Advice on Brushing My 19Mo's Teeth

With my son the Firefly toothbrush helped solve the problem. You can get them anywhere - Walmart, Target, Walgreens..two for $1. You squeeze the bottom and they light up and blink. They blink for one minute to teach kids how long to brush. My button obsessed baby would tolerate tooth brushing if HE got to turn it on. You can't turn them off, but if he started to fight I would take it and say it would be turned off (I had a plain jane toothbrush in my back pocket) and would show the toothbrush "turned off". Switch them and let him turn it back on...it was a lot of work, but I was tired of having to pin him down. By the time he discovered my ruse, he was more used to having to brush his teeth. The next problem we had was that he would bite and chew on the toothbrush, so we got a spin brush. It was harder to chew when it was spinning. And that one does have an on-off switch :) Now my daughter (who is currently 22 mo), wouldn't fall for the firefly and really didn't care about the flashing light after about a day. With her I started off with two toothbrushes...one for her to hold and do it herself (she kept yelling "I do" while I tried to brush her teeth) and one for me to get in there and brush really well. It was a little tricky with both toothbrushes in her mouth and she fought it a little bit, but it worked. Now that routine has morphed in to us both saying "Ahh" and she brushes my teeth while I get hers done. With her, she just wants to do it on her own. It's still not ideal...but again, it beats pinning her to the couch. My BIL is our dentist, even he was baffled on how to get the kids to cooperate.

2 moms found this helpful

Good luck! My 2 1/2 yo still get's the headlock!

We've done a few things already suggested- letting him brush first, the "easy/hard" game, and we also try to make it fun. We started singing ABC's twice while brushing. That seemed to make it fun. At the end, we'd say something funny like "next time won't you sing with Grover and Elmo", or something like that, and he'd love to hold out to see who we chose that night. :) We started brushing really early (my sister is a dentist), so we've never had a really tough time, thank goodness. Good luck!

T.

My son has sensitive gums... and little bitty teeth. So I still use the infant toothbrush (the silicone one that fits over your finger) on him because it seemed like he was in pain with the normal bristle brush. We also found (on Amazon, I think) a 'banana' brush... it's still silicone, so no poking with plastic bristles, but it's one that HE can use.

The other thing we do (inadvertently) is that we listen to Raffe all the time in the car and there is a song about brushing teeth... he LOVES Raffe so when we let him brush his teeth, we sing the toothbrushing song... complete with tch tch tch tch sounds. You should see him dance! :D

Good luck!

My husband has started counting to 10 while he brushes my sons teeth top and bottom. He really enjoys it and tries to count along with dad (just making the noises). My husband came up with counting after we were struggling with my son, and he cooperates great!
Best wishes!

I used to give my daughter the opportunity to allow me to brush on her own and then I would let her know I was going to brush them one way or another and would lay her down the the floor and brush. She would kick and scream, but if finally got through to her that there was 2 ways to do it, easy or hard. Eventually she would tell me she would do it. At that point, I would let her try and then I get to try. Mine was very stubborn too. Also hated the dentist until this last check up at four.

I think you should let him brush his own teeth-for a couple of days then tell him it is mommy's turn to brush them, we did this with my now 3 1/2 year old, now she brushes in the morning and daddy brushes them at night-which it what our dentist recommended to help them learn how to brush. You can also wipe his teeth with a wet washcloth in the bathtub-I read that in a baby magazine. good luck-this too will pass!

Oh my gosh! We had the hardest time with our son. It was insane. We literally had to headlock him too! And it was a very long phase! Anyone who ever witnessed our drama would say that they would probably give up on brushing :o)

Two things worked for us. One day I was thinking about his fits and I realized that perhaps he thought that the screaming actually accomplished something, since he would scream the whole time and eventually we would stop. Based on this train of thought, we decided to set a timer. We woudl tell him that we woudl stop brushing when the timer beeped. It seems silly but it really did help. The other thing we did was put "magic powder" on his tooth brush. My husband would have a bag with baking powder that he woudl sprinkle on like it was magic. It worked amazingly! We know that baking powder is very abrasive and is probably not a great idea long term, but it got him over the hump. Best of luck to you!

MY daughter starts out by putting a teeny tiny dab of toothpaste on the brush and letting her son brush his teeth while she brushes hers....then he lets her take her turn at his. She will sing a song to him or tell him a story..anything to keep him occupied. There are nights that he isn't as thrilled about the process as others but she talks to him about the importance of keeping his teeth strong and healthy...and he always seems to understand and go along with the program.

I tell my son there is a monkey in his mouth. We brush his teeth to get it out. When finished, he rinses with water and spits and I look in his mouth (he opens wide!) and see if the monkey is still there. He's gone! YAY!

I read somewhere you can also get a small animal toy (like some kind of yucky or smelly animal) and 'brush it out.' Hold it descretely in your hand by his ear, and when he spits - drop it! Holding it by the ear where he can't see might look like he spit it out. HTH!

Have you tried letting him brush YOUR teeth? Then while he's brushing yours, maybe he'll let you brush his. Just be prepared to be gagged with a toothbrush. :)