My dd is 18 months old. I have a tough time brushing her teeth. she has got almost 15 to 16 teeth and is very reluctant to let them get cleaned. every morning this is fight for us. i bought child brush and i encouraged brushing on her own by showing me brush my teeth. then i purchased finger brush even that she rejects. she completely becomes violent and pushes my hands away. these days she is running off when she hears brushing word. I have trouble cleaning her face , combing her hair. she just throws off my hands off her face and head, same problem washing her hair too, so i do that once a week that too with a great difficulty, can't even clean her ears, pl.pl. help me . give me some advice. or just let me know is this behavior normal for this age group kids.
Rachana replied. Hi Sha,
Try this method to wash her hair: First wash her body and then move to hair. Wet her hair by your hands, lather the shampoo and rinse it off again by your hands. Keep the whole process very short. Give her a toy to play while you bathe her and keep talking to her to keep her engaged. Once you are done with drying her hair let her comb her hair herself and tell her that the hair looks good and smells good too. If she lets you do it then praise her(You must be doing it). Hope it work.
Happy parenting.
Rachana. Rachana replied. Hi Sha,
I am a mom to 22 month boy. He doesn't have many teeth yet, just 9! We give him his own brush and put orajel on it. He tries copying us & we let him brush our teeth too since he likes doing it and thus so far has not resisted doing it. Let your husband also show her brushing his teeth.
Don't force your daughter to brush first thing in the morning. Let her have her breakfast and then you can give her the brush. But do give her the brush when you do yours and leave it to her. The more you force the more it becomes a power struggle. You can buy the Orajel paste that comes in diff. flavors.
Regarding washing her face, maybe you can give her a wet tissue and ask her wipe on her own. That way she will get some control on her actions. My son too doesn't like me washing his hair since water runs down on his eyes. So I tilt his head backwards and wipe of the waste running on his face ASAP. Hopefully she will come around since this is their independence asserting age.
Good luck.
Rachana