How do you get your toddler to brush teeth when they just won't? Scared about tooth decay

My son is in the same boat. But I usually have to hold him in my lap wrap one arm around my back Then in my free hand I show him videos of tooth brushing songs. It distracts him long enough to not scream and refuse me helping brush his teeth. He really likes the Elmo & wiggles tooth brush songs. So that’s been helping. lol he still bites the brush when I do it but I try to tell him to open his mouth and he’ll do it. Then bite the brush again 🫠

Hi hun, don’t stress! I have the same issue with my 21 month old. I found a hack a few months ago that works!!! And now she lets me brush her teeth :)

I sit on the floor with my legs open and then I put her to lay on the floor between my legs so she’s looking up at me behind her, her feet should be facing the same direction as my feet

I put her arms under my legs to stop her from moving them (no force) and then I sing a song relating to brushing teeth and ask her to open her mouth wide “say aaaahhh” and then I praise her for each instruction that she follows.

There’s 1 particular tooth at the back that looks slightly discoloured so I always target that one first, then when I’m done brushing teeth I brush her tongue and ask her to stick it out or to copy me.

To make it more exciting, I then race her to the sink to “rinse and spit” and for this I usually wet the toothbrush and pop it back into her mouth quickly so she gets the water off it and can then spit it back out.

I downloaded a tooth brushing app on my phone and my girls loved it as each time the completed that morning/evenings tooth brushing session they collected a sticker xx

It helps if you can show him and then just get him to copy you… I’ve done this while being heavily pregnant and unfortunately it’s the only thing that works!

Sorry for the lengthy message and I hope it works for you if you do try! Message me if you need to. All the best! 🫶🏽

I let them “brush my teeth” while I brush theirs. It’s cute.

My daughter likes blippi so we play the sugar bugs song by blippi when brushing. We’ve got her a light up tooth brush to make it fun. We have a race when we brush our teeth together to see who can get rid of the sugar bugs first! We also role play dentists, and she will count our teeth and tell us to brush our teeth in the morning and before bed etc and then we repeat that to her when it’s time. Sometimes she’ll brush for 30 odd seconds so then I brush her teeth and let her brush mine (which isn’t pleasant 🤣) x

We watched The Little Mermaid and now I tell her to "sing your song, Scuttle!" And when she's done singing like Suttle, I have her sing like Ariel 😂 she goes from "wahhh wahhh wahhhhhhh!" To "ahhhhh, ahhhh!" 😂😂😂 it works for us. I brush for 20-40 sec and then she gets a turn.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7jvcudN87m/?igsh=MTZjMnJ0eTJ0NTlxeg==

this is cracking me up lol

I do this!! Saw it on insta 😂

Going to the dentist was enough for my independent child to allow me to do some first cos I just say remember what the dentist said - mummy needs to do some first.

I let my daughter play at the sink with a teething toothbrush for a while and then I let her have her real tooth brush. Unfortunately, she still likes to chew on the real tooth brush. She also has to have time to play at the sink or she will try to use her toothbrush on everything else in the bathroom 😅 when it is time to brush her teeth we make eeee and aaaa sounds together and she attempts to brush her teeth. Then I give her my travel toothbrush and let her brush my teeth. After that she will sit on the toilet and let Mommy have a turn and I will fully brush her teeth. Takes a good 5-8 minutes of laughing and such but she will gladly let me brush everything!

Try getting fun toothpaste colors! Or let them pick out the toothbrush at the store! Make it feel like this fun activity!

this is what I was trying to explain in my essay 😅 perfect!

I let my son fake brush his teeth then brushed them myself correctly. He’s now 5 almost 6, and he brushes himself correctly. Allowing them the opportunity to try is important, doing it correctly yourself might be even more. But yea, it’s not really an “option” but I do brush my teeth daily in front of him since he was little to encourage the routine and habit. Shoot, I even let him smell my breath as to encourage him to want to be clean and participate. My son showers himself now too, takes time just also takes patience and repetition.

Super simple song on YouTube to distract her, daddy hold the phone & 2 year old on his lap, he adjusts the angle of the phone as needed so she's looking the right way so I can brush them throughly. I give her the brush at the end & she has a little play at brushing her teeth before I wash the brush & put it away. If we're having difficulties, whenever she does do what we want we massively overpraise her for it & soon she's doing what we want of her own accord.

We play ‘what food did you eat today / what food can I see in your teeth’ which always works to get him to open his mouth, then I just list off food he’s had that I can ‘see’

I tell my daughter to say awwwww and google while I do it making it a game. I think there is also a fun raffi song you could try that’s for brushing teeth