Teeth Brushing?

[Rochelle]

My son is 14 months old and recently he's wanted to take control of brushing his own teeth, now I wouldn't have a problem with that except for the fact that he just CHEWS on the brush as opposed to brushing. For a few weeks I was able to get away with "let mama brush first, then it's your turn" and then would let him "brush" on his own once I got some brushing in, now he refuses to open his mouth unless the brush is in his hand and if I try to do it with him he won't let me. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Connie1222]

Why don't you try the opposite, let him brush by himself for a little while, then you take over? Sorry I don't have better advice, Jack also just chews on the brush so I brush his teeth first, then let him chew.

[Dennis]

We let Joe brush first and then we brush. Sometimes he's reluctant to let us so we tell him that if he wants a bedtime story he has to let us do it and that usually does the trick.

Dennis

[TtownAnne]

Two toothbrushes! Let him hang on to one, but then he's got to agree to open wide enough for you to get yours in. Works the same as two spoons when they start wanting to feed themselves.

[Tara]

I was going to say the exact same thing as Anne! Tyler has "his" brush and I have "mine". The hard part is when he wants both brushes in his mouth at the same time!
It works awesome!!

[Rochelle]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try the 2 toothbrush thing tonight and see how that goes!

[kalm]

I have twins and have tried the two toothbrush thing...which means we have four toothbrushes going at once. Problem is, they want to hold all of them (all four of them!). I make it a bit of a game. They get to brush my teeth, I brush theirs, they brush each others. They end with everyone brushing their own tongue (which they started doing after watching me do it in the mornings!). I also have a set of toothbrushes in my bathroom, so whenever I brush, they brush too.

[Rochelle]

I tried it last night and as you said kalm he wanted to hold BOTH of them and anytime I tried to stick it in his mouth he wanted to hold it. I did get some more brushing out of it than usual so we'll just have to keep at it.

[Dawnie]

Victoria did the same thing with her toothbrush at that age and I mentioned it to the pediatrician. He said if she won't let my brush but just chews on it that it's fine. So what I did was let her chew on it while I dried her hair then I took it and did my best to make sure they all got brushed. One day I decided to brush my teeth at the same time and try showing her how to do it. I said "See, Victoria. Brush like mommy." She would imitate me and did a pretty good job on her own teeth. Alex is now doing it too!

[Karly]

What worked for us was an electronic Scooby Doo toothbrush.

[Rochelle]

Hmm, that's a good thought, he loves watching me when I use my electric one...

[Karly]

The nice thing about the electronic one is that you don't have to do the work. Even if it's in his mouth for 20 seconds, that brush has gone up and down a bunch of times cleaning his teeth.

Plus, if your little guy is as fascinated as my guy with how things work, he'll love it!

[Nicole]

Abby has an electric toothbrush too. What we do is whichever one of us is in with her, morning or night, brushes their teeth while she brushes hers, then when we're done with ours she hands over the brush and we go over hers, she thinks it's fun. I know that's not too helpful, but we found that doing ours at the same time really helps because she tends to enjoy immitating us.

[Kris]

Originally Posted by Karleigh

What worked for us was an electronic Scooby Doo toothbrush.

We tried this with Emma except cookie monster and she is scared of it

[Haley]

Nolan chews his toothbrush too. He loves the electric one, but sometimes he chews too hard and it quits working. Recently I've tried standing him up where he can see himself in the mirror and make faces at himself while I brush his teeth. It's working so far. :

[Brandi]

Tonight, Carter didn't want to let me brush his teeth after he did, so I explained how his teeth would get owies if he didn't let me brush them. He actually let me brush them then. WEIRD. I don't know if it will work for you, or for me again for that matter. But, you never know!

[Kris]

Originally Posted by Karleigh

What worked for us was an electronic Scooby Doo toothbrush.

we tried this but with cookie monster and she was scared of it

[tinycandi]

Originally Posted by Rochelle

My son is 14 months old and recently he's wanted to take control of brushing his own teeth, now I wouldn't have a problem with that except for the fact that he just CHEWS on the brush as opposed to brushing. For a few weeks I was able to get away with "let mama brush first, then it's your turn" and then would let him "brush" on his own once I got some brushing in, now he refuses to open his mouth unless the brush is in his hand and if I try to do it with him he won't let me. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Aubry did that...at about the same age.
I just let her brush her teeth...I would try to push my way through to brush her teeth if I could.
But she outgrew it. Now she loves for me to brush her teeth.

I let her watch me brush my teeth often...and she wants me to brush her teeth like I brush mine. So...maybe try that for awhile? She had to watch me several times before she was interested enough for me to brush her teeth for her.

[Mary DK]

We have two toothbrushes for Eliot... one regular & one electric one. He likes to use the regular so I let him "brush" his teeth with it while I brush mine (he tries to imitate me) and then I do a quick go over with the electric one... it works pretty much all the time.