3 Yr Old and Teeth Brushing

I am going thru the same thing with my 2 1/2 year old, what is working now is for him to brush his own teeth and to show me how many bubbles he can make. So far so good. I also asked the dentist for tricks and they suggested that I let him brush my teeth and than have him let me brush his teeth.

good luck
K.

Hello Jen,
What a hassle it is when kids do not want to cooperate, when we only want the best for them. If you make a huge deal about stuff, and hold them down to get it done, they are going to resist you every time. So maybe (if you haven't tried it already) try geting everyone in the house to brush their teeth in front of your son, and have them make it look fun. Don't give him his tooth brush, let him get it on his own. Kids love to imitate who they look up to. You can use reverse sicolegy to get 3 year olds to do almost anything. I hope this helps. A. Z

Hi Jen,
It's pretty common and don't worry too much as long as he is drinking water after eating something specially at night and rinses well, it should be fine. It is not the good brushing but good eating habits that keep teeth healthy. I took my 5yr old for first densit appt and his teeth are perfectly fine. I know many good brushers who live on sugary juices than water and of course have cavities and other issues.

As for getting my son to brush, we usually make some funny songs about brushing saying up & down, top and bottom, front and back. We set up alarm for 2 minutes and either me or my husband brush with my son to get in competition who brushes first. At times, we all have same type of brush. We say bye to germs and say funny things like look germs are having party in our mouth, we better get them out or they won't leave and we take brush rounds to see if any left behind. Hope that helps.
-Rachna

I see you have a lot of replies, so sorry if this is a repeat! We just got our 4 year old an electric spiderman toothbrush. He loves brushing his teeth now. My husband and I also have an electric toothbrush, so I think he likes being like us. You could also try brushing your teeth at the same time and have a contest with it. Good luck!

AAWWW I might be able to help you here. My sonw as the same way and our dentist taught me how to help him to brush his teeth. Make it a game. Tell him you will count ten and when you are done counting give him his tooth brush and have him count to ten, or you can count yourself. Here is the mommy trick when you are brushing drag your numbers OOOOOONNNNNEEEEEEE TTTTTTTWWWWOOOOOOOO ect. When he has the tooth brush you count a little faster. He just wants to hear the 10. After that give him a sticker and make it a reward system for him. GOOD LUCK!

When my son was around that age I used to get a Spiderman toothbrush and tell him that Spiderman was fighting the bad guy "germs" in his mouth.

Lots of good ideas. I would say don't make this one a power struggle. Right now more than anything you should be trying to establish a good habit, not create a bad image around the idea of tooth brushing.

With that said, three year olds are wanting to be independent at least mine does. Sometimes all it takes for us is that the tooth brushing is his idea. Sometimes it is the choice of which toothbrush he uses (he has 3--electric, one with a firefly-type flashing end and his original toddler toothbrush.

Then I do my turn, your turn. Which means he takes a turn at trying to brush his teeth, then mommy takes a turn.

Also, he learned a song about a pet gorilla named matilda who sings "EE EE EE OO OO OO EE EE EE OO OO OO" etc. and I have him make those sounds and the ahh sound while we're brushing--good ways to get oral motor going on while getting the teeth clean.

Hope these suggestions and the others help out.

My son went throught that phase as well. Now he prefers me to brush his teeth. I think I got him through it by telling him that if he doesn't get his teeth brushed he will not have a bed time story.
As for the dentist, your son is probably going to be ok cavity wise, unless he drinks lots of sugary juices, etc.
My dentist said he wouldn't expect cavities until they go to school. The sugary juice boxes are the usual culprits for these youngsters

Dear Jen,
Electric toothbrushes are the best things ever invented. My kids finally looked forward to brushing. That, and telling them that toothpaste washed away the cavity bugs. They both loved bathing and showering and I told them "washing" their teeth was all part of it, just like cleaning their ears. I also told my kids that if they had any candy or popsicles or sugar, they had to brush right afterwards. You'd be surprised how many times when it came to brushing after a cupcake, (or whatever), they decided just not to have the cupcake in the first place.
You have a dental appointment coming up, so ask your dentist. There are lots of videos for kids on the subject.
Going to the dentist can be another whole issue in and of itself. Hopefully, there are no cavities to deal with and you can find a way that works to get your kid on the hygeine track with his teeth.

