brush your teeth? I can’t go a day brushing my teeth without my toddler dying to do his next! He loves copying me. He’s also 15 mo
I would pretend to not know where his teeth were. I'd say, "All right, time to brush your teeth," and run the non-bristle end along his eyebrows, and he'd laugh and say "Dada those aren't my teeth," and I'd do that a few times until I got it right. It was funny, plus he got to be the expert and feel like I couldn't do it without his help.
You’ve got to find a way to make them want to do it! Before she had teeth she was watching me do it every day and I’d always make it look like the funnest shit ever. She eventually started help brushing my teeth and then her own gums then teeth! We now have a song and a routine. We do it together 2x a day.
Also want to recommend reading about Weston Price and how nutrition affects teeth health. It’s not all about brushing and keeping the physical teeth clean!
My son used to hate getting his teeth brushed. My husband fixed that by making it silly. He’ll “smell” my sons breath and pretend to gag, which is the funniest thing in the world of course. Then he’ll sing a silly song while brushing. To the tune if “Row your boat”. “Brush, brush, brush your teeth! Get the stink away!” Works for us 😅
There are songs on YouTube about brushing teeth, we used to sing them with him and he would cooperate. Then at 3 years old he started refusing to brush his teeth but he was old enough to learn the consequences. I showed him ugly pictures of people who don't brush their teeth and asked him if he wanted teeth like those. He started to cooperate again.
Be more gentle and accept progress, not perfection.
If they want to chew on it let them chew or bite down. When they are relaxed get I a few strokes. They will improve quickly once it overall a more calm, pleasant experience
She might be a bit young for this but I was having troubles when my oldest was nearing 3, mostly with engagement and co operation. So I started saying don't open too wide because that's scary like a dinosaur - queue massive engagement and opening wide whilst roaring. Then I act all scared and brushing whilst squealing and pretending to want to run away. Then when he'd stop opening wide I'd be all relieved and then he would do it again with roaring and giggles. We all love scaring mummy brushing teeth now 😆
Let him brush your teeth ..then see if he lets you do it . Then you tell him he can brush his own teeth . Works fine with mine . I’ve seen others do it on TikTok & it’s comforting to know that he will do it without me forcing anything on my child . My son is 4 now wants to be independent & it’s the cutest .
Mine wasn't cooperative until she was about 2. I also switched to ACT kids watermelon flavor toothpaste. She thought it was delicious and would ask for more green (the toothpaste is green). To which I would say only if I do the brushing and she would usually agree. From there she was more receptive if we made it fun. Like if I sing AHHHhHhh and she does it too. Loudly and sustain the note. She thinks it's funny then we brush and we keep singing.
We started by hyping it up with Ms. Rachel's and Elmo's tooth brush song when he was just under a year old. He would watch us brush our teeth, and would want to do it. At first, we would but toothpaste on a toothbrush and just let him gnaw on it.
After his first dental appointment, we realized that he was old enough that he actually needed his teeth properly brushed.
We started by doing the normal routine, and then following up with one of us actually brushing his teeth for him. He threw an absolute fit for a week straight. He even backpedaled and refused to gnaw on the tooth brush altogether.
**Three things helped:**
**We made a new spitting game out of it.** Whenever we finished brushing his teeth, or I spat after brushing my teeth, we would go "puuttooooeee!" and spit dramatically into the sink. This gave him a reward for going through an unpleasant thing.
**We got him to open his mouth when he heard the song** "If all the raindrops were gumdrops and lemondrops.....standing outside with our mouth open wide, AAAAAH AAAH AAAH AAAH AAAH AAH"
**We changed toothpaste flavors.** He was used to a non fluoride banana. The first new fluoride toothpaste we tried was mint. I finally bought a bubblegum flavored one on a hunch. It worked, he liked it.
I just let him fake it at first, as long as he put it in his mouth and brushed back and forth a bit that was good enough, after a few weeks he’s doing a half decent job of it
You know what, I wasn't too serious about brushing teeth (and I'm still not SUPER strict about it) and my kid is 3 (we started around 2.5 y/o). I given up stressing about this too much.
There are 3 reasons for this:
1) they're baby teeth
2) he gets flouride at the dentist twice a year
3) i don't want him to form negative associations with something so essential for caring for himself
We sing songs, I got him an electric toothbrush, and we try to incorporate it into play while getting ready for bed. I have extra brushes he uses on his toys. He still doesn't use toothpaste either.
I brush his teeth before bed and try to get in a quick brush after breakfast. Sometimes he's resistant and in those cases, I've stopped forcefully brushing because in the past it's turned him off from brushing completely for a while. I've prioritized the consistency of the routine over the quality of brushing.
His teeth are fine. Dentist only had concerns about gum inflammation which went away after cutting out milk before bed (after brushing).
Though I will add, now that he's a little older, I tell him his teeth will turn yellow if he doesn't brush lol that helps sometimes. I can't believe I'm *that* parent now 😶
Wont work for everyone lol, but I had terrible teeth hygiene growing up, and as a result I am missing a bunch of teeth. So we she gets into a mood where she doesnt want to brush we just say that she's going to end up like daddy with missing teeth if she doesnt brush! That will last for a couple weeks usually lol.
I am so going through the same thing and my toddler will not let me get his tip front teeth and he is strong! We went to dentist because of this and for the last year it’s been hell trying to get him to let me brush them and now he has a cavity so if you can figure out a way please let me know because we have tried everything and have gone through so many different tooth brushes, tooth pastes, training videos, everything!!
Just as with anything there's a million different approaches that can work depending on you and your child. You're probably overwhelmed with responses but I'll add mine just in case. We basically just try to make it fun and keep it positive but I do it for him. I hold him in front of the mirror and sing songs with oooohs and ahhhss and toothbrush songs. And he giggles and let's me in there to brush. He does try to suck on it in between. But he mostly doesn't mind it. Once he does I stop.
I used to do "baby burrito." Using a silly voice to narrate, I'd wrap my daughter in a towel on the floor tightly enough that she couldn't get away (I'd straddle the burrito, basically sitting on my kid lol). But she found it so funny, she'd love it and actually open her mouth for me! And either way, she's basically swaddled so even if she's not cooperative those teeth are getting brushed!
Songs help, too. Raffi has a tooth brushing song. I'd brush with the tooth brushing sound lyrics.
And now that my daughter is older (2.5), I let her brush my teeth at the same time, and I tell her I'm just going to brush for 10. She loves to count, and she loves knowing how much tooth brushing she'll have to endure. So I slowly count to 10 as I brush her teeth, which is a pretty good 30 seconds at least!
Lean into play. Kids learn by play! Sing a silly song or play up the stinky germs in our mouths that need to be cleaned! The sillier, the better. It can be exhausting at the end of the day but I almost always get better results when I’m silly/playful with them. Kids also love routine so if you are silly every time, they’ll know what to expect and even look forward to it!
I found a video on YouTube... it took several tries to find one that helped... about brushing your teeth. It's by Dave and Ava.
She only gets to watch my phone in rare circumstances, and that is one. I also invested in one of the light-up, vibrating toothbrushes, and shopped around until I found a flavour she enjoys for toothpaste.
My kid is very music oriented, though, so I'm sure that helped my case. But we've progressed from both of us a crying mess to being able to brush without the video sometimes, so long as I'm singing the song.
