Brushing 2 Year Olds Teeth

My nephew also hated having his teeth brushed. We just started asking him "Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?" and if he said easy way, he got to brush first, then mom got to finish up. If he didn't answer or said no, etc., mom ended up holding him down and brushing his teeth. He didn't like that much, and he learned really quickly that he wasn't going to get out of having his teeth brushed.

Monika's trick with the 'monkeys' sounds like it could work, too! I would try that first, then if that doesn't work, maybe try 'easy way or hard way' lol.

My 21 month old hated it also. Then I went and bought a little stool for her to stand on by the sink. I tell her to go get her stool and she goes and gets it. Then I leave the water running while she kind of plays by putting the toothbrush in the water and then in her mouth. After a couple minutes of this I can ease my way and she will sometimes open up or not. Point it, the before time when she likes it with the water and I tell her how to do it. The stool was the trick for us.

My son is 2 and suddenly started HATING having his teeth brushed. If I said it was time to brush his teeth he would start crying and run away and once I got to him he wouldn't open his mouth. It was very frustrating. I read somewhere that you should try singing a song to them while you brush their teeth, so I picked Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and it has worked ever since! He actually gets excited about brushing his teeth and especially if my husband stands there and sings it too, he thinks it's great. I tried changing the song to the ABC's, but he keeps asking for Twinkle Twinkle. It wouldn't hurt to try that. Good Luck!!

Have you tried using one of those electric brushes that are ment for children along with the special tooth past, You can get one for yourself and use your toothpaste and do it at the same time make it a game see if this works, Good luck.

Yes ! My daughter was not good about it and barely let me do it. Don't worry too much. Now that she is 3, she is better !

I like to have three kid toothbrushes in the house at all times, when it is time to brush I ask him "do you want to use the red Elmo toothbrush or the green toothbrush?" he gets distracted with making the decision (one can be his old one and never gets chosen-doesn't matter) or I ask do you want to brush your teeth in the upstairs or downstair's bathroom? He feels he is making decisions not being forced to do something. Do you want to brush first of Mommy goes first and you go second? Hope this helps

We got our DS an electric toothbrush which he uses with CLOSE supervison. Once he's done -- we then help him brush.

I started getting mine to make funny noises I tell him "say eeeeeeee" He does and I get the front, then I tell him "say ahhhhhh" then I get the back, and fast. Of course I say the sounds too in an exaggerated way which he likes. And I always tell him if he cooperates then he can brush his own teeth after and show me his skills. It helped me and my boy can be very hard headed at times! Good luck:)

My daughter is good about brushing, but the singing idea was agreat one - my daughters dentist sang during her entire appointment using her name in the song. It kept her happy which was something of a miracle becuase she was crying (no nap = cranky) up until he started singing.

You might want to look for the Elmo's World Teeth episode. It talks all about brushing and going to the dentist etc.

Also, let him pick his own tooth brush and try a different tooth paste flavor. Oh an spitting -if he like to spit tell him when he is brushing he can spit in the sink as much as he wants.

And last thought - We have a two step step stool in our bathroom so our daughter can see herself brushing. Something like that might help if you haven't done that - she likes to watch mommy in the mirror brushing then she mimics what I am doing.

Good luck

My two year old lets me brush them now (after he has a long turn) but he didn't when he was a little younger. One thing we did that helped was to ask him to brush our teeth while he brushed his. We told him we needed help. He would get so distracted trying to brush ours that we could sneak the toothbrush into his mouth. Good luck! I'm sorry - I've been there with the toothbrushing battles and it's SO frustrating! We also remind him that we can't read bedtime books until his teeth are brushed.

Hi C.,
You could try the Kidscents toothpastes while he is sleeping. The do not contain flouride and are intended to be swallowed. The essential oils are great for cleaning the bacteria and warding off cavities. My little girl brushed regularly and still had cavities when we used regular toothpastes. Being 10, she now loves the adult line. Check out, www.youngliving.org/407018 if you like.

Good luck!

Try buying one of those battery operated brushes. They have cartoon characters that he might be interested in. Make a game of it. Just might work. Good luck.

L.

Hi C.
For brushing teeth use a stool and let him do it himself when you are brushing yours .It works for us.We dont make a fuss or pay much attention.Just say time to brush teeth.Hand him the toothbrush and have the stool ready.Be already doing yours and dont feed into it if he objects.Try to normalise it ,to make it no big deal that we brush our teeth every day
Good Luck
B.

I have a little trick that I started using with my son and it works beautifully! In fact I told one of my coworkers about it who was having a hard time getting her 3 year old to brush his teeth and she came back saying that it worked and they do it everyday.
So one day when my son wouldn't let me brush his teeth, I told him that I saw monkeys in his mouth. I made a comment like "Oh no, I think I just saw monkeys in your mouth. Let me see. That was definitely a tail in there. How many monkeys do you have in there?"
He started laughing and told me there were 10 monkeys in there. So I said we had to get them out. We started brushing his teeth and would count how many we got out. The last one is always sitting on his tongue and we have to brush that little rascal out of there. Now every morning and night we make sure we floss and brush out teeth and tongue to make sure we don't leave any of those silly monkeys in there.
On days that my son (almost 4) doesn't want to get up out of bed and start getting ready, I'll move my hand near his mouth and say "Ouch, a monkey just bit me." We'll do this for a minute or so and he will crack up and wake up and get ready to brush his teeth so we can get them all out of there.

It works like a charm at least 90% of the time and we haven't had any issues so far. My coworker said she does this everyday with her son and it still works great. It could be worth a shot.

I'd love to hear if that works for you or not. Good luck!

My 2 year old likes to brush his teeth, but he doesn't want me to help. I know he's not yet coordinated enough to do a really good job but I don't want to turn teeth brushing into a huge battle. I usually brush them for as long as he'll let me (which is like 5-10 seconds). I put a lot of tooth paste on the brush and then let him do what he will. He likes to stand on the potty so he can be up at the sink - he sticks the toothbrush in the water and pretends to spit. I think as long as he gets the brush in there it's doing something. Plus I try to steer clear of sweets with him and only give him watered down juice.

You're lucky - I wouldn't dare take my son to the dentist yet because I know he wouldn't sit still - he has a meltdown when we go to the pedi. My pedi thinks he won't be ready until about 3.

Make sure your using kid tooth paste. Adult tooth paste burns their mouths.