My son, brushing the sides of the tub instead of his teeth
Total mom confession time – My kid’s breath smells like poop. And the title to this post is from a song I remember from some tooth brushing special from when I was little. Nobody wants a yuck mouth!
Like, seriously. His nasty breath is on par with the dogs. I don’t know how to get him to brush his teeth. It’s a constant struggle. At least once a day I sit on him and hold him down and then force him to brush his teeth. Then eventually he will take it from me and agree to chew on the toothbrush. I considered looking for one of those dog toothbrushes that have the three sides so when he chews on it at least he gets some toothbrushing action.
I recall not liking brushing my teeth as a kid. I also pretty vividly recall the gum surgery I had to have in my 20s. I want my child to have good dental hygiene. Much better than mine. He has dental insurance and I did not, so he already has an advantage.
I have no idea how to make this more appealing. I have already tried toothbrushes that flash lights and sing songs. We have one that mimics a light saber, noises and all. It make me want to brush MY teeth for goodness sakes. I have sung songs, bribed with treats (which seems counter-productive), demonstrated on teddy bears, watched the Elmo and Blippy episodes about how awesome tooth brushing is, but it is just not sinking in.
What is the magic secret? How do I keep my kid from having a yuck mouth? Do I just need to relax because they will all eventually fall out anyway?
Mommies HELP…
Categories: Mom Life
Geek Mamas 
Honestly, I don’t know what else you could try 😦 Kids can be pretty strong willed. Once they decide they don’t like something, it’s very hard to get them to do it, till one day they suddenly decide they don’t mind that thing anymore and start doing it on their own. Sigh
I hope your little one reaches the point where he doesn’t hate brushing his teeth soon!
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Me too! It’s such a fight every day.
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Oh goodness, that sucks… Yuck breath, eww!! My 18mo is probably going to fall into this category … because even though she ASKS to brush her teeth, she just sucks her toothpaste off and bites her brush. Yum, toothpaste! … 😦
My only suggestion is a) ask your dentist to have a private sit-down chat with him to impress upon him the need to brush well and what will happen if he doesn’t. (it worked for my daughter to stop thumb sucking!) Then if that doesn’t work, b) remove one toy every time he refuses to brush or purposely doesn’t do a good job. Give the toy back after a week. He should improve pretty quickly!!!
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I brush my teeth with my twins every day, ask them if they can do what I’m doing. Then I let them “check my teeth” before I check (and brush) theirs. It’s a pain in the ass, but it works for my kids.
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He is not impressed when I brush my teeth but maybe letting him check things out would spur some interest. Pretty sure this will lead to dirty toddler hands crammed in my mouth. Hey, whatever works 😂
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I wrote about this not that long ago! I told my daughter that we have to brush the sugar bugs away from her teeth otherwise she couldn’t have “sugar treats”. Not really rewarding for brushing, but if she doesn’t brush she doesn’t get rewards throughout the day. Girl looooves sugar so it was a pretty easy buy in. I just make sure I am really consistent and she got the point pretty quickly.
When she was younger I was able to have her lay with her head in my lap and we chose songs to sing while I brushed her teeth. Distractions are helpful on days when she just doesn’t feel like brushing. I recall one day my husband actually letting her watch Elmo’s song on his phone so I could actually brush her teeth….. kids 🙄
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I totally tried the “sugar bug” reasoning today. It sorta worked! He wasn’t really into it, but he didn’t fight as hard either.
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Does he like scented toothpaste?
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I don’t think he’s into scents yet. I keep trying to get him to smell flowers and pretty sure he’s blowing out instead of sniffing in lol. The one he has now is blue and sparkly and smells fruity. Sometimes I like to use it too 🙂
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I started brushing Scarlett’s ‘teeth’ when she was 6 months old- 4 months before she even got a tooth! We always did it as ‘mum brushes first’ then ‘Scarlett perfects mums brushing’.
I don’t know if it was because we started so early, but I have no problems with getting Scarlett to brush her teeth. I make sure Scarlett watches me do my teeth every day, and often she will brush my teeth for me after I am done (with my toothbrush, of course 😂).
We just upgraded to her first electric toothbrush. The Philips sonic children’s toothbrush. It comes with an app that you download on your phone and connect to the toothbrush via blutooth. Basically, your child gets a fuzzy little creature that you can feed and clothe, but the only way to earn these treats are by brushing his teeth twice a day! as you’re brushing it shows on the screen all the ‘bugs’ you are killing and the teeth turn from slimy green to sparkling white!
Scarlett is obsessed with it and will constantly ask to brush her teeth now! I wonder if an electric toothbrush with an app would entice him to do it?
I also don’t know if it changes anything, but we have always used a kids toothpaste and we call it your ‘teeth treat’. Scarlett will usually suck off the excess toothpaste after I have brushed and then we give her her own toothpaste for her turn. We also make it fun by brushing her tongue and cheeks and sometimes the toothbrush will lose its way and end up on her forehead (we then say ‘OOPS! NAUGHTY TOOTHBRUSH!’ And she laughs her head off).
Although, nothing drives me more mad as when she chews on the toothbrush! It wrecks them within 7 days and I have to buy a new one. So we are in the process of stopping that at the moment- with little success so far!!
I hope something in there helps a little?
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I need to look into the app thing! He is all into my phone and ipad
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Check out the Surround toothbrushes. My daughter cannot stand to have her teeth brushed, anything touching her face, etc. After holding her down and going through hell to brush her teeth, I looked up toothbrushes for kids with sensory issues (not sure that she has them, but I know that oral stuff is a thing and figured there might be something) and found these brushes. They’re basically the dog brushes you mentioned. Kinda pricey for a toothbrush, but SO worth it. She still doesn’t like it, but she puts up less of a fight over it (maybe because it’s different looking, I dunno) and it takes less time.
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oh yes, thank you! I have been meaning to research to see if there is something like the dog toothbrush! I am desperate. The apps worked the first couple times but he’s over it already.
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I just ordered a 4 pack!
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He might be a little young yet for this but my mom had a chart and the first of us to remind her that night that we needed to go brush our teeth for the check mark and at the end of the week or maybe she did 2 weeks at a time, we got a dime for each check mark.
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The only bribes that currently work are chocolate based. And then that ruins the tooth brushing. It’s a vicious circle LOL
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