How often does your toddler brush his/her teeth?

[thomma]

You are not the only one. We brush almost every day. For us it became a control issue so ds and dd brush their teeth by themselves every morning without any help and at night they brush then dh or I step in to finish the job. It's gotten much better as we inch closer to turning 4.

Kim
ds&dd 5/03

[KrisM]

DS loves to brush his teeth. He won't let us help though. So, he does it about 3-4 times a day and I figure if I can help a couple times a week, it's probably okay. Until about 2.5 he let us help, so I hope that comes back again.

[gatorruth]

Our pediatric dentist told us that he should brush his teeth in the AM and a parent should brush them at night, to really clean them, as a 3 yr old doesn't have the coordination (or mindset) to do a good job by themselves. It takes 24 hrs for plaque to form on teeth, so if a good job brushing is done once a day, that's good for now.

HTH!
Ruth
DS 5/03
DD 3/06

[dr mom]

We brush every night before bed. At first there were nights DS was so opposed to brushing that I had to literally sit on him to get the job done, but after a couple weeks of struggling, he seemed to accept that toothbrushing was non-negotiable. An electric toothbrush helped. I also keep a toothbrush in the kitchen, and he brushes by himself a few mornings a week, when I remember.

When DS brushes his own teeth, he's mostly just chewing the brush and licking off the toothbrush, so I don't feel too guilty if I forget to have *him* brush. ;)

[dhano923]

My 3 yr old hates to brush his teeth. I've gotten him fancy toothbrushes (we current have a battery powered Cars one), all types of toothpaste and even tried bribery but getting him to brush his teeth is a losing battle. He used to love brushing his teeth when he was younger but these past 3 months or so have been difficult. There are some days when I just give in because we are running late or I just can't deal with the arguments. Please tell me I'm not the only one!

[julieakc]

This is a battle for us too, but DS is prone to tooth decay therefore I have to fight the battle and do it. He's actually gotten much better the last couple months, and another jump in cooperation the last couple of weeks.

Generally we just brush his teeth every night before bed, but every once in a while I'll brush them during the day too.

And yes we've got all sorts of brushes and various toothpastes...none really seem to have helped. But if DS's behaviour is any indication there may still be hope for you...I can't pin DS's recent cooperation on anything particular, one day I just realized that the task of brushing teeth hadn't been a big battle for a while.