Both of my kids have been increasingly resisting brushing teeth, both in the morning and at night. It is driving me crazy! All of our standard tricks have stopped working, and I'm hoping to find some new ones.
Do your kids resist tooth brushing, and if so how do you deal with it?
hostess / papaya / 10219 posts
Ugh. Terribly. Haven't found an effective method other than me brushing my teeth at the same time. He then will copy cat me, most of the time.
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22276 posts
My youngest acts like I'm torturing her! Oldest LO usually does ok.
GOLD / wonderful pea / 17697 posts
He's fine with it. I tell him we can't read any stories until he brushes his teeth.
GOLD / watermelon / 14076 posts
She doesn't resist. She used to, but she loves Bubble Guppies so I got her a BG toothbrush and I sing a song I made up about how they're all swimming around cleaning her teeth. I'm sure I sound ridiculous but it works!
papaya / 10343 posts
She usually doesn't, but she's only 16mo. She thinks it is funny for some reason unless she's in a pissy mood.
kiwi / 549 posts
Following. I need tricks too. My 2.5 y/o have not let us brush his teeth for months! So disgusting huh? And I've been picking my battles since I'm pregnant and a tantrum from brushing teeth is not a battle I want to deal with right now. I'm not looking forward to his next dentist appt. hopefully no cavities.
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts
Someone in here said they tell their LO that they see food on their teeth when brushing. Totally works on her. I just repeat her dinner and I can finally brush her teeth without issues.
wonderful cherry / 21504 posts
So far we've been pretty lucky. She knows I brush her teeth first, then she gets to do it. I have a tooth brush for myself in there so she holds my toothbrush and sometimes "brushes" my teeth while I brush hers. Then she gets to brush hers and I brush mine. Lately she always tries to do hers first but gives in pretty easily. She's 2.
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
No resistance from either of my kids. Lol. A while back I told them if they don't brush, they'll get cavities. Cavities mean an extra visit to the dentist.
honeydew / 7303 posts
@chopsuey: I told my three year old about cavities and showed her pictures and now she says she wants "cavity bugs" all the time.
pear / 1547 posts
Tricks for the little LO's? LO is 11.5 mo and I basically have her lay on my lap and try to brush her teeth while she tries to chew on the toothbrush and then give up after about 20 seconds. I do it before bed each night and I know I should do it twice a day (she has 7 teeth almost all the way in) but it feels so futile!
pineapple / 12793 posts
I told her cavities were bugs and I had to clean her teeth to get rid of the bugs. No fights whatsoever.
pomelo / 5298 posts
No fights. She has a sonicare toothbrush. She actually used to do a pretty good job on her own. At 3.5 the dentist told her how important it is to let her parents do it. Now I can barely get her to do it herself but she happily lets us do it.
She believes her teeth will rot and fall out and her dentist will be disappointed if she loses all of her teeth from not brushing. She's a people pleaser 
wonderful cherry / 21504 posts
@MenagerieMama: that's about the age when I started letting C brush my teeth. Dh used to laugh because it looked like we were battling, but I would brush her teeth while she jammed my toothbrush around in my mouth. She thought it was a fun game. Before that I was getting nowhere.
grapefruit / 4712 posts
My kids love to get their teeth brushed. I am not looking forward to giving that control over to them. DH is very prone to cavities, me not so much.
pineapple / 12566 posts
No problems for us. DD looooves to brush her teeth and I have to wrench the toothbrush out of her hands every day.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
For older kids, I think it's important to let them do part of the routine and let them pick out things (within reason) that help with the chore. For example, I have a bin of toothbrushes that my son can choose from. I also found that he doesn't like the fruit flavored toothpastes, so we use a mint flavored one. Took some trial and error there.
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
She goes in phases where she wants me to brush her teeth. I just roll with it because at 3.5 she doesn't do a fantastic job anyway. But brushing in general she doesn't have a problem with. We use the DT song and I always ask to check if her teeth are "nice & clean" and have her show me her pearly whites. She loves that!
hostess / papaya / 10219 posts
@regberadaisy: there's a Daniel tiger song for brushing teeth?! We need that!!
nectarine / 2964 posts
Mine used to when he was a baby, but no he doesn't anymore. Mostly because they do teach about teeth brushing at school and tooth fairy came to visit and talk to them at school, that if you don't brush your teeth they will turn yellow. Last night I forgot to floss his teeth he actually wake up and get me and tell me I forgot to floss his teeth and he would like to have his teeth flossed!
Have you tried reading books about tooth fairies and such with them? Can you give them a reward, say if they get up and brush their teeth you let them watch a short 3 minute video? I also would ask the teachers at school to talk to them about it or have a session/day dedicated to educating kids about teeth brushing.
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
@travellingbee: yes! It's the one about bedtime routine.
"Brusha, brusha, brusha!"
pomelo / 5573 posts
My son shrieks like we're trying to murder him. We've had limited success with giving him a toothbrush of his own and letting him brush the teeth of his bath toys while we brush his, but it only works about half the time. The other half he demands that WE brush the toy's teeth while he "brushes" his, which means he sucks the toothpaste off and then swirls the brush around in the tub. He's almost 20 months and this is fairly recent - he used to be pretty easygoing about it.
nectarine / 2951 posts
If, my DS just turned 2 and has become resistant. He just chews on the brush and doesn't move the brush back and forth! Thanks for the Daniel Tiger link. Im going to watch it with him just before the bedtime routine!
kiwi / 643 posts
@iluvboba637: While I agree about picking battles, tooth brushing is something that would be non negotiable for me. Trust me, you would much rather have him fight and cry while you brush his teeth for 1-2 min than to have him traumatized at the dentist if he needs cavities filled. I used to work in the dental field and a common misconception is that people think getting cavities on baby teeth doesnt matter since they fall out anyway, but it's just not true -- it can lead to further problems down the road and cause infection.
Have you tried an electric toothbrush? What kinds of things does your son like? For example, my son loves cars so I tell him we're going to count how many cars are in his mouth, or I get really animated and pretend the cars are driving away and we have to catch them. He used to fight me on brushing until I started doing this, and also using an electric toothbrush helped a LOT. I always brush his teeth while he's laying down, then give him the toothbrush after I'm done so he can "finish"
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22646 posts
Thankfully ds loves brushing his teeth. He brushes multiple times a day. He just did a middle of the day brush. At bath time we sometimes get resistance for our turn with it, but we say no ah-yas "booboo/cavity" from treats if we brush and he usually complies!
pomelo / 5866 posts
When she goes into a funk, I have to brush with her. Like it is playtime. Hey let's brush together like twins. . So cheesy but it works.
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