How to Encourage 2 Yr Old to Brush Teeth

I turned it into a game with my son... at first, I looked for zoo animals. Every time he started to fuss, I'd gasp, acting like I'd seen something in his teeth. "Is that an elephant?" Then he'd let me look.

We've since graduated to SpongeBob characters (since I can make all the voices), but even though he now lets me brush easily, he still sometimes asks me to find SpongeBob... and I comply.

If you can reframe it to something fun, it will be easier on him. My son had mouth sores when he was little, too (reacting to acidic fruit), but he'd still let me "play" in his mouth when I was looking for creatures.

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My daughter is 21 months and hates her teeth to be brushed. I give her a little bit of Tom's toothpaste in the morning to have her basically eat the floride, and attempt to brush her teeth. Then, in the evening, I have a puppet that she let's brush the teeth...something novel is good. But with the puppet, I would say, "Would you like me to brush or ___name of puppet ___ to brush?" She always wants the puppet to brush her teeth. Also, I have her brush her teeth in the bathtub and she likes to do that there often too. Good luck!

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I would take him to the store and let him pick out a new brush. I suggest an electric one like the Crest spin pro kind. They have lots of fun characters and they are under 7.00. Unless he can spit out paste, only use toddler toothpaste with no flouride.
Let him do some of the brushing first and then tell him it is your turn to count teeth. Or make up a fun song to sing while you brush teeth. Once you sing it twice then he is done.
Also, have him brush his teeth in the morning. I let my daughter do her own. I got her a stepstool and some of those small dixie cups and she just thinks it is fun. I let her do it for about 3 to 5 mins and then I just do a quick brush on the back teeth.
The best you can do is just make it part of the routine. Every kid fights it. My daughter says "no teeth brush every night." But she also knows that until it is done, there is no story time.
I would suggest getting your 6month old a tooth brush too and start now so that she is use to it. She will still fight it when she is two, but will be less of a battle.
Good luck to you.

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I feel your pain. What works for us is to see dinosaurs crawling around in his mouth or zoo animals or sea creatures... "How did that whale get in your mouth? Did you eat a whale? I'm gonna get him!! Oh - he's going around the back..."

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Someone else posted this question awhile back and suggested that you tell your son that you are "tickling" his teeth and give each tooth a name (we have grandma, grandpa, dog, cat, elephant, baby, mom, dad, etc). This has worked well for our son (not great, but we can get in there and get the job done). When I tickle his dad tooth his dad comes in and laughs like he's getting tickled when I brush those teeth. I usually ask him what tooth he wants me to brush next and then we do that till the teeth get clean.

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We've had the same problem with our daughter, and there's no one thing that works all the time, so we've tried them all. One of the things that she enjoyed was having a stuffed animal or hand puppet do the tooth brushing. For example, holding a teddy bear's arm in the same hand with the toothbrush, and having teddy talk during the "procedure". Funny voices or sounds can help too. Anything to make it seem fun. It also helped to watch kids programs about tooth brushing. Sesamestreet.com has some good clips- my daughter loved the one where Elmo imagines he has teeth.

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You might try having him brush your teeth while you brush his.

They have mouthwashes for young children that colors their teeth so they can see the 'dirt', reward him when he's able to get all the blue off his teeth, make it a game, you can use the same mouthwash and brush your teeth together. A soft toothbrush is needed for your little guy. You can finish off with a finger tooth brush on your finger to clean his teeth. It's like a rubber tip that has soft rubber bristles on one side.

The necessity of caps may be due to soft or incomplete enamel on his teeth. My brother had teeth like that and he ended up with caps on all his baby teeth, porcelain caps up front and stainless steel caps on his molars. His permanent teeth were just fine. He may have tooth pain because of this anomaly, so using a toothpaste for sensitive teeth may be in order.

Brushing his teeth should be morning and evening events, twice a day. Again, give him behaviors to emulate, like watching you or Dad brush your teeth, do it together. He can't do something he doesn't see others doing.

The general anesthesia observation is heartbreaking, but this is so much easier for him and the dentist. He won't mind the dentist because he won't have pain to associate with the dentist. That was more about you than your son, remember that and don't show your fear when you take him to the dentist. He will pick up on it and fuss for you and him.

It gets better!!! I promise.

My two year old hates brushing his teeth too. I let him "brush" his teeth in the am and he's fine sucking on his toothbrush, and I brush his teeth in the pm to make sure they really get clean. This often turns into a screaming match with me holding him in a vice grip to try and get all the teeth. It's no fun at all. But just recently, I started counting how many teeth he had. He opened right up and let me brush all his teeth without a peep. It worked for a couple nights in a row, but now I need to think of something else to distract him. But try the count your teeth trick--maybe it'll work! Good luck!

