Hi. I am hoping someone can help. My daughter is 18 months old and we have been trying to brush her teeth since they first started to come through. We are trying not to make it a battle, but it can be very frustrating when she refuses to open her mouth. We have also tried 'setting a good example' by doing our teeth at the same time but this doesn't seem to help either. Does anyone have any suggestions for us please?
Thanks in advance X

My son is 2 1/2 and is fairly good with his toothbrush, he seems to enjoy doing it, and he has a mirror in front of him and we usually do ours at the same time, we do sometimes have to give them a bit of a scrub for him if we think he's not doing it though. His nursery also have a dental specialist come in once a week to clean them too. This morning however, he didn't want to clean his teeth, and was playing with his chuggington toys, so I said that Mtambo and Brewster needed to clean their teeth and he came in cleaned their teeth and then I said 'right now your turn!' and he did it. So could you make a game out of it, maybe brush her teddy's teeth first, or a dolls. I knwo you can also get special toothbrushes which play songs or flash, and maybe let her choose her own toothbrush?

My daughter would initially let me brush her teeth but since hitting 18 months or so won't let me anymore!
I have to say my solution has been to let her do it herself? Generally she will have a good old chew on the brush but more recently has been watching my husband and I and gives them a bit of a scrub?
They are just trying to assert their independence so maybe let her do it herself? Let's face it i'm sure none of us are feeding our children anything that's going to rot their teeth to the extent that we need to panic? They are still so small and I find that sometimes it's ok to just let them have a go themselves, the more you push the less likely they are to let you do it? My daughters teeth are absolutely fine

we also let DS do it himself as he no longer likes us to do it, he makes a big fuss if i do, we brush together at the sink, he stands on his step and we have the tap running so he can rinse his brush, theres usually more rinsing than brushing but he'll get there evetually

Thanks a lot for all your replies. Generally I let her do it herself as she is very independant, but its usually a case of she sucks off all the toothpaste then drops the brush in the floor lol! Anyway I will give some of your suggestions a go. I'm sure that we will get there in the end! Thanks again!x

I have been where you are and even made my own post, now dd is letting me brush her teeth. Some suggestions:-

1. We had to hold dd down - dh did this, and I kinda forced my way in. I know it is cruel, but a dentist assistant told me that it was more kinder than seeing your child crying in pain getting their teeth out. We seldom do this now if she isn't going to let us in. But she did open her mouth.

2. We also took her to see the dentist and told her that she needed to practice opening her mouth for the dentist by saying aah. She did do this too.

3. the dentist told her that she needed to have her teeth brushed every day.

other things is sing a song whilst brushing, holding her own tooth brush and letting her play about then telling her mummy needs to clean each corner. Choosing her own tooth brush and tooth paste. you can also buy flavoured toothpaste too.

good luck.

Daddy made it a game in our house, as he did with face washing, hair brushing and putting away clothes. Worked a treat, and DS lets us brush his teeth first so we know they're done, then he has his turn. He's almost 22 months and doesn't tend to fuss over teeth brushing, but he does sometimes try to grab the brush before it's his turn, so we just remind him it's our go first, then his go.

DS is 17 mnths. He has two toothbrushes, one he has and does his or my teeth with it. The other I have and he generally let's me do his teeth. He likes to have the bathroom window open so we can wave to the neighbours.... On bad days I'll give him our electric toothbrush to have a look at.

Xx

Hi I do same as Ruth and I have a toothbrush and so does my little boy. We count each time we do it, weve got to 12 so far, it gets longer after a while!! My husband sings to him "this is the way we brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth" very badly i might say but he seems to like it!!! x

We've had teeth cleaning battles for about 4 months now (my dd is 16 months), but fingers crossed we've sort of cracked it. We tried everything we could think of but have finally had some success with an electric toothbrush. It's a two person job. Hubby sits her on his knee and holds her head still whilst I get in there. We found that if we say "lets tickle your teeth" and then laugh all the way through she doesn't make a fuss. We feel like fools, but its better than them getting decayed and falling out!

My little girl is 2 next month. I let her brush her teeth first and then say "Mummy do it" and she usually lets me have a go. She will sometimes hold her toothbrush out to me and say "Ah" so I open my mouth and let her have a go at brushing my teeth. And I got her a peppa pig toothbrush from ebay that she likes!!

Hi

Just to let you know I have replied in Feb10 x

at my daughter's two year check, the hv said if you let your little one brush your teeth for you, they will automatically open their mouth too and you can brush their teeth. my daughter thinks its hilarious to brush our teeth or wash us or anything so this seems to work for her. although she doesn't always do the best job of cleaning mine!