For us, it's probably 20-30 seconds max on a good day. We brush AM and PM and sing our teethbrushing song twice each time, but I don't think it's ever super awesome cleaning. And of course, we totally don't floss yet. I think I'm going to have a dental drop-out.
Re: How long do you brush LO's teeth for? (Non-clicky poll)
I sing the ABCs, then I am done with the teethbrushing for her. She will play with brush for another mintue or two in her mouth.
We definitely do not floss yet. YIKES. I would be minus multiple fingers at this point if we even tried.
Oh, and we only brush once a day at night right before bed at this point.
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Brushing M's teeth looks kind of like a scene from the Exorcist... so, not long! We only do it once a day at this point (right before bed) and I struggle to get the brush in, quickly make my way around the mouth, before he finally yanks it from my hand, screaming, "MILES DO IT BY SELF!" He then sucks as much off the brush as he can before whipping it at the dog.
Sigh.
We brush about a minute. She lets us hit all the teeth once, and then it's her turn! haha! We got some kids flossers because I was tired of corn on the cob being stuck, but I haven't been brave enough to try them.
DS has never tolerated me brushing his teeth for him, but he was willing to start "brushing" himself, so I let him do that.
I try to praise/encourage when he's really brushing properly. As he gets a bit older and better at following verbal directions, I'll start encouraging him to brush more thoroughly and longer but we had such a rocky start that for now, I'm just trying to keep it positive and consistent.
As long as it takes! There's a lot of wriggling and clenching teeth/ squeezing lips together. It takes SO to hold her in place on the counter while I brush as fast and best as possible. Maybe about a minute. It's my least favorite part of the day and it's such a production so we only do it at night. No flossing yet, but her teeth have space between them.
Good idea, I'll let him have a whirl at it first!
This is us too. Mostly she eats the toothpaste, but usually there is some back and forth across the teeth.
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We lay J down on his changing table and I brush his teeth while DH puts him in his overnight diaper and pj's. The pedi dentist told us that laying them back is actually the recommended (read easier) way to brush toddler teeth. Once I'm done brushing all of his teeth and his tongue then he gets his own brush to "finish the job", while I rinse the actual tooth brush. DH and I have to tag team a lot of J's maintenance because of my back injuries so J doesn't think twice about being worked on by both of us simultaneously.
ETA: Pedi dentist said the most important brushing of the day is the before bed one and that if we get J's teeth any other time of the day that's just icing. We go back to the dentist here soon so I'll let you know if we learn anything else interesting.
We do them 2x a day usually. My turn is normally about 45-60 seconds.
T gets his tooth brush with toothpaste and water. Then when he's ready, he let's mama have a turn. I put more paste on, then I sit him on the counter and brush. We do bottoms first, then he looks at the vent fan on the ceiling while I do the tops. Then I thank him for giving me a turn and he gets a turn again before rinse and spit (which is really more playing in the sink...). He generally will let me brush as long as I want, but I try not to push my luck since he's so into it right now. On the rare occasion that he doesn't want me to brush, I don't. It's not worth the fight since we do get good brushes normally twice a day.
It varies depending on how cooperative he's being, but usually he'll let me with no issues. He likes to say "aaaahhhhh".
I just brush them all until each tooth has had a good swipe. We also floss because he likes the flossers. They are the kid's flavored ones. I think they are flavored with some sort of floride coating, which is good since we don't use the floride toothpaste yet. For all the things he throws fits over, brushing has never really been a big issue. Thank God.
Edit: We also lay him on the changing table to do all this. It's part of the diaper, pj, teeth routine before bed. I get him the morning too if his breath really stinks, but most the time I only mess with it once a day. I should do it more often. I guess I should really look into taking him to the dentist too soon...