Cady's always been sensitive about having her face touched. Wiping her nose right now is utter torture. We've had to swipe her face quickly after eating, which still elicits a scream. If we take longer than a second to wipe her face after eating, she'll throw herself back and scream bloody murder. Now that she has 8 teeth, it's time to brush them. She won't let me near her mouth with the toothbrush or the finger brush. She will stick it in her own mouth once, then quickly drops it. How do I get a kid who hates having their face messed with to allow me to brush her teeth?

Thats the million dollar question... its always a job. I have no advice for that age because we would just have to hold them down and do it until they got used to it. With Eli, he would gag, choke, and puke until he got old enough that we told him we saw bugs in there, and dinosaurs, and monsters, and he would let us brush them out, we had to be really dramatic, lol, but that is what worked for him once he got it that he had bugs walking around on his teeth :smt043 Then he was more than happy to open up and let us remove them.

So, I won't cause irreparable emotional harm to my child if I hold her down to brush her teeth and also clean her face? She screams and cries like I'm trying to strangle her. I'm so afraid to hurt her and make her afraid of those things...

:smt043 LOL... Mmmm. not sure about the emotional damage. I think all of mine went through that, it was foriegn to them, they just had to get used to it. I just asked my 8 and 6 year old if they are emotionally scarred from me holding them down to brush their teeth and wash there face when they were little , :smt043 , I got a deer in the head lights look from them and then my 6 year old said, I just don't like it when you brush my hair. What else can you do? You gotta scrub them.

I was so worried about 1) the health of Daniel's teeth and 2) the damage we'd do to his feeding "progress" if I force-brushed his teeth. But for us, it was kind of like CIO for sleeping. It took three nights. We simply made toothbrushing part of the nightly routine. After his bath, I'd wrap him (tightly, arms inside) his towel, sit him in his lap, and brush. The first night he screamed and thrashed. The second night he screamed til he puked. The third night he complained, and the fourth night he opened up for me. I think that because it's part of his nightly ritual (and nowhere near the kitchen table), we managed to avoid problems with his eating.

Good luck, Judy!

I think you've gotten soem good advice there :) good lucK! I know Zac hates it when I clean his face, but If I do it "ever so gentle" he's 'alright' with it.

We use fun stuff to suck out a nose or wash a face and bush teeth. Things like the jaw's song and walking toward them in a fun way or an elmo toothbrush and make it pretend talk. Either way you are going to have fights like this a lot in the 18 or so years you will be raising your little one.

The reason we get food aversions when force feeding is because it involves pain.... lots of pain. But to teach life skills like hygene it sometimes takes a little "gentel" pertuation. Just wait till she is three she you will be forcing her to put on her jacket, shoes, brush her hair, take a bath, turn off the TV and you might even argue over how a bowl of ice cream gets handed to them. If forcing them to do these things is going to cause emotional damage then my little ones will be nudists who are very dirty with ratsnests for hair will write with only a blue crayola that sits and watches TV allday and will only except ice cream handed to them with your left hand. Hee hee parenthood! Good luck

The easiest way is to start with tooth brushing really early on. Since she has already developed a fear of the tooth brush, you might want to get an electric tooth brush and start by using it on her hand to desensitize the fear. Over time, gradually move it up her arm, and eventually onto her face and around her mouth and into it. It helped here with Evan's oral aversions.

Try using a thick damp wash cloth wrap it around your finger several times so if she bites it won't hurt as bad. We used to get the cloth wet and put some of the bubblegum flavored flouride paste on it and most of the kids responded rather well to it.

Inof. from our dentist...There are actually some non-fluoride toothpastes out there for kids that aren't old enough to spit it out. Ingested fluoride can hurt the tummy, and it's also bad for the teeth. (The little bit that's in drinking water isn't a concern.)

I'm a member of the Mean Mom Club. I have been known to lay the baby on the floor, put one leg over their middle and use the finger brush. Now... I don't do a "by the book, 2 minute" brushing... but I swipe the inside, outside and flat parts of the teeth. By age 2, they are fairly cooperative.

All this reminds me... I'd better get cracking on Ian's teeth!!!

Erin,
I LOL when I read your post. Too funny! I LOVE IT!

Eric had a hard time with teeth brushing to. I started even before he had teeth. I think around 2 months old. It's always after bath time. First I had to force the issue especially when he was a non eater and hated anything going near his mouth. Just since around his 1rst birthday he's let me touch his face, mouth, and head (WAY cool! I can kiss my baby now!). This is also around the time he started "letting" me brush his teeth. Time is what helped us more than anything, but I can tell you some of the things I did, and it might help you too.

I always hold him when I brush his teeth. We always do it in front of the mirror so he can see. I let him have a turn at it first and then it's mommy's turn, then he gets another turn. No matter how he does it I always say he did a really good job and how marvelous he is. He actually IS getting good at it now. I always act like it's the funnest thing ever no matter how he dislikes it. I sing songs about brushing and act like it's just a blast. While he's in the bath (before his turn)I brush my teeth (again I act like it's a party LOL) or have Emilia or Dad brush theirs so he can watch.
He still HATES it, but no fighting or screaming, or fear just kinda "Oh well, I have to do it, my Mom thinks it's fun so might as well humor her." with a "I'm gonna puke any minute" look on his face.

I would say as long as you don't empathize or sympathize with him, you'll be O.K. I think if you let it show that there is a reason to be scared or dramatic then he'll think that there REALLY is something wrong with it, and you'll have even bigger fits to deal with. But at the same time you don't want to get angry with him either. I think that's why I chose to be oblivious to his frustration, fear, discomfort, or whatever it is, and pretend to have fun.

As far as hand and face washing I just get it done as fast as possible and usually he runs around looking like his Mom didn't wipe him clean. LOL
eh, what's a little food anyway?