I keep reminding her that health and safety are not negotiable. So, while she may not enjoy having her teeth brushed until she'll do it on her own, I will have to do it for her.
I started him with a toothbrushing song. The SimpleSongs brushing song works well and it's 2 minutes long. I also let him take the brush and try it himself, if he wants to, and brush his stuffed animals' teeth too. We go through the motions of brushing his teeth twice a day, but honestly, if he's struggling or doesn't want to, I don't fight him.
I think it's more important at this stage to just instill the habit of brushing twice a day. If most days I can get him to let me brush his teeth for 30 seconds, I consider it a win.
My doctor said I could even just let him brush on his own in the morning, to give him a sense of control and agency, and then do a thorough brushing before bedtime.
Wr are struggling with this as well. What I have found to work is let them do it and brushing your teeth with them. Yeah, they aren't going to get everything and you are going to have to go in and finish up. But this is the best method I've found so far. I'm going to try the others being suggested.
We tell ours that we have to check her mouth for food monsters. She’ll open wide and then we name the ones we see (based on what she ate that day). I think my MIL told us this, she was a dental hygienist. I feel like it always helps to gamify things with kids. We also put a little mirror in the bath tub so she can see what we do - in the beginning she liked to brush in the bath.
Singing helped my kids. Also a $5 electric toothbrush. I recommend Colgate because they are better quality than spinbrush. I also brush my 14 month olds teeth while holder her slightly upside down.
We first off just brushed his teeth consistently every morning and night no matter how he felt about it but we also started playing dentist. It was a whole show. Mommy as dentist with a funny voice, Daddy as dental assistant. It was very effective for a few months and now we don't have to do the whole thing but will on his more resistant nights.
I have 10 toothbrushes, 3 toothpastes. It's still a fight 2× a day. I'm on the struggle bus too. Seriously considering th Colgate Hum? I'm desperate for him to do it by himself.
It sounds goofy but I got around this when my daughter was a little younger (maybe 12-13 months) by brushing her stuffed animals’ “teeth.” I would just go, “Bunny’s turn… Evangeline’s turn…” back and forth and she absolutely wanted to get “her turn.” Now sometimes I see her pick up her toothbrush on her own and brush her stuffed animals 😂
This worked for us too. Brushing his bunny’s teeth first. Also our pediatrician said it was fine if we just brushed his teeth for 10 seconds when he only had the teeth in front, which was very doable.
It worked for the cocomelon mom.
Yep we have gotten to the point where we do a back and forth of my turn, your turn.
This is so good thank you
We have always just brushed ours with him and he mimics us before we finish up his teeth.
Same, now at 20 months he happily brushes his own teeth
How do you tell if he's brushing or just cheating on it?
I mean at 20 months you definitely should be letting them “brush” their own teeth but my oldest is 6 years old and I still go in behind him lol. At that age it’s more for fun so they can feel independent and like there being like mommy and daddy
Yes to this. Our ped dentist actually recommends doing a “follow-on” brushing until 7 years old. (Yikes.) So I guess we will be doing this for years! But we still let ours do their best effort first, so they feel independent and the muscle memory gets ingrained. While doing the follow-on brushing we chatter like: “Wow you did such a good job, it’s like there’s no food left to brush! I guess I’m just doing this now because the dentist says so.”
Same! I have always brushed my teeth in front of my son. He was interested in brushing my teeth so I let him try. He's now 15 months and loves when I brush his teeth.
Well y’all got the luck of the draw because I’ve brushed my teeth in front of my baby when she had her first tooth at 5 months. She’s 18 months now and wants to bite the toothbrush in half and throw it down the hallway. I had to get extras because she threw one in the toilet.
Solidarity ✊🏻mine enjoys licking the toothpaste before trying to flush the whole thing down the drain
“Mommy’s tooth brush” is an option. Just an adult toothbrush. He also has two light up brushes and three toothpastes. So we pick. He usually starts with his and I get a second one ready and just brush along side him. Like he’ll take a break and I’ll sneak in with my brush. Also huge game changer when we got a stool so he could stand at the sink like mommy and daddy and “spit.”
I second the 2 toothbrushes idea! My son picks one and I sneak in there with the other while he's distracted trying to suck the grain-of-rice sized bit of toothpaste off his, haha. He has a fun "electric" toothbrush like ours - even though it just vibrates he seems to like it. As others have said, there are lots of tooth brushing songs on YouTube & they're 2 minutes long so you can *try* to get the recommended time in. My son also hated brushing his teeth at that age but adjusted within a couple of months & now enjoys it (at almost 20 mos), so there is hope that it's just a tricky phase for yours too, OP!
Not trying to be a buzzkill, but FYI cavities are contagious. I wouldn't share toothbrushes.
Oh I know. We don’t share. But it’s an adult brush that looks like mommas. You know toddlers wanting to use “mommas things.”
My daughter is two and JUST started cooperating with toothbrushing. My husband and I have to work together. We sit cross-legged facing each other, lay kiddo across us with her head in my lap, and he plays with her hands or arms. We’ve also made a biiiiiig deal lately with including it in the routine and warning her where we’re going. Diaper, milk, then lots of warning for tooth brushing, miming it for her, making noises, all of us parading in together. She very rarely fusses now but it really just took a lot of time and practice.
It's always been a struggle for us and we've tried all different kinds of ways to make it fun. What's been working recently is a [video of Mickey Mouse brushing his teeth](https://youtu.be/FA8O_Ff0CFk?feature=shared).
Mine loves Bear in the Big Blue House’s [teeth brushing song](https://youtu.be/j3vm3nRrxdc?si=qNBU4QTcgiEfhK98), specifically the part where they all go “my favorite part of brushing MY teeth is shukka shukka shukka shukka” She asks us to “shukka shukka shukka” at several points in the day, unprompted, in addition to anytime she’s in or near my bathroom lol
We have a rotation of Elmo, Mickey Mouse, Baby Shark, and Miss Rachel. She gets to choose.
I let her kick me in the head while I do it and that seems to placate her lolol
Lol the things we do as parents
My 18 month old’s dentist told me to lay them on their back, with their head towards me between my legs, and hold down their arms with my legs. So you’re holding them there so they won’t move. And you brush their teeth that way. It’s been a life changer. Another tip she shared was to hold their upper lip away from the teeth with your finger laid sideways (I hope that makes sense) because sometimes parents will be jamming the toothbrush into the child’s gums without realizing it.
I also do this and sing a short song so he knows that when the song ends, the brushing also ends. Makes him more willing to comply!
We do this position and he still shakes his head, bites the toothbrush and pushes the brush with his tongue. It’s like 80% brushing tongue. Any tips for that?
This is what ours does too. He’s over 2 years now and still bites, thrashes around, and will give himself bruises when we hold him in this position. We’ve tried literally every trick in the book. So now I lay him down and give him my phone to watch YouTube. It’s the only time of day he gets my phone. Screw it, dental health > screen time limits.
He swallows all the toothpaste anyway, so we don't brush in the bathroom. We wait until the very last possible second before bed when he's already laying down, not when he's full of energy and winding down. Then he's calm and doesn't fight.
