Oh, the joy of having a 2-year-old. I was chatting with a friend on the phone tonight, sharing a story about an event that happened earlier in the day. My 2-year-old, like all 2-year-olds, is striving for independence and control. She is all about doing everything herself, regardless if she can actually get the results intended. This, of course, causes frustration and mess more than anything so it’s a dance between us, her parents, and herself and her need to gain the independence that a 2-year-old needs.
One area that’s a common battle-ground for parents is tooth brushing and oral care. However, if you start early demonstrating good oral hygiene skills, this will go a long way to achieving a healthy mouth as they grow. It’s not always easy, of course (when is parenting ever easy?!) but here are my top 5 tips for tooth brushing with toddlers that will carry over to great tooth brushing with older kids too.
1) Did you know that a child should not be brushing their teeth themselves until they are able to write (not print, write!) their name? According to the Canadian Dental Association, while you can do the brushing for them at an early age, you should still supervise brushing and check to ensure they are doing a good job up until this point.
2) Model good behavior! If you’re following the guidelines of brushing for 2-3 minutes, twice per day, for your children – mom and dad should be doing the same. Let them observe how long you brush, how you ensure to get those back teeth as well, and how you floss!
3) Choose a soft-bristled toothbrush for kids, and for younger children like my 2-year-old above a character toothbrush like her Dora toothbrush from Colgate with an easy to hold handle makes everyone happy! My 5-year-old loves her new Littlest Pet Shop themed vibrating toothbrush and Barbie toothpaste. Replace your child’s toothbrush every 3 months or after an illness.
4) Use only a pea-sized amount of toothpaste and of course teach children not to swallow the toothpaste. I’ve found that using the minty toothpaste helps in this regard (as the bubble-gum and other flavors are more appealing to swallow) but if your child is able to resist the temptation, using a fun character toothpaste like this Barbie toothpaste makes the whole process more appealing for sure.
5) Remember it’s not about winning the battle, it’s about winning the war! Especially when dealing with toddlers, establish from the beginning that brushing their teeth is non-negotiable and that mom or dad needs to help. We start out brushing our two-year old’s teeth and then allow her to brush which really just means she brushes for a bit and chews on the toothbrush for awhile. The photo below was taken today. Remember the story I was sharing with a friend about my independent-toddler? This is what happened when I was insisting that I brush her teeth first. So, I walked out of the room and we tried again 10-minutes later. Winning the war. 😉
Want to see more pictures from my #CBias shop at Shoppers Drug Mart? Check out my Google+ album here!
I let them brush while I brush. that way they learn to spit the toothpaste not swallow because they copy me. then I say “okay time for mom to double check how good you did.” that way they get their “me do it” out of their systems and it’s no fight at all when i go in there. i found it was too much biting of the brush when i tried to be the first one in there.
the biggest problem we have is with “not swallowing”. Maybe I need to try your approach… Now I wish we didn’t get rid of the 2-nd sink in our bathroom…
I have never had troubles getting my kids to brush their teeth, but I do have problems getting them to brush all of their teeth. I bargain with them. They let me brush for 30 seconds, then they can brush for the rest, and see how far they can spit the water in the sink when they spit. Might make a mess, but at least their teeth will be clean.
I still can’t get my 3 year old to stop swallowing the toothpaste (we’re still using non-fluoridated for that reason)! I haven’t tried the mint though.
What works for us to get her to let us brush her teeth for two minutes is to count her teeth s-l-o-w-l-y. We count in English, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese, and she loves picking which languages we’re going to count her teeth in that night. Plus now she can count to 20 in 5 languages!
Thank you so much for sharing these tips! They’re brilliant! My kid used to swallow the toothpaste after brushing too but the swallowing stopped when we started brushing together at the same time. I always tell him to copy what I do and so far, he’s doing a great job. 🙂
I remember with our kids that one of the biggest challenges, once they had agreed to brush in the first place, was to discourage them from brushing too hard, and in the wrong way ie across their teeth. I’m told this runs the risk of wearing the enamel along the gum line. It was quite a battle to get them to just brush into the gaps between teeth and gently across the tops of the back ones.
So cute, I think it’s important to show them how to brush early and in a good way as soon as possible, as they tend to eat more sugar at that age, and teeth are still sensitive!
