Brushing Our 3 Year Old's Teeth

Well, my son will be 3 in december and we've had a similar problem (to the point that his dad has had to hold him while i brushed his teeth.) i felt the same way about the traumatic thing but it is an important part of the daily routine and he needed to learn that it wasnt an option. Now some days are worse than others, but being consistent on this routine has helped. He doesnt always love it but it gets done. I also know he likes to do it himself and then we "help" when he's done. He feels like a big boy and we really praise him when he does it "himself"! I really think the sooner he realized that he had to do it(and the sooner he realized he'd get to go play quicker if he just did it) then he gave in. It's gettng easier each day, but remember, they have bad days just like we do. Also, they really want more control over their routine(since they control so little in life at this point) so get him involved, getting dad involved is great too! (ALSO, COOL TOOTHBRUSHES REALLY HELP, LET HIM PICK HIS OWN!)

Hi S.! My 2 1/2 year old hates having his teeth brushed too. One thing that has been working for us is asking him if his teeth feel dirty. (He hates being dirty) He will usually say yes, which is when we tell him that it's time to clean his teeth because they don't get cleaned in the bathtub. We let him have his own toothbrush, and then I have one of his little toothbrushes as well. He gets to brush for a minute, and then I do. We trade back and forth a couple times until they are clean. It was a battle for a long time, but this is what is working for us right now. Good luck!!

I agree that the flavor of toothpaste may be the problem. My little girl will ONLY use strawberry toothpaste. also, she wants to do it by herself, but i do it first so i know her teeth are clean, then she gets to finish up. maybe try to let him experience dirty feeling teeth to help him understand how important it is to have clean teeth? Emma HATES having her teeth feel dirty. good luck!

this may sound horrible but I ALWAYS end up bargaining with my son when I want him to do stuff he doesn't want to. "No brushing your teeth, then no bedtime story" or whatever it is he likes about his bedtime routine.. Trust me IT ALWAYS WORKS!

Dear S.,

What type of toothbrush and toothpaste are you using for your son? If you are using regular toothpaste - it may be too strong for his taste buds. Find a good kid's toothpaste - one that is flavored (believe me - he will eventually want to use the regular toothpaste.) Also - find a cute toothbrush. My grand-daughter has one that jingles when she brushes. Or take your son to the store and let him choose his own toothbrush. There are good kid oriented books about tooth brushing - try finding one of those and reading it with your son.

Hi S.,
I have a 3 year old boy and he doesn't hate brushing his teeth but we did just get him one of those teeth tunes toothbrushes. It plays songs while they brush and they can hear it really well when it is in their mouth on the back teeth. It is worth a try. Good Luck!
G.

Maybe he doesn't like the flavor of the toothpaste. Try different kinds, especially those developed just for children. You might also consult your dentist about this, or find a pediatric dentist.

My daughter is two and a half and what I've been doing with her for quite a few months (before she turned two) was I printed out a toothbrushing chart for her and got her some stickers. Every time she brushes her teeth, she puts a sticker on it and absolutely loves doing it. I laminated the chart so I can use it over and over again and it has her favorite character Dora on it as well. (Just type in "free printable toothbrushing charts" in yahoo search or something and it will come up and you can just print it out). Every now and then when she fills it, she gets a prize of something I buy for her (a balloon or something minute) or take her to do something fun and interesting as her reward. Now, she gets her bursh and cup down off the shelf on the counter and does all but puts the toothpaste on herself. Sometimes she wants to do it so many times during the day I have to tell her to to wait until bedtime. It's a fun experience for her. I hope this may help you out a bit. :-)

Take your son to pick out a cool new toothbrush with the understanding that he can't have it if he "fights daddy". They have one that time with a blinking light which both my boys loved, i'm sure they have his favorite characters so for example "Elmo wants to make sure you brush". They also have spin toothbrushes that don't make it such a chore. He may not like the feeling of his toothbrush so you may end up buying a few before he will cooperate. It worked for both my boys. They now are excited when it is time to pick a new toothbrush and go to the dentist to get the grade for brushing. Good luck.