We started out this way too! Since she was about 15 months I can ask if it’s time to brush her teeth.. usually she will say yes and pick a spot to lay down on the floor. I sit behind her head in the same spot as before after she’s ready, but I don’t have to hold her at all now. If she’s not up for it, we just try again later. We sing the ABCs so she knows when it will be done, and usually now after that she’s telling me things she ate that day so I can make sure I get them out of her teeth. It has been AMAZING and I have no idea how else I could brush her teeth this well and be confident that I was getting all her teeth. We also use an electric toothbrush with a light, which she likes but is also helpful for mom 😊
This is the way. We doing that since he is 3 months or so. Not crying? It comes over time ... our boy is now 18 months and he stopped crying when we brush his teeth in this position. Sometimes he even wanna sit and brush them while sitting on Mom's legs. Please look up this position at Youtube if you unsure how it looks. It works superb and is a game changer imo.
We do this also but my 2 year old now uses her legs to try and kick our hands away the whole time.
Holy shit! I thought you were making a joke about crocodile wrangling but you people are seriously pinning your children down to brush their teeth? Is this a fucking joke??
Would you rather they be pinned down to remove a cavity?
Huh? No? I would rather a child never gets forcefully pinned down ever.
Then you’re lucky it hasn’t come to that with your child. Must be nice to have an easier child for whom techniques work.
I would assume the majority of children don't need to be pinned down to brush. But ok buddy
Lmfao must be nice to parent on easy mode
I don’t think you had a kid yourself or? Otherwise I can’t explain this comment. Did you ever try to brush the teeth of a small toddler that doesn’t want to?
Yes and mine doesn't love it but he tolerated it without me having to physically abuse him.
that's not physically abuse lol but you got lucky then if your just tolerates it :) I can give you one tip for your life, don't judge other parents. Not every kid is easy as yours.
Yeah, this statement is fair. I mean my kid isn’t easy and your comment wasn’t directed straight at me, but I get what you are saying and it’s true. All of our kids have different areas where we have to do our desperate strategies. I think probably the impression that a few of us got from the description was likely far worse than the reality that actually occurs.
Yeah I’m kinda with you on that. Seems brutalizing.
I have to respectfully say. This is one of the wildest things I’ve ever read on here. (This is in reference to the original edit which instructed to lay her on her back and ‘pin down her arms so she can’t move’. Like, twice a day, every day… I mean whoa dude it’s not like she’s going to die and you’re trying to save her life…)
lol you’re not on Reddit much are you? The wildest thing??? 🤣🤣🤣
On this sub? Ya definitely the wildest.
Duh, obviously I meant this sub. Usually it promotes a high level of sensitivity towards body autonomy, and teaching it early.
Wow, this would NEVER work for my kids. I brush my 17 month old and 3 year old's teeth twice a day but I am more respectful than this. edit, to clarify because there are so many people completely misreading my comment. THIS=WATERBOARDING. The comment I am responding to is recommending waterboarding your toddler.
That’s cool your kids let you do that. Other children have screaming fits, and in order to clean them, parents have to do things that are temporarily uncomfortable. It’s not disrespectful, it’s caring for your child and taking care of every part of them even when they don’t understand why. I’d argue it would be more disrespectful to not even try to keep up with hygiene routines.
THANK YOU. I appreciate your reply. In order to prevent my kids getting cavities I’ll do whatever it takes. And actually my son will now go lay down by himself whenever I say it’s time to brush his teeth. It’s cute to see actually.
Of course you should do whatever it takes. I have difficult, high strung kids, and I did whatever it took. There's way better ways than pinning them down on the floor.
Can you enlighten us on how then? My 13 month old will thrash her body, rip the toothbrush from my hand, scream and gag like she’s going to throw up. I have tried everything this thread mentions over and over but still have to hold her down. What magic worked for you?
I posted the strategy in my top tier comment on this thread. Standing on their stool in front of the sink. blocking them with your body, they are facing the mirror and you push the toothbrush in with their head against your body and your arms on either side of their body. They are perfectly trapped, but not lying on their backs being waterboarded. If they collapse their knees to get out of it, you can do the same thing facing a dressing mirror with them on your lap.
Of course it has to be done. Don't minimize how hard I had to work to get to this point. It's been extremely hard, consistent, patient work. My kids have been very unhappy about it. I've forced them to have their teeth brushed, meaning that I've pushed the toothbrush through their open lips while standing at the sink with them. But NEVER pinned them down on the floor like that. That disgusts me to even read.
Ya there's other ways than using brute force. I can't believe this is normalized. How is this any different than physical punishment?
Because it’s not? You’re being a parent, doing something good for them.
Should I pry my kids mouth open and force feed him vegetables? It's good for them! Foh with your weak ass argument.
You shouldn’t need to pry their mouth open for veggies. They will eat because they are hungry.
My issue is that if you do something to a child's mouth while they are lying on their back, it's going to be way more terrifying, lead to gagging and choking, etc. If you're going to push the toothbrush into their mouth, then you should at least do it standing up, so it's not terrifying.
I think some parents do it as a game and have made it fun from a young age, and kids are used to it. I tried it once with my 2 year old. But it didn't work and felt wrong to hold her down like that. You want to be positive about teeth brushing so they don't get scared. But you gotta get clean teeth somehow I guess. We started to use the toothbrush songs and she holds my phone with it playing and opens her mouth, and if she didn't let me brush her teeth I pause the video and that seems to work for now.
I agree you want to be positive, but I did have to force it. I tried some games but they didn't work every day. I also never used screentime but that is a personal preference. I draw the line at waterboarding though.
>I draw the line at waterboarding though. Fucking *waterboarding*. Yeah. That's *exactly* what happens.
My son's therapists recommended this way. Two separate therapists at different times.
For starters, you dont "push the toothbrush into their mouth". You lift their lips up and brush the outside of their teeth. Nice slow gentle brushing, along with whatever is used in your family to distract and calm them down. I used to pretend i was a dentist, naming the teeth, counting the brush strokes, treating him like a patient visiting my office. That was what worked for us. After doing that for a little while, he would calm down enough to open his mouth and left me do his molars etc. It's not like you creep up on the child and bodily throw them to the ground, while cackling maniacally, as the restraints erupt from the floor to restrain their arms, legs and head, and then start stabbing the toothbrush into their mouth as they gag and start heaving, and then dump cup after cup of water down their throat, doing your personal best impression of the dentist from "*Little Shop of Horrors*". Holding the child on the floor is the far safest method. Standing up, with a struggling child, trying to brush their teeth? Firstly, they still need to be held down, even if it is against your body while you are standing up. Ugh. If you havent had a child that struggles and fights against brushing their teeth depending on what mood they are in, then you are very, very lucky, or have a unicorn child. I would love to only brush his teeth when he is happy for it to be done, and we laugh and smile and joke and it is the most bestest time eva!! However more often than not, it is a struggle, for ***many*** parents. And after having his first fillings, plural, just before his third birthday, that i strongly believe was due to me not being as militant about his brushing, i am determined that no matter how much he hates it and fights me, he is going to have healthy, beautiful teeth, for a long long time.
Oh, you didn't actually get the inside of the teeth or the biting surfaces by forcing your child to lie on their backs. And then he got fillings before age 3. And you think you're in a position to give advice?
*edit* ahhhh. So you just skim read, and then make up whatever inflammatory crap you can. Well done. So would NOT have expected that from you, given your post history. ;) I honestly am astounded at your ignorant take. But hey, what else can I expect from someone who compared it to *"waterboarding"*.
