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Brushing teeth

JodieLJodieL
in Toddler
Please help! My son is 12 months old. He has 8 teeth now. When they started coming through I started brushing them with just water and then when he was used to that I introduced toothpaste. The last week or 2 he has decided he just doen't want them brushed. So now when I try he refuses to let me and gets upset. I've tried letting him hold the toothbrush but he just chews it then throws it. I've even tried different times in the day but no joy.
Thanks in advance for your help / comments.

Jodie

Replies

  • carmitagecarmitage
    Sounds like its just a phase but i think if you try to push him he will retalliate more & more to the toothbrush (if he is anything like my daughter) i just let her do it & dont make a fuss & she gets the idea, just let him hold the toothbrush & chew it, dont concentrate too much on brushing them for now & let him do that for a few days, just to get into the habit of it !

    Good luck
  • laurajayne-laurajayne-
    Hiya Jodie, my son has just turned 2 and has always loved having his teeth brushed but he went through this phase a few weeks ago, i found a few things that worked first i bought 2 tooth brushes one for him, as he likes to suck of the water and one for me to brush his teeth with, i told him it was his turn then praised him for brushing his teeth so well and then it was my go, that worked fine for a few weeks until he wanted both brushes lol so now we just have the one and as he is so into thomas the tank engine we have a plastic train sittin on the sink and he brushes his teeth and "thomas" tells him to let mummy brush his lol so that works! good luck x x x
  • ChasyChasy
    My 15 month old son wont have his teeth brushed either but it helps if i'm brushing my teeth at the same time or pretending to! cause he tries to copy me and sometimes if I let him hold the toothbrush for a bit first and then take it off him he sometimes lets me brush his teeth. I do worry though that his teeth aren't getting cleaned propaly
  • wenderswenders
    hi jodie

    I spoke to our dentist about this as daniel (25 months old) HATES having his teeth brushed! He said even if i don't give him sweets/chocolate etc there is sugar in milk and fruit that will be rotting his teeth if i don;t brush them.

    I have tryed to softly softly approach, i've tried the 2 brushes and he holds one, i've tried doing it when dh is brushing his, nothing works. so in the end what i have to do is sit him on my knee and put my finger in the corner of his mouth and get in and out as quick as i can. then let him have the brush to "finish" it off then we give him a big cheered and a well done, until he smiles, that way we don't leave it as a negetive experience.

    we've been doing this for about 10 months now ad it has been getting easier. we do occasionaly let him try first but he still doesnt like it being done.

    the dentist said if you can;'t do it any other way then you have to do it. he said to me whats worst?.... having an unhappy kid for 60 secs a day or a kid with bad tooth ache & having to put them under while they have a filling at 3 year old... I know what i'd want!

    good luck xx
  • Grace_and_RubyGrace_and_Ruby
    My daughter is 13months and she has been refusing to have her teeth brushed for the past month.
    we do use two brushes and also my tooth brush at times!
    I don't want her to be afraid of brushing or to have some kind of hang up about it, so as long as she brushes them a little, then we leave it at that.
    We try to brush her teeth in the bath (less mess afterwards), so we also try to make it into a game... this can result in her dipping the tooth brush in bath water and then sucking it (yuk!) but at least she gets the brush in her mounth!
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