r/sleeptrain • u/OtterLove89 • Jan 10 '26

1-2 years old Toothbrushing is ruining bed time

Our gal has always been amazing with bedtime; while we "sleep trained" in that she's been going into her crib awake & falling asleep on her own, we were doing a bottle before bed until recently (she's 15 months). We probably *should* have been brushing her teeth after the bottle but she loved having milk before bed so much that we didn't (we brushed before, after bath, before books). When we finally switched to a straw cup of milk we decided we really should be brushing after the milk. So, we tried to integrate tooth brushing after milk, followed by a story, then her usual routine (sleep sack, one verse of a song, then into her crib). First of all, she HATES having her teeth brushed, and each night since we started she's resisted more and more. All of the tips on toothbrushing are very high-energy, chipper, rile-her-up kinds of things. Even the story seems to wind her up, and suddenly when we try to put her in her crib she either: a) cries out mama mama mama when I leave the room or b) chats with her stuffies for a while. I don't mind b) at all, that seems like nice self-soothing behaviour. But the first is breaking my heart and she just seems upset and confused. She really only *truly* calms down/gets sleepy during milk, so I'm feeling a bit lost! I suppose my ask is... anyone have any tips for getting a toddler who hates having her teeth brushed to accept this without it making her super sad right before bed?!

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u/TeensyTidbits Jan 10 '26

I had to move story time to before the bed time routine. Usually it’s after bath but before teeth/diaper etc and we do it in the living room. To get his teeth brushed we let him pick a song to sing. We sing happy birthday, twinkle twinkle, old McDonald etc. he sings with us so it keeps his mouth open and it seems to work. We lay him on the floor and get in his face kind of and I think the closeness of our face to his (as we’re staring at all his teeth lol) he likes.

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u/OtterLove89 Jan 10 '26

Can you tell me more about how you then go from teeth to bed? And maybe why story time fits better before teeth and diaper? Teeth and diaper are the parts mine haaaates.

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u/TeensyTidbits Jan 14 '26

Mine LOVES books so they get him excited and he’ll just keep grabbing more. So it’s bath (615), milk(630), books at 7 until 7:20, diaper, teeth, bed. Bed includes a 3-5 minute cuddle session in his bed which calms him down before bed. He just turned two and that’s when we transitioned him. The teeth brushing thing mine puts up a bit of a fight sometimes but he doesn’t get worked up about it. Once we finish he settles right down. You could do bath, milk, teeth, free time for 20-30 minutes, books, diaper, bed. Maybe some extra time between teeth and bed would help.

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u/OtterLove89 Jan 14 '26

Thank you! That makes sense. TBH books do rile her up a bit so we have been experimenting with moving books a bit earlier too.. our routine is now looking close to what you describe. So far it seems like she’s settling pretty quickly if I cuddle and rock her for a few minutes longer than I was… and right now she seems to want me to be the one to put her down rather than my husband.

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u/hehatesthesecansz Jan 10 '26

This is similar to us but we tell him a made up story while he brushes his teeth and he loves it. It’s the only time we will do it now as to preserve the teeth brushing.