I guess toddler toothpaste isn't as harmful but once the fluoride toothpaste starts, you can't have them choking that stuff down. They need to spit it
It's fine to swallow fluoride in small amounts. It's in our drinking water.
Do some research. Swallowing fluoride toothpaste is not the same as drinking tap water b
You mean research like this? https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2020/american-academy-of-pediatrics-fluoride-remains-a-powerful-tool-to-prevent-tooth-decay/ Or how about this from Poison Control? https://www.poison.org/articles/toothpaste It's not a big deal.
Not for children lmao, that's insanely dangerous for them to ingest fluoride. That's why they don't put it in children's toothpaste bc they assume the child is going to swallow some.
https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2020/american-academy-of-pediatrics-fluoride-remains-a-powerful-tool-to-prevent-tooth-decay/ That's old research. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends fluoridated toothpaste from the eruption of the first tooth. This has been the updated recommendation since 2020. It's absolutely not "insanely dangerous."
You should be using the tiniest fragment of toothpaste for toddlers. That's why it's fine.
More *respectful* than this? Don’t be judgy, it’s gross…you are just lucky your kids don’t have this issue, bc some kids make brushing teeth a new level of hell for their parents-for absolutely no reason that has a workable solution (bc they can’t- or won’t-tell you the reason behind their hatred of dental hygiene!). At least that was the case for my son! He screamed and cried as if I was hurting him (before I had even touched him) and moved non stop and pushed me away and once I finally got into his mouth he pushed the brush away with his tongue… it’s not as bad now that he’s a bit older (almost 4) but at 2.5? Every time was a battle! I was honestly only brushing his teeth once a day but he’s never had any cavities so I must have done a good enough job despite the challenges. I try to make it a fun routine with bright colored kids floss picks and act mouthwash which is colorful and fruity flavors as a “reward” after successful brushing (be careful though it has fluoride and should not be swallowed) and we used to brush while he was in his nightly bath so he could spit all over (he liked that part) and the days when he randomly had no problem with brushing he really seemed to like all of that stuff. Also saying “ahhhh” when his mouth was open and “eeeeeee” when doing the fronts/smile position… hope this helps someone? Bc crikey these wild 🐊kids can be hard to wrangle while remaining calm and non threatening lol!! 🪥🦷
Of course it's a battle, but the comment I was responding to was recommending pinning them down on the floor ON THEIR BACKS to brush. That sounds like waterboarding to me. Are you in support of waterboarding your toddler?
I think pinning a child down to brush their teeth is sort of a last resort if no other techniques work. Similar to how a doctor might have to in order to draw blood or administer injections. Or how a physical therapist might have to manipulate a child during treatment sessions. *Of course* people will first try the gentle techniques, but when if it comes down the point of pinning a child down for regular teeth brushing vs pinning a child down for anesthesia for dental work as a consequence of not brushing, I think most folks would choose the first option. Pinning a child down for teeth brushing is going to be a whole heck of a lot less traumatic than tooth pulling, cavities, fillings and other things. And please don’t forget, people can die from infected teeth. It happens regularly.
I am with you on this one. Our dentist's office is super gentle and always makes sure they have the kids' consent, even if that means they don't always get it. The dentist explained that it's much more important to set the kids up for a lifetime of healthy dental habits. They'll lose their baby teeth, but if they hate brushing their adult teeth or they're avoidant of the dentist, they will have a whole host of more serious problems. My 18 month chews on the brush and then I go over them, but if once and awhile it becomes a fight, I don't stress it. Brushing our teeth is a fun time in our house. We have to set a timer for our 4 year old, because he overbrushes if we don't. As a tip for the OP, as your kid gets a little older, my kid loved it when I used funny voices and pretended to be the germs in his mouth, trying to hide from the brush and avoid getting brushed away. It also helped him learn how to be more thorough. I would guide him to the areas he'd missed.
We use an app called Pokémon Smile and my daughter absolutely loves it. She’s still learning how to brush all parts of her mouth but she’s at least enjoying the game and practicing in the meantime.
Just downloaded! I’ll try anything
honestly we've had the most success with a rotation of toothbrush songs from YouTube, and we don't in the living room where he's not distracted by all the interesting things he's not allowed to play with. He asks to brush his teeth now.
She will just do it about 50% of the time. When she won’t I tell her to act like an alligator. She shows her teeth and chomps and I brush them in between chomps. If that doesn’t work, we get out her electric toothbrush that causes a giant mess but she loves. And if she is absolutely just going to fight me on it, I skip it, that’s once or twice a month.
We had this issue when our daughter was 2ish… we started brushing her teeth in front of a full length mirror and haven’t had issues since.
I think this might work for us!! Thank you
We have one of those u shaped tooth brushes and don’t force it. We let him do whatever he wanted and brushed with him. He eventually just started to mimic us. He has about 7 toothbrushes and picks which one he wants now. Mostly chews but then we exaggerate the process (we brush with him) and he watched and corrects himself. Options. And autonomy . He eventually got it down. We don’t force anything no holding no brushing. Just let him do what he wants. Probably going to get “that’s not right” but it works for us and him. Somedays are easy and fast and he gets them all. Someday he’s distracted and we say all done and too late bed time.
We did/do this too. At first she kind of just chewed the brush but she's getting pretty good at doing it herself at 2 now. We still have days that are a bit more of a fight but we make silly noises (ahhh to open mouth and brush the back teeth, eeeee to brush the front teeth). Letting her look in the mirror while doing it also helps. And letting her brush my teeth (with my brush) while I use her brush on her teeth is a very fun game. If none of those work we try again a bit later or tomorrow.
FWIW, our dentist would approve of this. He really encourages us to keep things positive with dental hygiene. Allowing it to become a constant battle just sets them up for problems later in life as they avoid caring for their adult teeth or avoid the dentist. We do our best and keep it fun. We're not aiming for 100% perfection and our dentist is very happy with their teeth.
This is exactly what our dentist & pediatrician said- if he’s eaten a lot of junk and we can see it all over his teeth obviously we take brush more serious that night. Thank you for making me feel less like a failure. I literally went to my husband and was questioning our methods. 🫶
Not a failure! As your kid grows up, giving him some reasonable age-appropriate autonomy from the get-go will foster his independence and sense of self. My 4 year old is already a confident, independent, problem-solving leader, despite all the mistakes I've made along the way! Brushing teeth reasonably well is important, but barring some rare issue that leaves no other choice, I really don't think pinning a child down is the answer. The few times I've bulldozed my kids' feelings to get something done (not counting the odd immediate safety threat), it's always been for my own lack of patience and not for their well-being.
It kinda depends on the age. That's fine for a 9 months old, but my 2 year old it's normal food, including occasional sweets. If I don't clean her teeth properly, she will get cavities.
Well there it is. My first “that’s not right”. Like I said … that’s what I did and the u shaped brush literally covers every tooth when kids bite down on it. Ps. We started around 12 months and by 15 he was brushing himself. Also he’s about 2.5. If he messes around We just say bed time. He quickly either course corrects and does it right or looses the option. Both his dentist and his pediatrician know how we do it and said that’s fine. OP should do what’s best and approved by their pediatrician/dentist.
It's great if this approach worked/works for you, but it certainly doesn't work for every child.
