Teeth cleaning
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Category: Have A Baby?
Forum Name: Toddler Times
Forum Description: Is bubs growing up and getting into everything? How do you train them to use the potty? When do you start feeding solids? Share your tips and advice here!
URL: https://www.ohbaby.co.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=39427
Printed Date: 09 August 2025 at 4:02am
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Topic: Teeth cleaning
Posted By: kezza2112
Subject: Teeth cleaning
Date Posted: 03 June 2011 at 8:01am
| How do you clean your toddlers teeth? Mr 15 months won't let me near his mouth with a toothbrush. I want to obviously get a good habit going so don't want to pin him down to do it. Help!!! |
Replies:
Posted By: gooseychew
Date Posted: 03 June 2011 at 9:00am
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Sometimes you just have to pin them down i've found. DD is fine with her molars and bottom teeth but top front teeth she hates having cleaned. We have a "you can do it the easy way or the hard way" conversation every night. Mornings i let her brush her own teeth (chew on the toothbrush) and the sweet baby colgate helps. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: LeeG
Date Posted: 03 June 2011 at 11:25am
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Unfortunately I quite often have to pin down miss 23 months, by that I mean, I hold her firmally and dh brushes her teeth ... we try to do this once a day, but sometimes we also just let her "brush" her own teeth ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: High9
Date Posted: 03 June 2011 at 11:44am
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I just give her the tooth brush and let her go wild... I scrub mine at the same time and she just copies, yeah she probably doesn't do the best job but she's happy and sometimes she lets me 'show' her too. So better than nothing. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: MamaT
Date Posted: 03 June 2011 at 2:22pm
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I've been giving DS a toothbrush to play with since he was about 6monyhs, he loves brushing his teeth luckily, although probably doesn't do the best job. We do it together which works well as he's recently started copying everything I do.
I have heard some mums use a muslin cloth to give the teeth a wipe. -------------  
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Posted By: kezza2112
Date Posted: 03 June 2011 at 2:31pm
| OOhhh..its a bit hard to negotiate with Mr 15 months as he can't talk yet. I'm petrified of him having rotten teeth!! I've tried the muslin thing but that doesn't help. We have dental visit coming up soon....so hope she can help :) |
Posted By: catisla
Date Posted: 03 June 2011 at 3:16pm
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i found that doing our teeth together while looking in the mirror worked ------------- |
Posted By: High9
Date Posted: 03 June 2011 at 8:54pm
I am petrified too as my parents weren't super strict about it so as a kid I'd often fib about it and I have quite a few fillings as a result! Another good thing I've found is we do baby sign language so I often sign to her that we're going to brush our teeth and she gets quite excited about it and signs it back. Another thing - could you distract him and maybe sing to him and then scrub teeth at same time?? ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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kezza2112 wrote:Posted By: Mum_mum
Date Posted: 03 June 2011 at 10:02pm
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I sing a song to DD "this is the way we brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth, this is the waay we brush our teeth before we go to bed/music/swimming"
Its really helped, she hated getting her teeth brushed before that, probably at the same age your son is but once I started singing she knows that its time to brush them, and yes sometimes I have hold her down (I put her on my lap and lean her back to one side) but shes generally pretty good now. Sometime she finds really funny at the moment is brushing her tounge which we make a game of as well  ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
 Angel baby - May 2008
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Posted By: AandCsmum
Date Posted: 03 June 2011 at 10:24pm
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My girl HATES cleaning her teeth, still will avoid it like the plague...her brother on the other hand LOVES cleaning his teeth.
I have no idea why each is like they are but they are. She's hated cleaning her teeth since really little & I used to have to pin her down to do it. ------------- Kel http://lilypie.com"> 
A = 01.02.04 & C = 16.01.09 & G = 30.03.12 |
Posted By: kathamill
Date Posted: 04 June 2011 at 2:05am
Give him a bit more credit, as a nanny I found you can negotiate with children as young as 8 months. And that was not the exception either. With my own DD have found that I can negotiate very well with her at nearly two, because I have done it since she started moving (6months old). A baby/child will only know as much vocab as you use with him. Give him a chance and you'll find he will understand a heck of a lot more than you think... HTH |
Posted By: kathamill
Date Posted: 04 June 2011 at 2:32am
| And by negotiate, I don't mean a full on debate, I mean giving them a choice of them doing it or you. Eg when my DD was learning which drawer in the kitchen was 'hers', and be rifling thru a different drawer, I would give her the choice of her moving herself, or choosing for me to move her. So it was not negotiable that she move, just the process of. |
Posted By: notenufchaos
Date Posted: 05 June 2011 at 7:54pm
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if my dd is being difficult i get her to pretend to be an animal like a tiger etc... and tell her to roar as loud and as long as she can lol she loves it and opens her mouth nice and wide for me
although both my girls 3 and 16 months love getting there teeth brushed i always have a turn either before them or after and dont have a problem except when teething ------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow">  DD 1-25/05/2008 DD 2-2/2/2010 |
Posted By: Tigerish
Date Posted: 05 June 2011 at 8:12pm
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We brush DS's teeth in front of a small mirror. This works quite well (we used to have major problems before this). Once I'm done, DS gets a go himself. Seems to work! ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: MrsH
Date Posted: 05 June 2011 at 9:06pm
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We do it in front of the mirror just before bed (as part of our routine) and I get him to open his mouth as wide as possible (AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH) and then I get the sides and then I get him to EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE and I do the front. He's pretty good and enjoys looking in the mirror when we do it.
We don't spit yet but we're working on it. He knows to T-t-t-t at the sink so that's a start. ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: HoneybunsMa
Date Posted: 07 June 2011 at 3:27pm
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DD loves brushing her teeth to the point I try to hide if I'm in the bathroom doing my hair or something as thats long enough for her to come in grab the stool climb up and demand her toothbrush.
It just became part of her night routine that she would run to the bathroom for which was super cute! Now she won't let me help her at all, and she asks that I brush my teeth with her. I did used to stand her on the bench so she could see when I brushed her teeth and this helped abit ------------- http://www.myfitnesspal.com/weight-loss-ticker"> 
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Posted By: Dani08
Date Posted: 07 June 2011 at 8:00pm
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I found a 5 minute cartoon of "Crawford the cat" brushing his teeth on youtube really helped getting my DD into it. We used to get her toothbrush and watch it together, and she just started copying him. I guess it's all about making it fun... ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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