Electric brushes are great and may be the way to go. There are a lot of things that have sugar in them for instance breast milk, cows milk, fruit, and dried fruit especially. It is very important to brush your son's teeth two times a day, even if he is screaming (mouth is open then). I know it is hard to watch and hear, but you are the parents and need to let your son know it is going to get done!!! I am sorry if this sounds harsh, but I am a dental hygienist and I hate to see children have to go through what your son has. Try to make it as pleasant as possible (like a game or the mouthwash, both great ideas) but in the end know that he will be ok.
If your 6 mo old girl has teeth start brushing them now. She will become used to it and it won't be as much of a struggle. You can use a washcloth instead of a brush too.
Make sure to take them the dentist regularly and help them brush until they are around 8 years old.
Good luck

I read somewhere once on a board like this about using humor like saying there were suger bugs in his teeth and brushing was the only way to get them out. So with my daughter we would let her attempt to get them and then ask her to open up and show us. Then say there is one and brush, etc. I also got an electric tooth brush that she had fun with and liked that worked for a while. Even now at 3 we have fights over teeth brushing (she wants to do it but doesn't do a great job but then doesn't want us to finish) - so sometimes I ask her to make certain noises while I brush or I say things like there is the cracker, there is the bannana and help her understand that the food she eats leaves stuff in her teeth that needs to come out. Nothing has worked entirely but it gets us through a few nights and then we try some other stuff or go back to sugar bugs. I don't know how old they have to be to use those chew tablets but those are cool becuase they turn your mouth color to show the places you didn't brush well enough.

Breastmilk isn't what caused the front teeth to deteriorate, but nonetheless.

My daughter is almost 2 and we started with teeth brushing being a bit of a battle too. What seems to have finally done the trick is that we brush our teeth with her. For example, she watches me brush while my husband helps guide her hands a bit to brush hers. She is now getting pretty decent at doing it herself (with a lot of positive encouragement from us!!), and will usually let us brush them again when she's done since she doesn't do a great job yet. Somedays she doesn't let us, but most days she does.

With my son who is also 2, we started by having him sit on the counter facing the bathroom mirror and then stood behind him and brushed his teeth so he could watch. Now he faces us and we have him say "EEEEE" so we can brush the front teeth and then "AHHHHH" so we can get the back teeth. I think having him make noises which make his mouth do what we need it to do is easier than telling him to open his mouth.

We play this funny game where I "find" food from the day in my son's teeth then brush them out, then we call the food "naughty" and clap our hands at it. It's hilarious and my son loves the game, as well as gets his teeth brushed.

I would say that first of all forcing him like that is not going to help. He will never develop good habits that way. Why not try a reward system? Every night and morning when he FLOSSES and brushes with a timer for at least 1 1/2 minutes give him a sticker and at the end of the week if he gets all the stickers he gets a PRIZE!! I would even maybe show him the prize at the beginning of the week and then keep talking about it all week to get him really excited about it! He needs to see brushing as a positive experience and something that will be good for him. You could also try showing him pictures of nasty teeth so he can see what happens when you don't have good oral hygeine.

One of my twins would throw a fit when it came time to brush his teeth. I started letting him brush mine first, then I would brush his. We also got a timer the kind with sand in it and made it more fun and play to brush our teeth with the timer. We would do the tops for one min. then flip it over and do the bottoms for one min. This took about 2 weeks and then he loved brushing his teeth and having them brushed by us too. They also have the pre rinse they can swish around and it will show them where all the sugar bugs are at this may make it fun for him too. Good luck to you

i bought a $25 electric baby toothbrush from babies r us. i just give it to my 1yr old to play with and i show him by putting it in my mouth (not touching saliva or anything) and i just let him play with it. and i clap and say "Yay! You're brushing your teeth!" And then when i brush my teeth i give him his toothbrush. he loves it and is growing accustomed to it without being forced. I would back off for a few weeks on forcing him to brush and let him play with the electric brush. also, i give my son a regular tooth brush (baby tooth brush) to play with when he is sitting still. he is fascinated by it but again, i don't force the issue. granted my son is only 1yr but i think 2 is still early enough to let him explore it on his own terms. good luck!!!

I let my daughter pick which toothbrush and toothpaste to use, different characters and flavors help make it exciting.

buy him an electric tooth brush you can get them for $5 to $6. that is what i did for my twins who are now 4 and they love brushing their teeth now. because their teeth were tight together in some places they had to floss too. what works great is those little floss picks. make it a fun for him and let him be involved as much as possible and it will get better.

My daugher Olivia hates brushing her teeth too. Most days we, hold her down. Other days she coooperates. On her iffy days, we tell her that's yucky food stuck in between her teeth, she plays along with naming all the foods she ate that day.

Good Luck!

When we first started brushing, he sat on our lap, but that became more difficult to brush well. We showed him how we brush our teeth many times and he then wanted to do it on his own. We now take turns while he lies down on his changing table. Our now 2 year old "brushes" then it's my turn and then Daddy's turn. We explained to him that if he stays still lying on his back and opens his mouth wide, we can brush his teeth really, really gently. And it works. Then we praise him for being such a good boy and allowing us to brush his teeth so well and very gently. He actually asks us to brush his teeth!

We have gone through something very similar w/our 3 1/2 year old daughter. She has had one filling put in and needs 2 more (also due to nursing...never soda or sugary things). We tried everything to get a good tooth brushing in, as well as flossing and sometimes did have to resort to sitting on her while she screamed which is traumatizing for everyone. My sister-in-law suggested getting one of those toothbrushes for kids that have a battery operated rotating head. They come w/characters on them, cost ~ $6.50 I think and you can find them at places like Fred Meyer. It was the best money I could have spent!! She loves to brush her teeth herself now, sometimes numerous times a day. And she'll let us get in there to make sure all the "sugar bugs" are gone afterwards. We also got a packet of those little flossers and she does the same with those. We all feel SO much better and it makes bedtime run smoothly. Good luck!