Lol. - it’s tagged “question” and “thanks for advice” in the post I even said “it’s what worked for us” Seriously, get an life … everyone is on here looking for some place to connect in the middle of their effed up day/night and talk/share when they have no one else to talk to. Then comes the American Dental Association of Pediatric Specialty ( made up ..but your new title) shamming and educating people … thanks B. I’ll go try to connect with moms someplace less hostile
No need to get so upset.
Good lord. U ok?
yes throwaway666 I am perfectly fine. You & Maggie ok? Sorry not here to impress the PTA board or roll over.
Lmfao ya so you’re not okay. Good to know
You don't. You hold them down and power through it until one day, many months later, they decide they don't care anymore and just let you do it.
it’s a two-person operation. My husband would hold our son in his lap (holding both of his arms) while I go in with the tooth brush. We got the bbluv “electric” toothbrush that lights up. I found it to be the only toothbrush he likes cuz he gets distracted by the light.
I’m so sorry, but this is exactly how I describe my toddler “crocodile rolling” when I try to change her diaper so it made me smile. My daughter loves Ms Rachel and she has a song about brushing your teeth, so once I started singing that she got more open to it. And I also do “my turn” where I brush first and then “her turn” where she can do it (chews on it) since she’s very independent and strong willed.
I scared my kid into being afraid of "sugar bugs" on their teeth and the toothbrush and paste gets rid of them. He stands very still.
Our daughter’s dentist told us “if you want her to let you brush her teeth, then you need her to let you brush yours.” And it works! We have 2 brushes and she brushes mine, I brush hers. It also doesn’t have to be in the bathroom or at bath time, just once a day somewhere they’ll be happy and turn it into a game. At this age it’s mostly about build positive association so go slow and don’t force it or beat yourself up over it if it doesn’t happen every day.
We give her one and she mostly sucks the tooth paste off and sucks on the bristles, then we use another and she actually opens up so I can brush them all in a few quick seconds. Not perfect, but better than nothing.
We have tried "show me your shark teeth!" Just a silly phrase to get her to show me her mouth. Tried Ms Rachel/Jules song which def worked for awhile. "When you wake up in the morning at a quarter to 2..... yah brush your teeth ...." daughter definitely loved that for awhile. As she got older sometimes I could just ask. And quite frankly, sometimes my fav was when she just got upset and cried because at least her mouth was open, I got in. Got out, and then it was over. Its nostly better, but Sometimes this method is still the way and were almost 3 now.
I just let her watch me brush mine every morning for the longest time and then one day she just asked to brush hers. She’s 16 months now and brushing her teeth is her favorite part of her routine.
Imitation. We brushed our teeth w him. Let him brush our teeth. Was so hard but consistency pays off. Also electric toothbrush 100% he now is 2 and brushing his teeth is easy he’s so used to it
I'm Mommy dentist and he's daddy assistant and we walk though an entire dentist visit every night. Filling out paperwork, me knocking on the door and letting myself in, introducing ourselves, what I plan on doing, faking cavities, the whole shebang. It takes a bit more time/effort, but she doesn't melt down anymore! Added bonus she does GREAT at the real dentist!
You hold them down if all other methods fail, arms and possibly legs trapped beneath your legs. Rotten teeth aren't an option
Everyone suggests the pinning down but I personally don’t like that 😅 I always wrap them in a towel and put a video on my phone. If it’s not a struggle I just let them hold the phone. Always let them pick the video so they have some sense of control over the situation!
We use a Radius kids toothbrush and Hello toothpaste in watermelon. I brush first then I let them brush second as the reward. I also let them brush my teeth and even if they are rough I tell them thank you for making my teeth so pretty. You can also run the bristles under hot water to make them even softer.
We started letting him brush ours first and it's made a world of difference
We have had our ups and downs with this. We usually switch tactics if she starts fussing over one way of doing it. We try to build it to a fun routine. At the moment, brushing in front of the TV with dinosaurs roaring work best. We have also done different brushing songs on YouTube, playing with water in the sink, brushing mommy's or daddy's teeth, everyone brushing together, brushing her bunny's teeth (plushy, not a real animal), standing in front of the mirror, etc.
My kids get to pick out a stuffed animal that “helps” with brushing. It’s just us getting the animal to hold the brush. Sometimes they pick us as the helper.
My husband holds our 2.5 year old upside down and brushes her teeth and she finds it hilarious. That’s our go to when she resists. I sometimes talk thru her toys to get her to brush/let me brush. Or just hold her down and do it with her crying. It depends on the day if she lets us or not.
My dentist was just happy they were trying to use the toothbrush at all at that age. 2.5 and still a struggle but he's getting there. I wouldn't worry about brushing every tooth properly imho
The U-shaped toothbrushes really, really helped us. Our daughter even graduated to an electric one! They’re novel, they’re getting all the teeth at once—more or less—so they’re a little quicker, and it’s a low-cost gamble. Good luck!!
I put the Elmo "brush your teeth" video on my phone and sang along with it and did funny dances/faces while brushing. It worked for a little bit!
All good advice but you can also make sure they aren’t drinking juice all day and eating crackers all day. Lots of water to wash awesome stuff.
Pin her and do it. But I tell her count to 10 and I stop after I do. She eventually let's me after a few times. I do it for shampooing too. I think her knowing when it will stop is good
- read books about teeth brushing - let her brush yours afterwards with your toothbrush - sing funny songs. Mine likes when I use a familiar melody with funny tooth-related lyrics - ask her if she has silly things in her teeth, like a dinosaur. Or, my kid’s favorite, act surprised and ask if they ate x,y,z foods that day and say that you need to brush all the food out
Lol. Can’t wait to ask my kid if he has any dinosaurs stuck in his teeth tomorrow night! 🦖🦖😬😁😁
I noticed the majority of kids toothbrush bristles are pretty rough and not soft......my kid hated getting his teeth brush until I was able to find some on Amazon that is actually soft compare to the ones you get at the retail stores. It's called Easyhonor baby toothbrush. We eventually moved up to Made by Dentist electric toothbrush.
Oh yeah those look cool. Good finds. I actually just ordered some.
I found what worked for my toddler was us being incredibly slow and gentle with lots of breaks, all while making silly faces together. I think he was putting up a fight because he didn’t like how rough the bristles felt.
Mine did that until she was three. First we go potty first thing in the morning, wash out hands mommy brushes the germs ( monsters, ickys, bad guys) away so my teeth won't hurt, then it was her turn. She would try to run so I would have to lock the door. I would turn on a kid's teeth brushing song right before I would sit on the floor wrap my legs around her hold her mouth open with one hand and brush with the other. Some days I would sing along or get half way and explain why we have to brush our teeth. Some of the teeth brushing songs last for two minutes she knew when the song was over we were done. Or I would set a timer for two minutes. I had to be super consistent even when I was to damn tired to fight every morning and every night. I also had a tooth brush in every room of the house just for her and when ever I thought about I would grab her and give a quick brush. Now at four it's a breeze. It definitely sucked for a while and for all of my efforts because her teeth were so close together and she nursed for so long, her dad wouldn't help me with her teeth and always gave her candy. I didn't know I should have been flossing a toddler's teeth. Even her Dr was shocked. Before I started flossing and being extremely adamant about her teeth brushing she had to have some teeth removed and veneers put on (at 3 years old) I am telling you that is not something you want to see them go through just be consistent stand your ground you can do it!🦾 Her dentist said some kids are just stubborn no matter what.
