[kdzf]

with mine i picked their favourite characters and made up tooth brushing games. Eg "oh no there goes thomas, he is stuck in the mud up the back, he needs help! Hold on Thomas we can get the mud off...brush brush brush...what's that? The fat controller says we missed a bit...we'll get it fat controller" etc etc. Gets a bit dull but definitely helped!

[BornToLove]

We also make it a game. I would brush her nose and then some of her teeth, her chin, teeth, forehead, teeth, etc just to get her okay with the concept of brushing and having the brush in her mouth. We would also have her brush her dolly’s teeth and just generally play with the tooth brush.

Now that she’s got the idea and we’re using paste, we give a proper brushing first and then she gets a go. Having Dora on her brush helps :eyeroll: but there are days where she resists. We do what we can, let her have a go and try again if we think she’s more receptive later. If she’s not into it that morning/night, it’s not the end of the world, but we make it a point to do it every morning and night at least.

[Pearson]

DD is two next month, and was going wonderfully with the teethbrushing, until we ran out of paste, and got some more - they changed the damn formula and she wont have a bar of red white and blue striped toothpaste!!!! And no one else seems to make paste, only gel!!!
now I have to hold her down to get her to let me do it!
She has started opening her mouth now though.....

[~kacee~]

We showed DD two YouTube videos about brushing teeth - one was an elmo one, I think it's called healthy teeth, healthy me? And another one called dr rabbit how to have a bright smile. (both are American). We put them on our iPad and DD would watch them while brushing. Now she doesn't need them anymore, but loves to show us her "green monster" (plaque) free teeth

(oh, and the Elmo one is fun for spotting stars including Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts )

[D-nuts]

DD hated it until I discovered she is obsessed with thick bubbles (found out using proper bubble bath, not the baby bubbles, they weren't enough for her)

I showed her that when I brush my teeth I get a mouthful of bubbles and that if we brushed hers properly with toothpaste she could have the same thing. All of a sudden she wanted to brush her teeth.

We've also had success in her wanting to wash her hair by switching to a very bubbly shampoo.

[Lokum]

My DS is 25 months old, but from 12- 18 months it was quite difficult to brush his teeth. Things that worked were:

Electric toothbrush he chose from the supermarket.
Sing a song.
Let him have a turn, then my turn, then his turn.
Tiny amount of toddler toothpaste (forgot and used regular, and he hates it and cried).
Brush the toy's teeth first.

He ALWAYS has to sit on our lap and have his teeth brushed - otherwise it's pointless. Toddlers don't know how to brush their teeth effectively, and don't have proper hand and wrist control. To do it properly needs the same level of sklll as holding a pencil and writing properly formed letters - which we don't expect until they're 5 or or 6.

As a last resort, when things weren't going well, we would lie him across our laps or tip him upside down - it makes them open their mouths.

I also don't let him walk around with the toothbrush in his mouth.
He's often tired at toothbrush time, and if he tripped with a toothbrush in his mouth, he could be badly injured - even fatally.

[laladidah]

DD (just turned two) is obsessed with stickers, so we have a sticker chart. If she is being difficult with brushing her teeth, we just tell her she will get a sticker if she brushes her teeth .... and she normally opens her mouth nice and wide after hearing that!

Agree with pp, we normally try to let her do lots of it herself in the morning, but always do the night time brush for her.

[Teacherman]

We play a silly chasing game with lots of RARR's and AHHH's for when we catch each other. Mummy, DS and I (Daddy) all join in. This was easy to then translate to teeth brushing, for brushing the front of the teeth we do Grrr's and for the tops and back we do big Ahhh's.

We had fights over teeth brushing, but I made it out to be a big thing that he was missing out on and wouldn't get any treat the next day for being naughty. He now gets his teeth brushed every morning and night.

[ejdonn]

We have the problem that DS only wants an adult sized toothbrush. We gave in and got a soft adult toothbrush. Although we're having trouble cleaning his top front teeth. With the electric toothbrushes do all the heads look the same? I'm sure that he just wants what we have!

This post has been edited by ejdonn: 30/07/2012, 02:30 PM

[MahnaMahna]

Definitely persist. It is very important for all reasons PP have stated.

My DS is 3.5 and only in the last 6 months has he started spitting his toothpaste and not having a hissy fit when we brush, so it took a good while for him to be ok with it but now he brushes his own teeth in the morning (definitely not a great job!) and we brush them at night, all without trauma and tantrums