If you are taking him to a pediatric dentist, they will help you with some ideas on getting him to brush although there are a lot of good ones here already. An electric toothbrush with a favorite character on it and his own "special" toothpaste will help. However, your dentist will likely tell you that you need to assist him with brushing for a couple more years, so if you brush with him and take turns brushing each others' teeth, that works best. Since going to the dentist my daughter and is more concerned about "cavity bugs", which is the term the dentist uses. We also talk about bad breath and how the cavity bugs cause bad breath and make holes in the teeth that can be owie if we don't brush them out. Do your best. I hope your son likes the dentist...my daughter loves to go, she asks when we are going to see the tooth doctor and always hugs her when she comes in to look at her teeth. Good luck!

Like many things with 3 year olds it's really easy for things to become a power struggle. While yes it is important to brush your teeth these are only the baby teeth so you have time for training. Sitting on him to accomplish this really is turning this into more then it needs to be. I think you need to start over with your tooth brushing training. But this is going to require you to back off a bit and it may take a while for him to relize your not going to fight him anymore. Get him a really cool electric brush and invite him to join you while you brush yours. Ask if you can look for suger bugs in there.Maybe even let him brush your teeth. With my daughter we search for princesses or dora and deigo. I zoom around her mouth trying to catch each character and tickle it(which is really brushing a certain area of her mouth for a period of time) and once I get one she spits them out. We have a lot of fun with this.You need to lighten up the mood around this daily job. There was a saying I learned in college, "success is to win the child over not win over the child". It might take a little longer but you'll all be happier. Be prepared that the trip to the dentist might not go so well. If he dosn't like you brushing his teeth he's not going to like a stranger in there. If it isn't going well just let it go. give this sometime to change . If your paying out of pocket for this visit I would even consider rescheduling for a couple months down the road and see if you can improve his relationship with the toothbrush. I hope this helps, Best wishes.

Jen,
My first son loved to brush his teeth and I thought this would be the same for my second son but boy was I wrong. It was a struggle from the first time I put a toothbrush in his little mouth until about a month ago. My dentist said that you HAVE to brush his teeth so start off trying to make it fun, electric toothbrush, games, a reward, singing and when the song is finished you are done brushing your teeth (I used Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and I sang slowely) but if that still didn't work he said you just have to sit on him and get it done. I hated doing it but knew it was best for him.
The thing that worked for us was everytime we would go outside I pointed out all the bugs we saw and told him not to touch them, they were 'yucky'. Then at night I'd ask him if he saw any bugs in my mouth (i'd eat something like a poppy seed muffin or broccoli so he could see some 'bugs') then we would brush my teeth until they were all gone. Then it was his turn. I'd say "oh no! I see a bug in your mouth!" Then that bug would move all over his mouth and I'd chase it. I know it sounds crude but we made it fun and now we just say instead of brusing our teeth we go brush our bugs away. Good Luck!!

I saw on Nanny 911 (or one of those shows) where the nanny gave each kid their own little mirror that sits on the table and their own tooth brush, then they could look at do it themselves. It looked like a good idea.
My daughter is 18 months and what works for us (on those nights she just doesn't want it done, which are most nights) if I used her stuffed bunny (her BFF) and have the bunny hold the tooth brush, she seems OK with the brushing.
Have fun at the DDS =O)

Try making up a teeth brushing song. He may enjoy that and cooperate more.

Here are a few suggestions for you to pick and choose from:

Try a simple turn-over egg timer, which they sell with toothbrushes these days. Along with a fun new brush and cartoon character toothpaste, he might see it as something fun and special.

See if he'll have a "race" with you or his big step-brother to see who can get their teeth the shiniest. Try a sticker chart for afterwards and give him a little prize when he's done ten or so brushings (like every four or five days).

Or make it a family affair and sing the "Brush your teeth" song all together for a while at least, so he sees how fun it is.

It sounds like it's become a control issue between the two of you. If he senses you're not quite so determined to get him brushing by any means necessary, he just might let up and stop being so resistant.

Good luck