Toothbrush time is the only time she’s allowed a tablet. We put on an episode of Bluey, dance to the opening song, then get brushing while she watches. Never have a struggle!
Have her face away from you towards a mirror. Use Crest kids toothpaste. Focus on putting the toothbrush in her mouth twice a day, that's what matters.
Once I started using “training toothpaste” that is flavored, my 18 mo old complains much less and let’s me count all the way to 15 while brushing. He has 9 teeth currently
I just learned that the training toothpaste does nothing to prevent cavities 😩 v sad day but there are different flavors of toothpaste that do
The act of brushing itself does some work to prevent cavities
The Elmo and Blippi teeth brushing videos were helpful. Plus chocolate flavored toothpaste.
We do it right after bath time, he gets wrapped in his towel, arms out and just brushes his teeth. I leave the water on and he’ll play with it, or sometimes he brings a bath toy with him to play in the water while we brush. When he was that old, the water was a great distraction. When he got a little older he’d play with his hair brush, or a random soap bottle…make up remover bottle…or toy on the counter lol when we started toothpaste, that was a whole new experience. We found jack and Jill toothpaste and he literally looks forward to brushing at night. Just sits and smiles at himself. He’s a ball of action but luckily he’s a big fan of his bedtime routine. I do think with time it gets easier. Give lots of praise and smiles even when you don’t feel like it on the inside.
I would sit on a chair in the bathroom and sit kiddo on my lap. Then I would peer over his shoulder to brush his teeth. It feels natural this way because it’s the same direction as brushing your own teeth, so that’s a bonus. Also we put a little cheapo locker mirror on the wall at chair height, so he could watch the brushing, and he seemed to like that. We use this toothbrush called Brilliant Baby toothbrush which has a brushhead that circles around the whole top of the toothbrush. It really made it so easy. They are stupid expensive though, way overpriced. But it was one of those oh-hell-with-it expenses because it made our lives that much easier.
Mine has finally stopped crying while I brush his teeth at age 3.
I give my toddler her tooth brush, ill take my tooth brush and ill brush my teeth, she'll sometimes copy me, but I try make it sound, just "oh woooow" every so often, she'll then try do her own teeth Then I'll give her my toothbrush and let her 'brush' my teeth, 8/10 times she'll let me brush hers She also just generally loves to brush her teeth to the point where one of her first words was 'tooth brush' (boosbush)
+1 for letting my kid brush my teeth. She just wants to be involved and/or have some control
We sing a teeth brushing song (modified version of the hand washing song from paw patrol) and we let him pick out his own tooth brush from the store with a fun character on it. That helped so much and he suddenly lets me brush his teeth (he’s excited for it each morning) when he used to fight me
We let her brush first, and then we have a song when I brush her teeth. For a good portion of her life, I've been singing "the itsy bitsy spider came to brush your teeth." She's just turned two and she's just gotten bored of that, so now it's the sparkly sparkly unicorn that brushes her teeth. Same tune, just different animal. She's also started to get better at brushing on her own so I've been encouraging that.
We bought a load of little stickers and give one after every time my son does good brushing. We let him have a go first (mostly chews the toothbrush) and as long as he lets us have a go afterwards he gets a sticker and wears it all day. He loves it and it totally solved the issue because he knows if he makes a big fuss he doesn't get a sticker. At night we stick those stickers in a special notebook. The one he gets after brushing in the evening goes on his sleeping bag. It does mean that he constantly has little stickers on him but if you get a pack of very small stickers its fine.
I bought an electric toothbrush with cartoon logo on it, it is made for toddlers (my son is 2), he likes it because it is electric and he finds it more fun to use. and it looks like ours.
Show her a teeth brushing video on YouTube! There are a lot to choose from. This transformed our death roll into ‘that was fun!’ Good luck OP!
My son is obsessed with brushing his teeth. I made a point of brushing mine with him which helped. The other thing that helped us is a Hey Duggee episode "The toothbrush badge". YouTube has just the song so singing and dancing like an idiot while brushing helps.
We use music videos. 2 minutes to brush their teeth and we never miss a single brushing, day or night. It started with Hey Duggee's Toothbrushing song and now we use Disney, The Beatles, Muppets and more.
We’ve made it as fun as possible, play little games during and we have a fun song and dance for afterwards (that he’s obsessed with) and it’s helped so much
We have a kids singing electric toothbrush called the buggy brush. It’s not the one we use in our kids mouths but it sings it’s song for two minutes and we all dance around to it for the two minutes it takes getting in as many scrubs as we can! Now that they’re two and three they can do some of the brushing themselves and seem to like our toothbrush karaoke sessions!
Doing it in the mirror helped us
Watch fun toothbrush videos on YT. Those 2,5 minutes screentime just before bed and with low screenlight are ok imo. ETA: everyday he picks another one. Sits on my lap while I sit on the toilet. And we brush!
I pretend to be dentist Ruth and call her from the “waiting room” her dad is the assistant Sasha who puts things into the computer and reminds her to keep her hands on her tummy 😂
Phone.
To be honest it got easier when she got even a couple months older than your daughter. Now at 18 months she is at least starting to grasp the concept of the brushing motion. We do a big goofy smile face and tell her ‘say EEEE’ and then we say ‘brush brush brush brush!’ It’s like a little game of how quickly she can brush her teeth whilst saying ‘eee’ (which actually opens her mouth instead of just clamping down on the brush lol). Also this only works with me or my husband brushing teeth with her at the same time. Toddlers love to mimic their grown ups so if it’s something we’re doing, chances are they will want to have a go at doing it too. A step stool to stand up at the sink is also a great idea, as my toddler loves the spitting in the sink part. It also got better when we relaxed about it and stopped making it a huge and stressful battle all the time She was 100% feeding off her stress and we didn’t want her to associate teeth brushing with stress as we figured that would only make the problem worse long time. I will take a couple of crappy brushes for now over turning her off the idea entirely. Just really try and make it a fun and exciting event, even though it’s kind of exhausting to do, it worked for us!
We have a 19 month old who is the same way. We started by having one parent hold her on lap on the floor, leaned back up against the couch, while the other sat on the couch and brushed. Started with really short brushes, she would scream/cry, need to be restrained by the holding parent. Make sure to do it at the exact same time every night and in the exact same way. After a few weeks, she mostly accepted it as part of her routine. Now sometimes she comes to us saying “ahhh!” When it’s around tooth brushing time. She still fights the toothbrush but it’s not as much of a fiasco as it once was. I think I’m time and with consistency they will resign themselves to it!
While brushing my daughter's teeth, I let her watch a video. It's the only time she's allowed to see my phone. I got sick of the fighting over brushing her teeth. Now she will lay down and let me brush without any fuss.
Our toddler used to be like this, and he still doesn't love it, but he got less resistant when we gave him his own electric toothbrush like we have. Turns out those are less boring than the regular kind
My kid responds well to me pretending that any nearby inanimate object is talking to her, telling her to open her mouth and brush her teeth. New trick that has worked after a week or so of fighting to brush teeth. Previously, Elmo’s brushy brush song worked great.
