Tooth Brushing Battles

My almost 2 year old was the same way for a while. I got her one of those child electric toothbrushes and she likes the way it feels. She says the bristles tickle her. They are like 5 or 6 bucks at the grocery store.

Kids love the toothpaste, so I bought the kid's bubble gum flavor and went straight for a bribe! I would brush my son's teeth really well without paste and then let him have the toothbrush after I was done with toothpaste on it. It only took a few tries and he got the hang of it, now I can brush with toothpaste and he's content brushing with plain water. Also he's a Thomas fanatic so I spent a couple extra dollars and got the singing Thomas toothbrush - interest sparked immediately.
Good luck

Hi Sara,

I just wanted to add that even though you are having difficulty brushing your daughter's teeth it is very important that you do so. It is not a given that your child's baby teeth will all fall out. From personal experience I am 33 years old and I still have two of my baby teeth.

Don't Give Up,
PW

My sun did that too. I would give him a toothbrush with an itsy bit of toothpaste on it let him do it himself for a while, usually just bite the toothpaste off and chew the toothbrush for a bit, and then I would come brush mine and let him help brush my teeth and then I would help him. It seemed to work for us. At least he got into the habit of brushing teeth every night before bed. Good luck.

we have 2 toothbrushes. one is my daughter's and one is mine. first she brushes her teeth and then i brush her teeth. this also keeps the brush that is doing all the work (mine) in better shape. her father reverses the process so that he goes first. for some reason that works better for them.

another idea. let her 'brush' your teeth, with your brush, of course.

It is a battle getting my kids to let me brush their teeth too. In order for it to get done at all I let them hold the brush with a tiny amount of toothpaste and let them "brush". Then I tell them that it's my turn to make sure their teeth are sparkly clean and when I'm done they get another turn and they get to rinse the brush and put it back. This takes forever usually (compared to the time it should take) and it doesn't always work. Also let your daughter pick out her own toothbrush and get some special kid toothpaste, we like the Kids Crest, it's sparkly blue and tastes like Bubble Gum.

toothpaste is over-rated. while she's in the 'i'll just eat it phase' forego it altogether. then i second the idea to use a cloth over a finger and give her teeth a good wipe that way.
good luck!
khairete
S.

There is a Sesame Street Book about teethbrushing, it's great. There is a pretend toothbrush and you brush the characters teeth, my son loves this and when it's time to brush his teeth we refer to 'brush like Elmo does'. I also tell him to pretend he's an animal, and I do it too. We open our mouths really wide like a hippo and I brush his back teeth. Then we pretend we are a doggie growling, and that's when I get his front teeth. Then I let him have to toothbrush to suck on (after toothpaste rinsed off). It only lasts for about 30 seconds, but I figure it's better then nothing, and at least it's teaching him that we do brush everynight, and he's going through the motion of it. I also let him brush my teeth when we first started, he like that. Good luck.

How I understand! Not only have I raised two boys, (hopefully successfully, but one can never be sure! At aleast they had decent teeth (ha,ha) - anyway, I am a dental hygienist and have been for 20 years. This independant reaction is normal and healthy, I think. You can win this battle. Let him have the toothbrush. when you bathe him, take a washcloth and wipe over all tooth surfaces. You do a better job than any toothbrush with your fingers and the cloth (you can use a 2x2 gauze). Easy and painless. she gets clean teeth and you get to do it and she gets her brush. Please be careful of the toothpaste for one so young. Even with children's pastes, I have seen some reactions - some very toxic chemicals in paste, especially for little ones, but even adults. Ingestion through swallowing flouridated toothpastes can result in too much flouride in her system. Just a tiny smear across the top is more than enough. I have found that Pepsodent original is one of the milder toothpastes on the market. Contact me if you need more info - I'd be glad to share. J. RDH, BS, MPH

I like to sit my daughter on the counter and brush MY teeth while she watches...eventually she ends up imitating me...not perfect but she is trying! sometimes she will let me help. however I am not pushing it! Lead by example! try flossing too...you never know!

I brush my guys teeth in the bath with a cute electric brush. Works wonders!

Have you tried an electric toothbrush? If you can get passed the being scared of the buzzing, this is sooo helpful. She can then try to brush by herself and you know she is actually doing some good when the brush is touching her teeth. I still battle my 3 year old on this one though. The rule for us is Mommy brushes first and you can finish up. We tried all the tricks and gimics too and they were no help. He still gets annoyed and some nights when he is tired he still fusses and cries. Just a necessary battle I guess.

I don't know if these ideas will help, but maybe they will. I do have to note that some of these strategies have already been suggested, but they work for our 18 month olds.

It seems like we do this the opposite of everyone else, but we brush first before letting them brush. It is always hard to wrestle any object they want out of a toddlers grasp and getting the toothbrush back would cause a fight. Therefore we brush then we reward them by giving them the toothbrush to use themselves.

I've let my kids watch me brush my teeth, and I also let them brush my teeth for me before I sneak away to do it again without them watching(although they have stabbed me in the gum a couple of times).

Dentists use the ABC song to tell their patients how long to brush so we started off with the ABC song while we brush. We brush for one ABC song length (substituting Now your teeth are shiny and clean, watch an you can see them gleam" for the last part) then we let our babies brush for one ABC song length. So basically there is a set length, they know what to expect, and they know they are going to get to hold the brush at the end.

