My son (2 years old) has two toothbrushes so the debate is now which toothbrush to choose rather than debating whether he wants to brush or not.

wow, what a timely post! it is an all-out brawl sometimes with my 2-year-old. The better moments are when I sing "this is the way we brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth" and brush in time to the music.

One time I was so excited that he stood still for me (total fluke) and I exclaimed, "Mommy's so happy!" so now L calls toothbrush time "Mommy so happy time". Don't know if that story will end up in a therapy session in 30 years, but it works for now :)

We're in the midst of that too. I've heard some kids like the electric tooth brushes, but I havn't found one yet that we like. We may try an Elmo brush, but I fear that she'll still hate it and just want to play with it later!

Electric cartoon toothbrush. Strawberry flavored no-flouride toothpaste. Flossing tool. She lies across my lap with her feet in daddy's lap while I brush and floss, so it's a little easier to see the back teeth, including the upper ones. She gets to hold and use the toothbrush and flosser once Mama's had her turn. Dora sticker rewards once she gives the toothbrush back to Mama. All of this was preceded by some months of her brushing her own emerging teeth at the same time as Mama.

My husband and I are having the worse time too with this. I've been trying everything under the sun! And his 2 1/2 year old status doesn't help, because everything is preceeded by "Me do it! I want to do it!". I've tried different brushes, toothpaste, songs, mirrors, stickers, doing it with him, NOT doing it with him, etc. Am I the only one who has this problem? I'm so afraid he's going to get bad teeth due to this, but aside from holding him down and prying his mouth open, I don't know what else to do!

We are going through the struggles as well. Our two best tips: Taking turns: "Cate's turn. Mommy's turn" Making animal noises. Our daughter is really into animals so we ask her to roar like a lion (or something similar) to open up.

Our Eleanor is pretty good about it but we've made it fun by using animal fun. We'll say "ok let's open up like a big hippo!" t do the front to back and tongue. then "be a tiger" for her to open her mouth in a big smile/growl to do up and down brushing. Then I let her use the tooth brush and feel independent using her brush.

Good luck! (this is not saying we don't occassionally have our refusals though ;)

My son is pretty good about it. It's every third time he decides not too. The trick I used to get him to open & let me do it for him was "can I look for choo choo trains in your teeth" or insert your childs favorite thing. Either he wants to brush his teeth or he wants nothing to do with it. In that case I don't present it as a choice to him. Has to be done and usually we manage.

I tell me daughter that it's time to tickle her teeth, and she opens wide!

Oops, I meant to type "my daughter" not "me daughter." I'm not a pirate.

Ugly electronic Dora toothbrush is what has worked for us. I tried for months with just a plan ol' toothbrush and she wanted nothing to do with it. I splurged and spent the 4.50 on the electronic one and now she will brush her teeth for 5 minutes after I do the first thorough brush.

I second eskkimmo's idea of two toothbrushes to choose from (maybe even a few different toothpastes). Other things that have worked for us:

Show your kiddo a video of a crocodile bird at work, then let the toothbrush be the crocodile bird - this one almost always works

Give him the first turn, then give him the count of five until it's mommy's/daddy's turn

Make your lap the "dentist's chair" (the dentist is still fun at this age) using your arm to lower kiddo into position (of course making fun motorized chair sounds, and calling yourself the Daddy or Mommy Dentist. Lots of compliments on his or her lovely white teeth, how well they've been brushing, etc.

Telling them to say EEEEE for the front teeth and AHH for the back gets the little lips into just the right position.

Firefly toothbrushes light up for just the right amount of time and only cost about $1.

If all else fails...sit on them :)

We take turns too, she goes first. Then I'll say, "Wait, are you sure there's no dinner left in your teeth? What about the PEAS? There might still be some in there!" and then I act like an earnest detective scrubbing the brush around her mouth while she thinks of anything else she ate for dinner. "The strawberries, mommy! Brush the strawberries out too!"

kaleo - don't worry. YOU ARE NOT ALONE! a non-parent friend reminded me...these are their baby teeth, so they will fall out. just thinking that makes me feel a little better on the really bad nights.

i take turns dreading whether each night will be a good night or a bad night. my daughter has incredibly curly (therefore knotty) hair, so i let her brush her teeth while i'm brushing her hair for a few minutes. then it's mommy's turn to help, i try a mixture of "We have to feed Elmo!" (she has an elmo on her toothbrush, so she calls it "Elmo") and telling her to sing her "eeee's" and "aw's" for me.

silly songs and letting him watch in the mirror helped me.. as well as occasionally missing his mouth by "accident" to make him laugh.

oddly enough, my 3-year-old gets a kick out of the following drama, reenacted at each tooth-brushing session:

He proclaims he does NOT need his teeth brushed

He requests that I smell his breath

I oblige, and quickly keel over, saying "WHOA! STINKY BREATH!"

He laughs his tushie off, then picks one of his 2 toothbrushes and brushes for awhile. I finish up.

He requests that I smell his breath

I oblige, and say something funnyish about how fantabulous it is.

I have four kids. We found that taking turns is the way to go. My daughter has a turn, then I have a "do over". Works great.