My daughter has never had cavity and she is 29. start them as early as possibleto learn how to look after thier teeth and I beleive milk makes your teeth strong
My son LOVES to brush his teeth! He hates toothpaste though, so thats a bit of a challenge for my family
My little guys love to brush their teeth. I have also already started taking them to the dentist so they will be instilled early and understand the importance of dental hygiene and health!
I bought the gadgets and the special toothpaste, but I started them off early so they automaticly brushed their teeth. I am a fanatic about teeth being flossed, cleaned and gargled
It is so important to start them young so it becomes part of their normal routine. I agree with the minty toothpaste, it does help to stop them from swallowing.
My kids love brushing their teeth because they have their favourite characters on the brush and paste and I always sing songs to make it fun
My older 2 were never a problem, my little guy is a disaster when it comes to brushing his teeth. Hopefully some of these tips will help.
will be using some of these tips with my independent 2 year old haha
Great tips!! Brushing teeth is one of the most independent things our kids can do. They love it when you ‘check’ their brushing job too!
My two little ones brush together all the time, while I watch 🙂 Although while my youngest who is 2 was out of site for one min she managed to put toothpaste on the dog lol
WOW – good pics!
It is important to set a routine with toddles and toothbrushing is an important daily activity.
I remember loving whenever my mom bought me a new cool toothbrush as a child. It definitely encouraged me.
They need to brush no matter what. You are really hurting them if you aren’t forcing it on them someway or another. You don’t want them to have bad cavity filled teeth, right? 🙂
I actually used these tips when training Sara to use the toothbrush. She started at the dentist early and today doesn’t have a fear of twice yearly visits. Wonderful post and really found informative.
I hat that my little girl will not let me brush her teeth until she has “brushed” them for nearly 10 minutes.
“Did you know that a child should not be brushing their teeth themselves until they are able to write’ <- i did not know that!
Interesting tip about not letting them do it themselves until they can write, I had never thought much about that!
When my kids were that age I would let them brush my teeth and then of course they had to let me brush theirs, worked out great. They thought my teeth would fall out if they didn’t brush them for me..lol.
I find if i let my toddler brush her teeth first that she will then let me brush her teeth after she finishes! Also let them pick out the tooth paste and brushes go along way to getting their teeth clean too!
Luckily we don’t have too much trouble when it comes to brushing their teeth. However, we need to work on him spitting out the water in the sink and not elsewhere.
We make it a game with our 3yr old, everytime he brushes his teeth we pretend theyre so bight we can’t see when he smiles. He loves it! Now he asks to brush his teeth on a regualr basis, anything to get him to brush regularly! Now my 1yr old plays along too, monkey see monkey do I guess 😉
Great tips!! Thanks for the info!
Seems that battle doesn’t even go away with teenagers! Go figure.
🙂
It’s great that they have so many helpful tools these days – fruity toothpaste, character toothbrushes, brushes that ‘sing’ to help guide you through the proper times.. because it sounds like you can sometimes use all the help you can get! hah 🙂
Good luck!
Ahaha great picture — it’s too funny (from an outsider’s perspective lol). Great tips!
It’s funny but we still have to get after our kids to brush their teeth so I’m guessing it doesn’t stop until they’ve grown up. Good tips for getting toddlers to brush.
Great tips here, for sure. I still have to double check my 8 year old’s teeth after she says she brushed. Most of the time I get her to re-brush them!
I started taking my boys to the dentist at a year old. They are very used to brushing and flossing.
Those red little tablets that show where the spots that were missed are also great to use every now and again to show them their work.
Such good tips but not looking forward to this stage of life lol
It is awesome that there are so many cute toothbrushes and toothpastes for kids. Dental care is so important and so hard when you’re a kid!
Our first kid we had a battle every brushing for the first couple years, fortunately though she is very cooperative now so her little sisters follow her example and are quite tolerant of us brushing for them. We let the kids brush on their own first and then we take a turn.
My son doesn’t enjoy brushing no matter what kind of brush I get him. He also says the mint toothpaste ‘burns’ his mouth. We have the not swallowing the toothpaste thing down now though. It’s the brush for two or three minutes that’s the battle.
I remember the struggles when mine were little. Bubblegum toothpaste and fun toothbrushes worked the best.