Hope those responses were helpful,
A.
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Your daughter sounds exactly like my 3-year-old son. I have tried to be diligent with the tooth-brushing ever since he had teeth, but he still thinks it's a game, wants to just suck the toothpaste off and chew on the toothbrush. I've found that using the fingerbrush is a little easier, but it is a risk that I will get bitten. It is a big struggle every day. There are some wonderful suggestions by the other parents here - I can't wait to try them out! Thanks for asking the question.

We basically do the same thing as Tracy B. My son actually stands on a stool at the sink and we brush we together. I also ask him to listen to the sound that my brush makes... he then imitates it. Because he likes the taste of the toothpaste, he wants to brush multiple times... so I do too.... He NEVER lets me help him, but I figure he is learning by watching/imitation and we are brushign so much that I figure he getting the main stuff off his teeth.

I have followed the first response from Jill I believe posted it and I have just tried to get the concept/routine of brushing in ever since before my daughter had teeth. I use to use the rubber finger brush. When she bit a few too many times too hard on my finger about 2 months ago I got her a Dora normal toothbrush. It said starting 18 months but it was the smallest I could find. She is going on 16 mos.(11/26). She doesn't really brush properly but she likes to suck the toothpaste off (note-I use starter toothpaste that does not contain any flouride in it) and will move it around her tongue, kinda chew on the bristles, etc. I just sit on the floor with her and let her mess with it for about 2 mins. Occasionally I try to help and really get the mollers coming in but she prefers to do it herself so I have only fought her a few times to insist that I do it (when she was already cranky from other things).

Nonetheless, these are really just training teeth is how I look at so we just want to get the routine of brushing started. When they get older and are talking and comprehending better than I will encourage better brushing of my own daughter. I am just reassured right now that she knows we go in the bathroom and brush our teeth after dressing from bath each night-I often do not even have to say it now she will just automatically go in and stand at the sink awaiting for me to prepare her toothbrush. I find it quite cute myself. Now that she is almost 16 mos. I am starting to try and get the brushing routine into her morning-but must admit I forget and haven't quite got her as trained as her evening routine as far as going in on her own to brush.

Sorry for the long tangent. As I opened, don't sweat the quality of brushing right now at such a young age. Just try to teach the concept and routine so that you won't have to nag them to do it when they are older. As I think everyone mentioned-keep it a fun and enjoyable experience.

My now 2 1/2 year old went through a tooth brush hating phase. She, too, had milk before bed and really needed to have her teeth brushed. I would let her "brush" (i.e. suck the toothpaste off:) while sitting in my lap reading books. Then I would tell her that she needed to do it like a big girl or Mommy would do it for her. She knew how to do it correctly and what that meant. It took several times of me holding her arms still and me brushing while she screamed but she eventually figured out it was better if she did it the right way herself. We still have trouble every once in a while and I'll have to help her out but it's not nearly the battle that it once was. Her dentist also recommended getting an electric, spinning toothbrush - we got the Dora one - $5. That was lots of fun for at least several months. She isn't quite so excited about it anymore but at least she'll do it better than she used to! Good luckL:)

S.

Went through this years ago. no brushing, no treat (anything with sugar, including milk). Stay calm, no fighting, yelling, etc., just saying, "As of tonight, here is the rule: if you brush your teeth tonight (using the correct method), I'll be happy to give you your treat tomorrow. If you choose not to brush, that's fine - it means you don't get a treat. The choice is yours" (the key is it's her choice). It took one day without a treat to get my daughter to brush. We enforced it one more time after that and never had another problem. It is a "natural consequence" of not brushing. Again, stay calm! Good luck.

We went through something similar to this with our son at around the same age. It was during the middle of one of the battles he saw my mom brush her teeth with an electric tooth brush. So the next day, we found one of the inexpensive kid-styled ones, and voila! Brushing teeth no longer was a battle.

You haven't necessarily done anything wrong. My son hated having his teeth brushed, so I wasn't as persistent as I should have been. By the time he was 3 he had 2 cavities! I pretty much had to hold him down to brush. It didn't take too long before he realized there was no getting away without brushing his teeth. It got a little easier after that, but not much.

I think I suggest mostly that you just do it as quickly as possible. Use the smallest amount of tooth paste since she is sucking it off. Follow with a flouride rinse. (Act Bubblegum was my son's favorite.) I brushed it on after brushing his teeth so he wouldn't get too much flouride in his system. Make sure she spits it out.

Good luck.
J.

We use the concept of shaping. You have to break down complex behaviors you want your child to perform. Start with getting her to put the toothbrush in her mouth. After that is accepted for a while try to move it. After that, just try brushing the front teeth, then the back teeth, etc.

We have been working at this and our daugher likes to take the toothbrush herself. She doesn't brush, but does move it around her tongue. Each night we get a little closer to actually being able to brush her teeth. Sometimes she wants to hold the brush and "help" and other times she lets us brush. Some nights we get a few swipes in and others we can really brush. I guess the most important thing is to be patient. Don't push too hard, otherwise she will hate to brush.

The teeth your daughter has right now are going to fall out, so I personally think it is more important that she like the idea of brushing than doing a really good job at it. Good Luck!!!
J.