teeth cleaning
Help, I cant get my 2 year old to brush her teeth. The only way we seem to do it is by making her and doing it for her, which is not advised and I dont want to do but she just refuses. If we give her it in the bath she washes it away and mornings are a nightmare.
im worried her teeth are going to be awful if she doesn't start soon. x
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Replies
Hello,
I had the exact same trouble last year with my little boy Harry who is now three. The Old Woman who posts on here a lot gave me some advice which worked ....
That is to get them to say loudly ahhhhhhhhhh and eeeeeee depending which teeth you are cleaning - I make it in to a bit of a song sometimes too. The other thing I did is let him clean my teeth while I did his or take it in turns seemed to help.
I now sing to Harry along with making the ahh and eeeee noises I also mention, especially that if he has had any sweets in the day that he has to brush or no sweeties another day as they will make his teeth go bad.
The other thing is letter her choose a toothbrush or the different toothpate may helop'
good luck, hopefully you will have better luck soon.
We got our little boy to pretend he was a lion/iger doing a big roar and that did the trick
Good Luck
Hi
I'm having exactly the same problem with my 21 mo. She flalty refuses to let me brush her teeth without starting World War Three. About the best I can get her to do is chew the tooth brush. Also she hates the toothpaste.
I feel like I've tried everything. I've tried to make a game of it; we've tried brushing all her toys' teeth; she comes with me when I clean mine and I try to make it as exciting as I can in the hope that she'll copy me , I've let her brush mine, the list goes on... It wears me out just thinking about it! Honestly although I've never been rough with her or tried to force the issue you'd think I was trying to chop her head off!
We were at the dentists yesterday and the dentist advised me to sit her on my knee and just run my finger under her lips to get her to open her mouth. She showed me and it worked for the dentist (typical). I'm hoping this will work for me too but we did try it when she was a lot younger and she soon wised up to it. I'm also at my wits end about it which I think my lo senses and makes the situation worse. At themoment the only saving grace is that she only drinks milk or water, and she rarely eats sweets/chocolates and when she does it is in moderation.
Maybe she just takes after me. I have a very sensitive mouth and I hate it being touched. I live in hope that one day we'll have a breakthrough and she'll just let me do it with no fuss. I'll also try the aaaaaah, eeeee thing and see if that works.
Oh dear its not good is it the thought your child's teeth arent getting what they need. My dentist told me not to stress to much about the brushing at this stage just as long as they get toothpaste. But that was 3 months ago and she has developed more teeth.
oh I will just have to keep going on with it and see, doesnt help my daughter is SOOOOO strong willed its untrue. xx
I've worked as a dental nurse and my dad is a dentist, until a child is approx 7 they need some help and supervision to clean their teeth properly, especially at the very back. If you need to help a 2 yr old I wouldn't be too worried, my 4yr old daughter has just about mastered the angling of the toothbrush to clean both top and bottom teeth but still not good enough to be left to do it herself. My daughters always hate it most when they have a new tooth coming through, maybe you could offer to have a look for new teeth together instead of brushing and see if she will let you have a look, then you can work up to saying "I can see (whatever they had to eat that day) shall we clean if off your new tooth so we can see how sparkly it is?" Most children I've come across in the surgery will respond to this, if not you may have at least seen why they won't let you brush their teeth.
I've always made it a bit of a game with aaaahhh and eeeeeeeeee to open so you can see their teeth and make sure that they are well aware its as important as washing hands. I always let my girls have a go first and make a fuss of how sparkly and clean they have got their teeth. I'm finding my eldest has now discovered the existence of the tooth fairy from school and apparently she will only leave money for clean teeth! If possible let them see their teeth in a mirror whilst they are brushing and if they make a fuss about it don't push it but tell them there will be no sweeties/juice drinks/raisins etc the day after until they let you check their teeth, also taste the toothpaste yourself - mine hated the fruit flavoured ones but will tolerate a very small smear of milk teeth by aquafresh and gradually get up to a pea sized amount at age 3-4.
My 19 month old will let me brush his teeth for just a few seconds.He only has 7,so I can just give them a quick clean before he starts getting upset.I don't want him asocaiating teethbrushing with being an unpleasant experience.We do the aaah,ooo,eee thing as we did with the older children as toddlers but he won't do it yet,but at the moment I'm trying to do a quick clean as much as I can to keep it relaxed and not too upsetting for him,and he's getting more willing to let me clean for longer.I also let him have a toothbrush to chew in the bath after I've cleaned them first and he thinks he's having a go himself.
My toddlers weren't always willing with the teeth brushing but you can just do what you can,and keep it as fun,and stressfree as possible and they do become more willing as they get older.Once they're three or four you can reason more with them that we need to get them shiny and clean,.Robbie Rotten was always a good deterrent role model for my middle two ,they didn't want teeth like his or they would be called somebody rotten too.They also liked to see their shiny white teeth in the mirror.I still don't let my 6 year old do his teeth till I've had a go first.
Hopefully something that will become easier over time.