Should I let him brush his own teeth or wait until he's older

Question

my soon to be 17 month old doesn't like for me to brush his teeth. He protests, and tries to keep his mouth closed. I still brush them the best I can and then give him the toothbrush to do the rest. I use a battery operated little kids toothbrush because I figure I could get a few brushes in on one go. My son loves to brush his own teeth and would do it for a very long time if I let him. My husband thinks it's a bad idea to give him the tooth brush because he says it could cause him to erode his gums. What are your thoughts? I want to encourage him wanting to bursh his own teeth, but I don't want him to do any damage seeing that he doesn't exactly pay attention to brushing just teeth (or all his teeth for that matter).

Answer 1

i have 2 girls (age 4 and 2) and once they could hold a tooth brush i let them brush their own teeth for a minute at the sink. then when their minute is up, it's mommy's turn and i brush them for real. i do the same thing with washing their faces and brushing their hair. actually it is helping alot now with my 4 year old because she wants to get most of the tangles out of her hair herself before it's mommy's turn, there's alot less tears since i let her do some on her own. good luck!!

Answer 2

My son is 22 mo old.  We stand him on a stool in front of the sink and brush his teeth for him (he does clamp down on the brush and try to pull it away).  Once I've gotten his teeth as clean as I possibly can, I let him do the rest.  Then he has to rinse the brush out and put it away.

You do have to watch him to make sure he isn't doing it to hard or for too long, try setting a timer and telling him when the timer dings, it's time to stop.  Hope that helps.

Answer 3

let him do it but

say he only has 1 minute to do it and then u  have to check them

Answer 4

Tooth decay on primary teeth can cause lots of pain and thousands of dollars of damage so it is important to take care of them.  I like that a lot of the moms here are letting their kids brush their own teeth for a minute then they are finishing the job.  That is a good way to do it.  Also limit the amount of candy and sugary foods that you allow your child to eat and restrict the amount of soda he has access to.  Soda is very damaging to tooth enamel.  Use soft toothbrushes designed for babies teeth and use them only for brushing teeth not as a play toy.  Good job, moms!

Answer 5

I started letting my son watch my husband and I brush our teeth around 15 months and we’d give him his own small toothbrush so he could test it out if he wanted to. We didn’t want to push it and have him end up hating the morning routine of brushing his teeth and washing his face. And he really loves brushing his teeth right now but he HATES when we do it for him. It’s this thing with independence around this age, they’re very adamant about doing things on their own.

So as stupid as I feel over-exaggerating when I brush my teeth….it works because my son sees me and tries fitting the toothbrush the same way. Sometimes I say “No, buddy, like this” and I show him and he tries. As long as he’s watching, I’m good with it because he’s learning as he goes. The pedi told us not to stress as much with officially “brushing teeth” until 2 yrs old. But we practice and rinse and all that fun stuff anyways….he loves it, as long as he’s doing it on his own. LOL!

Answer 6

My son is almost 15 months. I always put his toddler toothpaste on the toothbrush and brush really fast over his teeth. Then I hand him his toothbrush and he does the rest on his own. I limit the amount of time he has the toothbrush though (maybe to a minute or less) and I always ask him to show me how pretty his teeth are.

He typically chews on the bristles and they're really soft, so I don't see a problem with it. His doctor says his teeth are perfectly healthy, and we've been doing things this way for several months. =)  

Answer 7

I'd set a two minute timer and let him do it. Then require him to allow you to finish it up. Ask your dentist about the brush eroding his gums. The main thing is to not let him eat excessive toothpaste. All those teeth are going to fall out anyway. Unless they become truly grossly decayed, it isn't going to make a bit of difference how well they're brushed. The habits of brushing, however, will make a difference.

Answer 8

my neighbor is 2 and i got her a tooth brush when she was 14 or 15 months old, before that i used the little infant gum cleanser with the thing that slid over ur finger, and shes always loved it,

now shes 2 and she does it on her own, then hands it to me and i finish it.

try letting him do it on his own for awhile then after he brushes ask him to let u finish and hopefully he'll cooperate better.

and i wouldnt be using an electric one on him, hes too young, and his teeth shouldnt be super dirty for him to need the thoroughest cleaning