What can I do to get my toddler to brush his teeth?

Question

My 2 year old, who will be three in August, won’t let me brush his teeth? What can I do to get him to cooperate? He won’t let me near him without yelling “stop” and “no” at me. I don’t physically enforce, but I have tried bribing, explaining why, letting him watch videos on brushing teeth, and even offered him CANDY as a reward. He doesn’t want to do it, but then throws a fit because he isn’t getting what I offered him anyway. 
He throws a loud tantrum, extremely exaggerated. I understand he is a toddler and it’s why I’m patient with him, but I am scared he is going to get cavities or something else go wrong due to lack of brushing. Holding him down and hearing him scream and cry and wonder why mommy is treating him that way is not an option for me.😔 I can’t take that at all. Tried it once and didn’t like how uncomfortable I felt for doing it so I stopped before I even finished brushing his teeth. He was scared of me for hours after that, and all I could do was cry that I even considered it. 
Has anyone else had this issue before? If so, how did you handle it? How did you make it work?
Please, anything I could try.

Answer

I do what most have said, let him (also 2) brush his own teeth. But one thing that has REALLY helped is I’ll say “okay, you brush my teeth and I’ll brush yours!” And he gets so distracted trying to brush mine that I can really make sure to get the back ones that he misses. Good luck!

Answer

I showed my son how I have a missing tooth, bc it fell out bc of bacteria. Maybe show him pictures of ppl with no teeth.

Answer

My son loves to brush his own teeth. He’s 2. I let him. He almost always refuses to let me brush them for him. Most days I don’t fight. I tell him get the top and bottom and back. Then I’ll tell him it’s my turn. Sometimes he says ok and let’s me brush. More times than not he turns and says no. We’ve pretty much done this since he had teeth and no issues so far. My next step will be to get one of the toothbrushes with a timer. My son does a better job when he watches me brush because he tries to copy me.

Answer

I would let him brush his teeth and say okay my turn! And I would do it, then go back and forth. Also bring him in front of a mirror so he can see what you’re doing and what he’s doing. It also helped if I let him brush my teeth while I brushed his.

Answer

I didn’t want to brush either as a kid until I got a Hannah Montana toothbrush that played her songs (:

Answer

I let my daughter stand at the sink and brush her own teeth a couple times a day which she loves. She does a good job getting the front. For the back teeth she turns from a sweet angel into a demon child. I basically have to sit on her and pin her arms down. Gently obviously but it’s the only way.
For a while she loved when I pretended I could see the food she ate that day. I would say “I see some pasta! Let me get it” and she would join in and say “peas! Cookies! Etc” ... worked for a while then wore off so I’m back to pinning her arms down until she’s good enough to brush her own

Answer

My daughter hated when I brushed her teeth. I bought her a cute electric toothbrush and now she loves brushing! I would definitely recommend you getting one.

Answer

You could let him pick his own toothbrush that was a game changer with my son. The other thing I do is brush my own teeth while he does his because of course they love copying and thats always worked. After my son is done brushing all by himself I usually ask if I can make sure all the germs are gone in the back of his mouth that way I can brush the back teeth. Also check what the toothpaste tastes like maybe try a different flavor

Answer

I gave my son his own toothbrush with training toothpaste. I let him chew on it which he loved to do. And eventually he let me actually start brushing his teeth for him. Now, he really tries to brush his teeth himself, but I always go back and do it after him. He’ll be 3 in June. It’s definitely a process.

Answer

Give him his own tooth brush. My daughter is only 1 but hated it until I allowed her to do it herself. I have the toothbrush I use for her just to check after she gets done brushing

What can I do to get my toddler to brush his teeth?

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