Daniel’s been pretty much anti-brushing since he’s been, well, since he got his first tooth. There were days when I found myself ready to jam the toothbrush into his mouth and I had to think, “Whoa…it ain’t worth it.” So he goes a night without brushing. It doesn’t kill him. And I found that by the next day, he’s more compliant (usually).

Nowadays, however, he loves to brush, because afterwards, he gets to spit, and he is getting mighty creative with it. Mighty, mighty creative. So hang in there, Ann, ‘cause this too shall pass.

When do you even attempt to start flossing?

I have her drink a lot of water (from an open cup, not a sippy cup, so it washes over her teeth) and avoid a lot of juice & sticky, sweet food like raisins…

Another trick that worked before Abi was won over to brushing: counting. We counted to 5 or 10 passes in each quadrant of the mouth. When that got boring, we counted in other languages. When we ran out of languages, we made up our own. The counting alone made for months of fun (and educational) brushing! Josi is not yet convinced of this technique.

If Lucy is as addicted to books as my girls are, you can look for some board or picture books on teeth, brushing, or going to the dentist to spark an interest. One of our favorites: Dr DeSoto.

Good luck!

If Lucy has any toddler friends that like to brush their teeth, invite them over. Sometimes toddler peer pressure can work really well. (See Lucy, so and so is brushing her teeth).

Change the time of day you brush her teeth to right before something fun. For example, if you regularly go outside and play and that’s something Lucy enjoys, explain that you can’t go outside until teeth are brushed. The only caveat with this method is to make sure you are willing to follow through – if she still refuses, no outside.

Try the sticker chart. We did stickers for potty-training with Benjamin when he was around 22 – 23 months and it worked fairly well. He certainly got a kick out of the stickers.

Don’t try to brush her teeth for a few days or even just until she expresses an interest in it again (assuming that’s not a crazy long period of time).

Try teaching her something new and fun to go with the toothbrushing such as spitting in the sink (Benjamin loves to do that) or swishing water and spitting it out in the sink.

Toddlers can be very stubborn creatures and sometimes you just have to decide whether it is worth the fight or not. For example, for about the past 2 months all Benjamin ever wants to wear is his pajamas (“Benjamin wear Jammies!”). He throws a fit if you try to put anything else on him. I finally gave up and he goes around in his pajamas when we are at home, however, we do have a rule that to go anywhere (which he loves to do), he must wear clothes (which he puts on willingly with the promise of going somewhere). I just keep telling myself this will pass eventually!