There are many books out there that are fun to read and about brushing teeth. There's one with Elmo that has a toothbrush attached and you brush the characters teeth. I would start with reading teethbrushing books together. You could let you son pick a new toothbrush at the store...maybe one with his favorite character on it, or one that vibrates. I would also tell your husband to brush his teeth and show your son how daddy does it, even you can join in. When I brush my son's teeth (2 yrs old), I tell him to growl and I show him with my mouth how to reveal his teeth, then I brush his front teeth while he's growling. To get the back teeth, I tell him to say aahhhh, and I show him how to open his mouth real big. Then when I'm brushing, I say aahhh with him. He really likes this, and so far it has worked for us.

Hi S.,

My oldest hated brushing his teeth too and with him it was the tooth brush bonking into his cheeks and gums that he hated, so I got him one of those kids spin brushes. Now all he has to do is hold the brush on each tooth for a little while. He says it tickles. Another thing that helped was when I was still doing it for him, I would stand behind him with him on a foot stool so I had better control, then we would both "make our mean faces in the mirror" and I would hold my mean face in place the whole time and even throw in a silly addition now and again to make it look like I was trying TOO hard to be mean. This cracked my son up and he has had no problem brushing his teeth since because he gets to make his mean face in the mirror. They now have this pre-brush rinse to show kids the plaque on their teeth, I think this may be helpful too. Your husband can have your son rinse with this so your son can see why it's important to brush. Maybe he can tell him that the blue stuff left on his teeth is, oh "special mouth dirt finding miniature secret agents" or something and tell him that his "mouth dirt" will make holes in his teeth if he doesn't brush it away. My oldest was convinced when I told him that the tooth fairy would leave him crackers instead of money if his teeth had holes in them because she uses the teeth to build her castle and she doesn't want any holes in her castle letting cold air in.

I think making it a battle like we did of the bad dirt and germs in his mouth vs. the shining heroes of tooth brush and paste may be a good tactic, especially coming from a dad. If there's one thing little boys go in for big time, it's pretend battle. I would even sometimes make fake "dying" sounds on behalf of the "villians" (which ended up sounding a lot like the Wicked Witch of the West in her death throes) which always made my son giggle.

As you can see, there are many ways to make tooth brushing a fun thing to do. You just have to appeal to the child's sense of humor and his imagination, both of which children have in abundant supply.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

A bit late but here goes... we brush his teeth IN the bath with great success. We use an electric cartoon toothbrush and sing eee and aaa songs to get to all of the teeth. Hope this will add to your list of ideas.

My 18 month old never liked brushing her teeth and I had to pinch her jaw open to do it. That was awful, then I started to just tickle her and she would open her mouth while laughing, so I could get in there and brush them. Also a friend of mine told me to have her pick out an electric tooth brush that she likes. So maybe you can tell your son to "let superman clean your teeth" or any other character. Good luck.

Welcome to the club... what makes teethbrushing easier for us was the invention of the electric toothbrush. There are many cartoon character electric toothbrushes for kids available now. We made sure to get a 'soft' brush, and he loves it. When the battery died, he used a regular brush until we replaced it. Good luck!

You might have already tried this,but if not you can take him to the store and let him pick out his favorite toothbrush and tootpaste the have paste and brushes in all different characters and paste in all different flavors.Explain to him it is his special brush and paste so he can pick out which one he wants to use everyday.Also you could try getting him to do it himself during the day for practice and then daddy gets to do it at bedtime.

Hi Sheri,
We had trouble getting our youngest son into a bedtime routine. He loves Thomas the Tank Engine, so I made a chart, and every time he took a bath, brushed his teeth and then got in bed without complaining three nights in a row (you can increase the number of nights each week) he would earn a Thomas the Tank Engine toy. Perhaps if you treat dental care as just another part of the whole bedtime routine and reward good behavior he'll settle in. We all love rewards! Good luck to you.

Janet

We had a similiar problem with our son. When he saw his daddy and me using an electric toothbrush, he decided he wanted one. He loved it. He even reminds me if I forget.

