How to Brush Your Toddler’s Teeth Without a Fight
By the time your kid reaches the toddler stage, child psychology experts would say that this is the time when they start to resist and challenge their boundaries. Hence, the once easy task of brushing your kid’s teeth when they were still a baby is gone. Now brushing your toddler’s teeth has become a struggle.
Our family struggled with this too. After trying different tips and tricks from various articles and videos, here’s a list of things that actually worked for us. Here are 6 tips on how to brush your toddler’s teeth when they refuse.
Demonstrate how you brush your teeth
This is the time to get fun and animated, parents! When our boy refuses to let us brush his teeth, he usually says, “papa first!”. He likes to see and understand what happens when it’s time to brush his teeth.
So we bring him to the bathroom and we brush our teeth while animatedly narrating each and every step. We smile and laugh and make an event out of it. He eventually started to look forward to brushing his teeth because he now feels like it’s such a fun part of his day.
Take turns
Our boy started learning about how taking turns work as we try to teach him how to share. When someone’s using a toy he wants to play with, we tell him that he needs to wait for his turn first. When he’s also still using a toy and someone wants to grab his toy, we calmly tell him that it’s okay. The kid just wants to borrow his toy and when he’s done with it, he could hand it over and it could now be the other kid’s turn.
This taking turns conversation also helped us with getting him to brush his teeth. We would playfully pretend to brush his stuffed toys teeth — “it’s Pikachu’s turn! Now it’s Dino’s turn. And now it’s your turn!”. He absolutely loves this game plus it reminds him about how taking turns work.
Face the mirror
When kids or even us as adults don’t understand what’s happening, we don’t like it. It makes us feel uncomfortable. Facing the mirror let’s him see and understand what’s happening to his mouth and teeth. It makes him feel safe, in control and even entertained.
Make vowel sounds
Of course when you brush your toddler’s teeth, you want to be thorough and get to each and every nook and cranny. But getting them to open wide or expose their teeth can be a struggle.
If your child is already starting to talk and shows some interest in learning the alphabet and their sounds, you can use this to your advantage. When our boy learned the vowel sounds, we would review them in the bathroom while brushing his teeth. To open wide, we’d ask him to do the “ahhh” sound. Then the “eeeeh” sound to brush the front of his teeth.
Give them choices
Psychology experts say that toddlers want to have choices because they want to feel in control. While keeping some hard rules and boundaries, it’s encouraged to give your toddlers the chance to make his or her own little choices like what to wear or which toy to bring in the car.
We bring this practice with us when it’s time to brush our toddler’s teeth. We keep 2 toothbrushes with different colors on our bathroom counter and he gets to choose which toothbrush he would like to use each time.
This small gesture helps him feel involved in the process and in control. It just helps him stay calm and enjoy the activity more.
Here are some great options for your toddler’s toothbrush. Go show these to them and let them choose!
Dr. Brown's Infant-to-Toddler Training Toothbrush Set from amazon.com
Colgate My First Baby and Toddler Toothbrush from amazon.com
Oral-B Kids Toothbrush from amazon.com
Use a yummy toothpaste
We all know that taste is a big deal for kids. If something doesn’t taste good, it’ll be very, very difficult to ask your child to cooperate. Remember the time you had to give your kid medicine?
It’s the same with toothpaste. Letting them use a yummy toothpaste just helps. I remember my kid sucking on the toothbrush and satisfyingly saying “ahhhhh” while rubbing his belly and smiling.
Of course it’s important to choose an age appropriate toothpaste that is safe for kids to swallow. Here are some very reliable options.
Dr. Brown's Baby Toothpaste, Strawberry Flavor from amazon.com
Hello Natural Watermelon Flavor Kids Fluoride Free Toothpaste from amazon.com
Jack N' Jill Kids Natural Toothpaste from amazon.com
Orajel Kids Paw Patrol Fluoride-Free Training Toothpaste from amazon.com
Getting your toddler to want to brush his teeth can be a constant struggle. At this stage, they test their boundaries and learn to say no a lot. But with some knowledge on why toddlers act the way they do and by adding a bit of fun and entertainment, you can get them to look forward to brushing their teeth.
