I am starting to worry a little about this: Teeth brushing.

LO is 17 months and he hates anything one messes with his mouth with a passion. He doesn't allow teeth brushing or wiping without putting on a fight. I still force him to do it though, although I hate to do that as I am afraid he will really hate brushing for life because of this. However I have no choice.

Lately I was being a bad parent, I even show him a short youtube video (elmo and kids were brushing teeth and they sang a song), and gave him a toothbrush. He is all excited and tries to mimick (yay) but he really only bites the brush. I tried to brush his teeth afterwards but again not much luck.

So this morning I attempted to brush his teeth but I realized his gums were bleeding. Not too bad, just at one location I see blood. Sigh! This actually happened at another time also last week.

What would you do if you were me? Is it a serious thing when it happens to a toddler? Would you go back to forcing him to brush (pushing him down and wipe his teeth amidst of his crying and screaming), or do you think it is just an incident, and I should not worry about it too much?

What was your experience with your toddler and teeth brushing? Any success stories with brushing for a difficult toddler?