Hi S.,

We struggled with this when our son was 2 yrs old, almost 3. It got so bad that I was concerned he'd end up with a mouth full of cavities. We would offer to read an extra book at night, extra back scratching from Mom (always a hit in our house),etc. and nothing worked. We finally started a small sticker book that could be kept in the bathroom drawer. Every time he brushed his teeth without issue, he received a sticker. We made a big deal out of it. The stickers were a character he really liked, so it was fun for him. If he ended up with three stickers for the day, he'd get 10 minutes of extra play time before bed. Now that doesn't mean that there weren't still those occasional nights where he refused. Before we started the sticker program, I had to hold him down and brush his teeth. I hated doing it, hate admitting it in writing here, but was seriously concerned that he was going to end up with some major dental issues if we didn't intervene. We did this because he would bedgrudgingly brush his teeth at first, then went to outright refusing to let us come near him. We didn't have to do that very often, by the way. He decided he didn't like being forced to brush at all, and combined with the stickers, it gradually got better. Now teaching him to "spit", was a whole other issue! LOL. Hope this helps. Good luck!

S.,
After having $8000 worth of braces and surgeries on my mouth to fix the problems, I am a big advocate of oral health. We make Tooth brushing a family event. My 2 kids (4 and 2) brush their teeth with me every day. We let them pick out their own tooth brush and toothpaste and I even let them pick our mine and my hubbies. We like to turn on the radio and dance a little while we brush and even make funny faces in the mirror. I keep a dry erase marker in my bathroom so my kids can color on their reflections while they are brushing. Anything to make it fun. Some times for hygeine's sake, you just have to make them suck it up, but don't force it every night. Also if you have a dog, show your son that even dogs need their teeth brushed too and show him how to do it or let him do his while you do the dogs. Good Luck!

S.,

Could it be the toothpaste that is the problem and not the brushing itself? Try and see if he will brush his teeth with just water on the brush (no toothpaste!), and if so, that may solve this problem. As long as he brushes his teeth at this age - even with just water (warm is probably better than cold) - it will begin to help him form the proper habit and routine. Later, when he is older and his mouth can tolerate the chemicals in the toothpaste better, you can try to find a toothpaste or gel that he will use.
Brushing the teeth is important, but toothpaste isn't as vital as actually learning the proper brushing techniques and doing them.

You could try having 2 tooth brushes , 1 for him to use and the other for dad to brush his teeth with , let him do it himself first of all & then make sure he knows that his dad has to do them also just to make sure they are nice & clean. I found this has worked with my kids.

Good luck.

Hi, S. -- can you stand one more idea, though you've already gotten terrific ones? (And use 'em all too, like the new toothpaste and electric brush!) If the routine is always in the same order -- playtime, then bedtime routine which includes toothbrushing-- it could be that toothbrushing is a signal to your son that Playtime Is OVER and Your Fun Day is Done. You might try switching the brushing to immediately after dinner and before the playtime -- so that he knows that the fun fun with Daddy starts AFTER the teeth are brushed. Of course, this could mean that putting on his pajamas then becomes the signal that the fun is over, but...let's fight one battle at a time! Just a thought! Good luck!

What about having a radio/small cd player in there with songs that he likes. They say you should brush your teeth for the length of a song (although I am sure so many of us don't...I don't!) But make it fun! Once the toothbrushes are ready (his and dads), start the fun song, and brush while they dance and get their wiggles out. (Obviously don't let him get too crazy, he is brushing his teeth). I have NO idea if that will work...but sounds like anything is worth a try! Oh yeah, and to start off too, maybe before you start the music take him to the store that day to pick out his own toothbrush (and for extra fun, one for daddy too- even if it is a fun kids toothbrush for daddy to use just for that time). Good luck!
K.

I have the same problems with my son. At this age they like to be independent and do things for themselves. What kind of works for my son is to let him brush and them ask him iof I can check to see if he missed any spots. Once I assure him he can have another turn brushing when I am done he lets me have a quick go at his teeth. Good luck.