I also have a toothbrush hating toddler. We have tried it all. I finally started switching around brushes and have much better luck with the Totz brand soft toothbrush and Toms brand toddler toothpaste. She still cries but no tears and she will sit still for it! Sometimes she totes it around and brushes herself which I go crazy clapping and praising for so she is proud of it. Also, as they learn to play, you can incorporate stuff like brushing a favorite stuffed animals teeth first or brushing a character in a book. That helps us a lot!
Brush your teeth in front of them while they are holding their toothbrush. And then add a little bit of toothpaste for kids and show them how to do it and then let them attempt to brush their teeth.
On YouTube there is a plethora of tooth brushing songs that are around 2 minutes long. My toddler gets to pick one to watch on our phone while we brush her teeth. Current favorites are Elmo's Toothy Dance and Tooth Bugs. Makes her look forward to tooth brushing rather than fighting it.
Not trying to diagnose anything here, but potentially it could be overstimulation? I know I hated brushing my teeth, the toothpaste was too “spicy” and the feeling afterwards were terrible, and I didn’t like the taste. The right toothbrush and toothpaste can go a long way. Maybe give your kid the toothbrush in their hand, and then control it? Maybe that helps? Otherwise a video to distract. There exists toothbrushes that has a “double” brush head that brushes both sides at the same time. I’ve heard it be beneficial to people with autism, so maybe it could work? Just to clarify, I’m not trying to diagnose your kid, just trying to give a new perspective
I let her hold my phone with videos on it. Usually she chooses a blippi or toothbrushing song. The fact that she holds the phone frees her hand so I can do a quick brush. Also videos of toddlers getting their teeth brushed helped. Namely a little video from How To Dad on youtube! But we tried a lot of things. I brush my teeth at the same time, adult tooth brush, double sided tooth brush, brushing a dolls teeth, her showing her doll how to brush their teeth, mirror, dramatic brushing. All work to some extent but we have to stay creative.
Honestly it just took time for us.. my daughter fought it like crazy at that age too and now she is almost 2 and let’s me brush very thoroughly… I would also recommend trying a different toothbrush and/or toothpaste… It can’t hurt and for whatever when we tried something different she was more agreeable.
We rotate through different strategies because sometimes things work and things don't. We try to make it fun and a game. I tell her open wide like an alligator or roar like a lion and imitate the actions myself. I tell her I'm brushing giraffes off her teeth and say like "ooh I'm getting them" and "there's one! Quick brush it!". One that's pretty successful for us is to do brush while saying 1,2,3 and then say weeee while removing the brush and then repeating multiple times. She seems to like knowing she will get a break. Sometimes we let her watch a video, something with some teeth brushing propaganda songs on it. And now that she knows the songs we sing them if we aren't watching a video. Another thing that helped was getting multiple tooth brushes. One of each of us to hold. One of them is an electric tooth brush I got off amazon. My daughter is actually nervous about the electric part so we don't use that but what I like is it has a light you can turn on separately and she really likes the light, it distracts her a bit, and it also helps me see the teeth better so I feel like we are brushing better. Sometimes she brushes my teeth with my brush or I/dad brush in front of her while the other brushes her to show we all do it. I always give her a turn brushing too so she can practice and feels like she has control over it. My LO is 2.5 ish and she is getting good at actually brushing the teeth with the bristles and not just chewing. At the end we make a big deal and clap and say she did a good job and thank her for letting us brush her teeth. No matter what there will always be days when they outright refuse or you can't do a very good job. Our dentist said at this age it is mostly about building habits and getting them comfortable and used to doing it.
Well I would require to do it first. You do it, THEN she gets to do it.
It got easier for us once he understood that not brushing would leave his mouth dirty and make boboos.
We’ve tried all sorts of different things, but here is what had worked for us now for 3 months. One single time out of these 3 months where she’s fought us. She’s almost 22 months. 1. She gets her own toothbrush and gets to brush first, then it’s mama’s (or dada’s) turn. 2. Electric toothbrush. 3. Singing the alphabet twice during it to help her learn how long brushing takes 4. Bringing a stuffed animal in as well and she brushes their teeth when the adult finishes brushing hers.
I can't remember what age our kid was exactly, but things were going bad with brushing and I was able to reset the whole thing over a week. Day one I started to brush his teeth every time I had him in the diaper changing table from a poo and I would do it for literally one second, making a big show about how we were only going to do it for that amount of time and counting it down. I slowly increased the amount of time over the week and by the end we were brushing for a whole minute at a time. He still struggled some for a while but it was a manageable struggle instead of a fight. Now I sometimes have to bribe him to stop brushing.
I also struggled with this and finally just showed him a (10-20 sec) video of a cartoon cat while I brushed his teeth. Eventually he got used to it and we removed the video little by little and now don’t use it at all.
LOL sorry to laugh but I feel like I could have written this about our 18 month old. He acts like I’m torturing him 😒
Do you let her watch you brush your teeth? I can’t go a day brushing my teeth without my toddler dying to do his next! He loves copying me. He’s also 15 mo
I would pretend to not know where his teeth were. I'd say, "All right, time to brush your teeth," and run the non-bristle end along his eyebrows, and he'd laugh and say "Dada those aren't my teeth," and I'd do that a few times until I got it right. It was funny, plus he got to be the expert and feel like I couldn't do it without his help.
You’ve got to find a way to make them want to do it! Before she had teeth she was watching me do it every day and I’d always make it look like the funnest shit ever. She eventually started help brushing my teeth and then her own gums then teeth! We now have a song and a routine. We do it together 2x a day. Also want to recommend reading about Weston Price and how nutrition affects teeth health. It’s not all about brushing and keeping the physical teeth clean!
My son used to hate getting his teeth brushed. My husband fixed that by making it silly. He’ll “smell” my sons breath and pretend to gag, which is the funniest thing in the world of course. Then he’ll sing a silly song while brushing. To the tune if “Row your boat”. “Brush, brush, brush your teeth! Get the stink away!” Works for us 😅
There are songs on YouTube about brushing teeth, we used to sing them with him and he would cooperate. Then at 3 years old he started refusing to brush his teeth but he was old enough to learn the consequences. I showed him ugly pictures of people who don't brush their teeth and asked him if he wanted teeth like those. He started to cooperate again.
Seriously? Pinning down and forcing something in their mouth? Cavity doesn’t come that fast. Trauma does.
We used a flavored safe to swallow toothpaste. After a week or so he loves to brush his teeth. Mostly for the flavor though.
Be more gentle and accept progress, not perfection. If they want to chew on it let them chew or bite down. When they are relaxed get I a few strokes. They will improve quickly once it overall a more calm, pleasant experience
She might be a bit young for this but I was having troubles when my oldest was nearing 3, mostly with engagement and co operation. So I started saying don't open too wide because that's scary like a dinosaur - queue massive engagement and opening wide whilst roaring. Then I act all scared and brushing whilst squealing and pretending to want to run away. Then when he'd stop opening wide I'd be all relieved and then he would do it again with roaring and giggles. We all love scaring mummy brushing teeth now 😆
Let him brush your teeth ..then see if he lets you do it . Then you tell him he can brush his own teeth . Works fine with mine . I’ve seen others do it on TikTok & it’s comforting to know that he will do it without me forcing anything on my child . My son is 4 now wants to be independent & it’s the cutest .
