21 month old HATES having teeth brushed HELP?
My 21 month old hates having his teeth brushed.
I’ve tried all the stupid advice google gives. I’ve let him brush my teeth, sang every song, tried to make it “fun”, etc etc
And sometimes things work for a week… sometimes they don’t work at all.
He needs to have his teeth brushed as he has developed early childhood caries on his front four teeth and we can’t have them filled until he’s 2. I have such immense mom guilt please don’t add to it… the dentist swears I didn’t do anything wrong but it’s hard to not be hard on myself.
Thus, our days start and end with a wrestling match and him screaming & crying while I try to brush his teeth. It’s the WORST part of my day every single day and I need to find a system that works… 3+ more months of this is going to break my heart and destroy my sanity.
Any advice or kind words welcome. I’m struggling.
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That sounds rough mom! I’m sorry it’s so stressful every single night. Here are several things we did to make it a positive experience. He’s still difficult because he won’t let us do much but likes to do it himself!
1. Yummy toothpaste - we have a fluoride one and a non fluoride that way if he wants more “flavor” on his we just add some non fluoride. We buy Bert’s Bee’s Kids strawberry mint (I think that what it’s called) with fluoride. He learned on the strawberry flavored Botao.
2. Fun toothbrush but also effective. We had cute ones that he loved to change between but came to realize she wasn’t getting the top of his mouth so we got some toothbrushes that had bristles that went all the way around like a round hairbrush.
3. Lovevery’s “Bedtime for Zoe” book - my lil guy loved relating to Zoe and we would refer to her often.
4. Elmo & Ms Rachel - YouTube “Brush your teeth” and there are two versions for them to jam to. There are also episodes that they talk about brushing.
I also learned from a lot of research that forcing it physically does not help the cause. I know you are feeling like there is no other choice but we learned that the patience paid off. Maybe you can speak with your pediatric dentist about that part, how necessary it is at this point.
You can get u-shaped tooth brushed that would get all the teeth at once, maybe that would help? If thats too much you can also get smaller ones that get all the sides of one tooth at once. It would atleast(hopefully) get it overwoth faster
Agree with the u shaped toothbrush. I bought them for my 2 & 4 year old. Both hate brushing their teeth but this seems to be working for now. I got them off Amazon for a few dollars and it included a replacement head.
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