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We forced and they eventually got use to it - although I will admit it was only once per day. Once they accepted it as a daily habit we started 2 times a day brushing!

I think it's worth forcing.
I had to try a million different ways. The one that works now is we play "dentist" and I have him lie down while I brush his teeth, lol. Not sure why it works, but it does.
And I'll let him get his teeth brushed wherever he wants to, on our bed, his bed, floor.

I used to give him a brush and let him watch me and he would imitate what I was doing but then he stopped.
We also have many different brushes so he can pick which color he wants.
Do you have the banana brush? That one is good for a baby/toddler that chews on it because they can chew the bristles and at least get that.

We force it every night to enforce the pattern. We go through phases where sometimes he hates it and sometimes he likes it. We don't do bath time every night any more so we sometimes skip the nights he doesn't get a bath.

I have horrible teeth (genetically) and DS was an early teether, so we don't want to take the chance of early cavities, etc.

@winniebee: when olive cries she opens her mouth and we jam the toothbrush in there. she did used to bite down on it, but she gave up after a while because we'd just brush again later and now lets us brush her teeth.

@Mrs. Bee: that's exactly what we do when he fights it!

Oh gosh, I am in the no force camp. There was a period of time where my son was okay with us brushing, then he refused and it literally devloved into holding him down and required two people. The result is that he will not let my husband go near him with a toothbrush.

So my method involved just letting him stand next to me in the bathroom while I brushed my teeth. Eventually, he picked up a toothbrush and he chewed on it. Now, he brushes first and I do a follow up and it works really well.

I also think it's worth forcing...at least several nights a week if not every night. My LO also hates it, but after him screaming through it, he has gotten a bit better.

We force. All behavioral stuff with little ones is so transitory! Some days they don't want to do whatever it is, then at some point they just start being OK with it. That has been my experience. Both my kids liked brushing, then disliked it, and fortunately both are onboard right now with toothbrushing! And we did force them so I don't think you will turn your child off dental hygiene forever!

PS I took my 3 yo to the dentist last week and he got so many compliments on his teeth he was just GLOWING with pride!!

I force it, she's only mad when I do it then she's over it. I've found that if she sits in our bathroom on the counter so she can see me brushing them she feels like a "big girl" but it's so hit and miss.

@Smurfette: We're forcing it with E, but I honestly wonder how much good we're doing because I can't tell that I'm actually getting all the teeth surfaces. We'll keep forcing the issue, but I really hope someday soon he'll just get used to it.

I force it in the evenings. No brushing in the mornings yet. The pedi was ok with that until he turns 2.

Electric changed everything for us!

I'm in the no force camp too. I don't want it to be a traumatic event every day. I found that it has slowly gotten better over time. At first, he wouldn't open his mouth. Then one day he wanted to imitate daddy brushing his teeth. So he "brushes" them by himself but it's mostly chewing on the brush. Some days he lets me brush them a little. It's all a work in progress. I guess I'm just choosing my battles at this point. Toddlers change so quickly, I'm not really worried about it.

@Jenn23: I hope it works for you! I warn you that it is a pretty catchy tune and might get stuck in your head

Oh, and at one point I also pretended to brush the teeth of the characters/kids on the screen before brushing DS' teeth and he seemed very satisfied with that and allowed me to brush with no problems.

We used to force it as well, and i think it's worth doing. Gum/teeth hygiene is important!

I find that brushing your teeth at the same time helps a lot too!

We forced and now she's fine with it. We started just at bedtime and did it during bath time. She holds one toothbrush and I brush her mouth with the other one. Once she got used to bedtime brushing we started morning brushing. I think it's worth it bc I'd like to do my best to prevent cavities...I would hate having to spend money on fillings for baby teeth that will just fall out

ETA: we got some hello kitty toothbrushes from Target and she loves them. One green and one pink and sometimes she wants to hold the green one and sometimes the pink one

We have given up on trying twice a day, I consider before bed a success. We have tried many different combinations of things. It depends on his mood sometimes he lets us do it and sometimes he wants to be a big boy and do it all himself.

We force as well, but I'm not sure it's worth it because she has 2 cavities now
It's not as much as a fight as it was before, but it still takes me holding her down and forcing the brush in.