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I feel a bit silly writing this but need to ask - how often should we be brushing a 15 month olds teeth? DS cannot stand his us even looking into his mouth and we're struggling to brush his teeth even once a day. Should we be forcing the issue? Or is it okay to be relaxed about it at this age?
I would be encouraging twice a day if you can?
I gave the boys a toothbrush to play with in the bath and that worked a treat. Try a nice tasting toothpaste, you can get good ones from the Health food shops, think it's called Happy Jaws?? I was just there and can't rememember Lol!
Thanks Heather I'll check out the health food shop this week. Yeah he happily chews on his toothbrush in the bath, it's just when it comes to actual brushing by mum or dad he freaks out!
What about rubbing his teeth with a wet facewasher just until he gets the hang of it? My DD2 has only just started letting us brush her teeth at 19 months x
I only do it once a day (before bed) but have been thinking I should do it more...
I forgot I wrote this! Nice toothpaste hasn't helped, he'll happily eat it though!
Facewasher is a great idea, thanks MS. Might be less scary.
Heva we were brushing in the bath (or trying too) but are now doing (trying!) twice a day now he has more teeth. Not that I think it's actually doing anything at the moment LOL.
DS1 still doesnt let us really brush his teeth, he has his toothbrush to chew on while we do our teeth, after we finish we try and do his and dont generally get to far before he clamps mouth shut.
We only generally get to try once a day in the morning.
we brush our 16mths DS's twice a day, after breakfast and before bed. It took a while to get him to actually get the motion right. I started sitting him on the bench while I brushed my teeth, let him hold his brush, and just cause he wanted to copy he would put his brush into in his mouth and I would move it around. Takes a while to get a good clean going but now he opens when I say "aaaah" and laughs when I get his tongue. I still have to hold his brush and move it though.
Have you tried turning it into a game? DD has always loved it when i 'accidentally' find some food she has eaten that day, i will say something silly like 'huh? is that a whole sausage in there?', 'ooh look, its that watermelon you had for morning tea!'. It always makes her laugh and she opens wider and i can get in there.
TBH at this age a chew is better than nothing at all! he will get there eventually, otherwise try one of the cheap kids electric brushes that play music
The last time I saw my dentist, I had P with me...she would have been about 13/14 months old.
Dentist said not to use any toothpaste under 2 years old, but do try to brush twice a day. Gave me a free kid's tooth health pack with a little brush and everything.
Maybe give your dentist a call and go pick up a pack?
PS - we started out with one of those packs of 3 tiny toothbrushes in 3 different stages - 6-9 months, 9-12 and 12+ and she's now on a normal kid's toothbrush.
We have the same problem here. We 'brush' twice a day and she gets excited about chewing on the brush herself, but the moment we touch the toothbrush it's full on tanti-time. I insist sometimes, but not all the time, especially when I can see red swollen gums from teething.