Great ideas all... I also try to make it something to get excited about by amping him up before hand - I go "GUESS WHAT TIME IT IS?? IT'S TOOTBRUSH TIME!!!!!"

Really I'm just posting to say I have been laughing for 5 minutes saying winivy's post aloud to myself in a pirate voice. "I tell me daughter it's time to tickle her teeth and she opens wide! Yarr!"

Maybe pirate voices could actually be a boon to toothbrush time...

I find it easiest to brush my 2 year old's teeth when he's in the bath. Maybe he's just in the cleaning mood, but it's a breeze.

In the morning, when he's not in the tub, well, that's a different story...

Our two year olds starts, then it's Mama's turn. We have two toothpastes, and four toothbrushes (including one with lights and one electric) so the theater of choosing and applying toothpaste occupies her attention. The fancy ones come out if it's a bad day. We imitate characters from her current favorite book, currently Lion & Mouse (handily!).

We always brush at the exact same time - right after clothes, brush hair, brush teeth. No exceptions. She can help Mama or Mama will do it holding her, but either way her teeth will always be brushed. If she is cooperative, she gets to pick out a sticker.

It was a battle royale for a long time. Tricks come and go. Lately, she appears to have absorbed that it will always happen and is cooperative. We only do the serious brushing in the morning, often we skip evening altogether. One tussle a day is enough for both of us.

For the comment about "they are just baby teeth, they will fall out", I did think that myself but a friend's kid had terrible cavities at three that caused a lot of pain and were obviously traumatic to fix. So lesson learned on my part.

I'm impressed with the commenter who flosses - wow! And your husband is in there helping twice a day every day? I'm going to think about that. Floss...huh. Wow.

Sometimes it works for us, sometimes it doesn't. She sure does love looking at her Elmo toothbrush though!

And I'm also just posting because of winivy's pirate comment. I'm still laughing :)

Thank God those days are past me. I MUST be an older subscriber! This is what you have to look forward to: How to get your teenager to do his Algebra...How to get him to apply to college...How to get him to apply for a job...How to get him interested in having his own apartment!

LOL, I'm not sure what is worse--brushing the teeth of a 2 year old or algebra. We've only recently developed a problem with our youngest. She used to love to brush her teeth, and would even lead me to the bathroom in the middle of the day and demand I brush them. Also, she would refuse to surrender the toothbrush. Now, she fights me and I basically sit on her. I'm going to try some suggestions tomorrow!

Our little man got his first tooth at 2 months. We've been brushing his teeth on and off since he was 1 year (he's got a full set minus the molars).
Now at 16 months he won't let us near him unless he is doing it himself, and then he tries to walk around the house "brushing his teeth" by swishing it around and then chewing on it for about a half an hour. Getting it away from him results in copious tears and pleas of "peasse peaaase!" (please) to give it back to him...

I was really hoping to hear that by 2 he'd be more amenable to it... *sigh*

We play "Mr Toothbrush". Mr Toothbrush (your brush of choice) talks to my daughter about all the food he can find in her teeth and brush away. Sometimes we pretend to guess all kinds of crazy food. It can be rather tiring after a long day, putting on a silly voice and becoming a talking toothbrush, but it beats a tantrum about it! Sometimes whoever is on brushing duty will call out as Mr Toothbrush from the bathroom and get my daughter all excited about teeth cleaning time.

Before that we would get her to pretend to be different animals and she would make the sounds...grrrr or eeeeee = front teeth, aahhhhh = rest of teeth

Oh, the lengths we go to!

What used to be a fight every single night is smooth sailing because one night my wonderful husband said "Oh no! I see a digger in your mouth!". That made my son open as wide as could be and from that moment on there was no fighting.

For my spirited daughter, it works 90% of the time- "Oh- Daddy's in your mouth I need to get him out!". The other 10% of the time we have to do it together, she has to do it "myself" or, on the rare nights, I have to hold her down and brush them. After holding her down, I just have to remind her the next night how much she hated it and she usually opens up as wide as can be.

My 3 year old son loves to play pretend whenever possible. I pretend to be the "lady dentist", and he will happily open wide for me! Another thing that helped a lot was actually talking to him about WHY we need to brush. Once he realized that he could get a yucky brown spot on his teeth, he was much more willing to comply. It may not work with younger toddlers, but it worked with my son around 2.5 years old.

Have the kid kneel between your knees facing AWAY from you and then get them to lean their head back toward you and open up. Seriously. You can see all their teeth and brush them more easily without poking them and making it sore. The kid also thinks it's funny if you make it silly.

I either let them do it their-self before or after this so they get practice too, but this let's me get all the teeth clean and I can SEE what I am doing.

My dentist recomended it years ago with my oldest and it was the single greatest toothbrushing tip I ever got.

But what do you do if your kids are really young / small and don't understand reasoning / treats / etc?
Our twins are 10 months old and don't like it anymore.
Any advice welcome ... ;-)
Satasha

when little belly wont brush his teeth by himself, i hold him down and do it myself lol. maybe i should try some of these more peaceful techniques...