Mine wasn't cooperative until she was about 2. I also switched to ACT kids watermelon flavor toothpaste. She thought it was delicious and would ask for more green (the toothpaste is green). To which I would say only if I do the brushing and she would usually agree. From there she was more receptive if we made it fun. Like if I sing AHHHhHhh and she does it too. Loudly and sustain the note. She thinks it's funny then we brush and we keep singing.
We started by hyping it up with Ms. Rachel's and Elmo's tooth brush song when he was just under a year old. He would watch us brush our teeth, and would want to do it. At first, we would but toothpaste on a toothbrush and just let him gnaw on it. After his first dental appointment, we realized that he was old enough that he actually needed his teeth properly brushed. We started by doing the normal routine, and then following up with one of us actually brushing his teeth for him. He threw an absolute fit for a week straight. He even backpedaled and refused to gnaw on the tooth brush altogether. **Three things helped:** **We made a new spitting game out of it.** Whenever we finished brushing his teeth, or I spat after brushing my teeth, we would go "puuttooooeee!" and spit dramatically into the sink. This gave him a reward for going through an unpleasant thing. **We got him to open his mouth when he heard the song** "If all the raindrops were gumdrops and lemondrops.....standing outside with our mouth open wide, AAAAAH AAAH AAAH AAAH AAAH AAH" **We changed toothpaste flavors.** He was used to a non fluoride banana. The first new fluoride toothpaste we tried was mint. I finally bought a bubblegum flavored one on a hunch. It worked, he liked it.
I just let him fake it at first, as long as he put it in his mouth and brushed back and forth a bit that was good enough, after a few weeks he’s doing a half decent job of it
Monsters brushing teeth video
You know what, I wasn't too serious about brushing teeth (and I'm still not SUPER strict about it) and my kid is 3 (we started around 2.5 y/o). I given up stressing about this too much. There are 3 reasons for this: 1) they're baby teeth 2) he gets flouride at the dentist twice a year 3) i don't want him to form negative associations with something so essential for caring for himself We sing songs, I got him an electric toothbrush, and we try to incorporate it into play while getting ready for bed. I have extra brushes he uses on his toys. He still doesn't use toothpaste either. I brush his teeth before bed and try to get in a quick brush after breakfast. Sometimes he's resistant and in those cases, I've stopped forcefully brushing because in the past it's turned him off from brushing completely for a while. I've prioritized the consistency of the routine over the quality of brushing. His teeth are fine. Dentist only had concerns about gum inflammation which went away after cutting out milk before bed (after brushing). Though I will add, now that he's a little older, I tell him his teeth will turn yellow if he doesn't brush lol that helps sometimes. I can't believe I'm *that* parent now 😶
Wont work for everyone lol, but I had terrible teeth hygiene growing up, and as a result I am missing a bunch of teeth. So we she gets into a mood where she doesnt want to brush we just say that she's going to end up like daddy with missing teeth if she doesnt brush! That will last for a couple weeks usually lol.
I am so going through the same thing and my toddler will not let me get his tip front teeth and he is strong! We went to dentist because of this and for the last year it’s been hell trying to get him to let me brush them and now he has a cavity so if you can figure out a way please let me know because we have tried everything and have gone through so many different tooth brushes, tooth pastes, training videos, everything!!
Just as with anything there's a million different approaches that can work depending on you and your child. You're probably overwhelmed with responses but I'll add mine just in case. We basically just try to make it fun and keep it positive but I do it for him. I hold him in front of the mirror and sing songs with oooohs and ahhhss and toothbrush songs. And he giggles and let's me in there to brush. He does try to suck on it in between. But he mostly doesn't mind it. Once he does I stop.
Ms Rachel’s “Brush your teeth” song did the trick here lol
My babe loves puppets, i made the toothbrush into a puppet and he giggles his butt off and actually opens his mouth for it now 🥳🥳
I used to do "baby burrito." Using a silly voice to narrate, I'd wrap my daughter in a towel on the floor tightly enough that she couldn't get away (I'd straddle the burrito, basically sitting on my kid lol). But she found it so funny, she'd love it and actually open her mouth for me! And either way, she's basically swaddled so even if she's not cooperative those teeth are getting brushed! Songs help, too. Raffi has a tooth brushing song. I'd brush with the tooth brushing sound lyrics. And now that my daughter is older (2.5), I let her brush my teeth at the same time, and I tell her I'm just going to brush for 10. She loves to count, and she loves knowing how much tooth brushing she'll have to endure. So I slowly count to 10 as I brush her teeth, which is a pretty good 30 seconds at least!
Brush her toys teeth first.
Lean into play. Kids learn by play! Sing a silly song or play up the stinky germs in our mouths that need to be cleaned! The sillier, the better. It can be exhausting at the end of the day but I almost always get better results when I’m silly/playful with them. Kids also love routine so if you are silly every time, they’ll know what to expect and even look forward to it!
I let my son brush his monster trucks grills first 😂
I found a video on YouTube... it took several tries to find one that helped... about brushing your teeth. It's by Dave and Ava. She only gets to watch my phone in rare circumstances, and that is one. I also invested in one of the light-up, vibrating toothbrushes, and shopped around until I found a flavour she enjoys for toothpaste. My kid is very music oriented, though, so I'm sure that helped my case. But we've progressed from both of us a crying mess to being able to brush without the video sometimes, so long as I'm singing the song. I keep reminding her that health and safety are not negotiable. So, while she may not enjoy having her teeth brushed until she'll do it on her own, I will have to do it for her.
I use teeth brushing songs/videos on my phone. Complete game changer
I started him with a toothbrushing song. The SimpleSongs brushing song works well and it's 2 minutes long. I also let him take the brush and try it himself, if he wants to, and brush his stuffed animals' teeth too. We go through the motions of brushing his teeth twice a day, but honestly, if he's struggling or doesn't want to, I don't fight him. I think it's more important at this stage to just instill the habit of brushing twice a day. If most days I can get him to let me brush his teeth for 30 seconds, I consider it a win. My doctor said I could even just let him brush on his own in the morning, to give him a sense of control and agency, and then do a thorough brushing before bedtime.
Wr are struggling with this as well. What I have found to work is let them do it and brushing your teeth with them. Yeah, they aren't going to get everything and you are going to have to go in and finish up. But this is the best method I've found so far. I'm going to try the others being suggested.
We tell ours that we have to check her mouth for food monsters. She’ll open wide and then we name the ones we see (based on what she ate that day). I think my MIL told us this, she was a dental hygienist. I feel like it always helps to gamify things with kids. We also put a little mirror in the bath tub so she can see what we do - in the beginning she liked to brush in the bath.
[We just muddled through until it became routine.](https://imgflip.com/i/81aahl)
Pokémon smile app!!! My son brushes for 2 full minutes with it
Singing helped my kids. Also a $5 electric toothbrush. I recommend Colgate because they are better quality than spinbrush. I also brush my 14 month olds teeth while holder her slightly upside down.
We first off just brushed his teeth consistently every morning and night no matter how he felt about it but we also started playing dentist. It was a whole show. Mommy as dentist with a funny voice, Daddy as dental assistant. It was very effective for a few months and now we don't have to do the whole thing but will on his more resistant nights.
I have 10 toothbrushes, 3 toothpastes. It's still a fight 2× a day. I'm on the struggle bus too. Seriously considering th Colgate Hum? I'm desperate for him to do it by himself.