:confused: My daughter will not allow me to brush her teeth. I have this gel that doesn't contain fluride in it but she still won't open her mouth? How do you all do it? thanks :)

I have a 23 month old daughter...how i do it is i give her a toothbrush of her own, she has two and i let her pick her own out of the two. I stand her up on the counter so she can see herself in the mirror (if you have a low mirror you can just sit her on the counter), practice getting her to show you her teeth, have her watch you brush your teeth and see if she mimics that. What i do is stand her up, i use just regular toothpaste (mine is a great spitter so she swallows very little if any), i put a tiny bit on hers and mine and i tell her to show me her teeth and i brush the fronts, then i tell her to open up and i brush the tops and backs...she likes to brush her teeth so it's not too hard, some nights she fights me though. with her facing outwards you can control where her head goes more and you can use a bit more pressure because her head is up against your chest. Figure out what works for her, tell her what a big girl she is, i have found with all of my kids the key is to let them do it themselves also and tell them what pretty teeth then have, i really made a big deal out of it.

Hi. Just make sure that you are using a child's toothpaste.

I remember vividly trying to brush my son's teeth before he could talk well. He would scream bloody murder every time. It would take both my husband and myself to get his teeth brushed. We just thought he hated getting his teeth brushed, and didn't know why. Finally, one day, we figured out that the toothpaste was "burning" his mouth.

We changed to a child's toothpaste, which is milder, and never had another problem. This was about 8 years ago when this happened, and we were new at parenting...we just didn't know. I felt HORRIBLE once I realized how long my poor child had to go through this.

Probably not all children need "children's toothpaste," but just keep this in mind if your child is screaming when you brush his teeth. Make sure the toothpaste isn't burning his sensitive skin.

Whenever DS, who is 13 months old, sees us brush our teeth, he wants to brush his too. Monkey see, monkey do! I have a finger tooth brush (for babies) and baby tooth gel that I use on him. He doesn't seem to mind, although once in awhile he clamps those teeth down on my finger.

i would definetely let him try and do part of it on his own, maybe the way you are doing it is hurting him or gagging him. you can show him how you brush your teeth and then let him try for himself. Good luck!