I am curious to get your opinion on caring for you kids teeth. You see…at my house…brushing our teeth can be SUCH a chore. I know I am not the only mother out there that struggles to make this habit fun!
To be honest, P just started regularly brushing his teeth in the last 8 months or so. And yes he is 3.5 years old. Before that, it was hit or miss. We may brush them one day and it may be 3 days before I would make him brush them again.
I finally decided that if I just consistently make it a habit when he gets up in the morning then it will eventually become easier. So, the second he’s out of bed and headed to the potty…we also brush our teeth.
If I am speaking honestly, I rarely get him to brush his teeth in the evening. Call me lazy, but I hate fighting it. I know he should be brushing twice a day now, but I just don’t have the energy to stay on him about it. I’m still working on drilling this in to our night-time schedule.
Luckily, he’s been to the dentist on three separate occasions and so far….his teeth looked good! Phew.
But, getting him to cooperate at the dentist was a whole other battle. You’ve been there right?
The first trip was a nightmare. He literally did not even want to open his mouth for our dentist. The closest he got to getting his teeth cleaned was that he at least sat in the chair. Other than that…he wanted nothing to do with the hygienist.
Then he had a chance to get his teeth cleaned at pre-k. They have a local dentist from SIU come over and clean the kids teeth. I opted for P to be involved. I thought it would help him get warmed up to the idea if he saw all his “fwends” doing it too.
To my surprise, I was right. I got a picture from a friend that was there and this is what I saw….
WOW. Not only did he let them put the sunglasses on him, but she is actually flossing! I got the report back and it said he did great! I must say I was proud, but VERY shocked!
Then it was time to go back to our family dentist…and again…he did great! It took a little coaxing (and I may have promised him ice cream), but he did very well! He was even happy to show me his pearly whites after they were cleaned!
I think Bents is going to be way easier to train when it comes to the teeth cleaning. He is already (at 14 months) brushing. Or chewing on the tooth brush. Whichever you want to call it.
He sees his big brother doing it and he wants to do it too!
In case you need some tips on how to get your toddler to brush, here are my thoughts:
1. Buy a fun toothbrush with your childs favorite character on it. I even let P pick his own out.
2. If your child is an independent soul like mine…allow him/her to brush on their own. Guide them by saying, “ok, now get the top ones…and the back ones…and don’t forget those front ones”. Sure, they may not be doing a perfect job, but the key is is that they are doing it. Eventually they will get better at it.
3. Brush with them. Sometimes if they see you doing something then they will want to follow. When P first started brushing I use to do my teeth too. This gave him something to follow. He knew that he needed to keep brushing until mommy was done brushing hers.
And here are two tips that I may or may not recommend. But, HEY, they have worked for my son:
4. Tell them they have “poopy breathe”. I joke with P and say “OH MY…YOU HAVE POOPY BREATHE. YOUR FRIENDS WILL NOT WANT TO PLAY WITH YOU WITH THAT KIND OF BREATHE.”
5. I also may or may not threaten him that his teeth will “rot out” if he doesn’t go brush them. I even say “Hurry hurry, before they rot out. Go fast.”
Now when I tell him we need to brush his teeth he will say, “why momma? Are my teeth gonna wot out?”
Hey, a little threatening never hurt anyone. He will even come to me and say, “momma – we need to go bwush my teeth or their gonna wot out. Hurwy.”
You most likely won’t find my kind of advice on baby center, but I’m just trying to be real here people. Call me a bad mother, but I’m a bad mother with a child who has clean teeth. 🙂
So, I’m curious, what non-conventional methods have you used?
LOL I have so used the rotting of teeth with my son. It’s never been a huge issue to get him to want to brush his teeth but we do have our days. He will let me do it first then I let him have his tooth brush. I have also told him that the sugar bugs will eat all his teeth at night if doesn’t brush them before bed. It gets him a little freaked out because he doesn’t want bugs in his mouth.
Haha that is great that you threaten him like that! We do the same thing! Riley USUALLY likes to brush his teeth & Averly likes to chew on the toothbrush but throws a fit if I try to really brush them for her. I have been wondering when I should take Riley to the dentist because he’s 2.5 & has never been. I guess I should start looking into that??
My oldest goes to a local pediatric dentist. He loves them. Liam chews on the tooth brush as well, but we won’t allow me to brush. My oldest is deathly afraid of needles. Like it takes 2 nurses to administer vaccines each year AND me holding him down. We randomly bought a Mercer Myer “Going to the dentist” book a few years ago and Critter had a cavity. It talked about what had to be done and a needle was shown. I tell Kaedin that if he has cavities he will have to get a shot in his mouth. We also were given a sand timer that he loves and a light up tooth brush. It flashes the length you are supposed to brush the bottom. You relight it and it flashes for the top. We only successfully brush each morning. Sometimes I can get evening but it’s not worth the fight sometimes. His teeth are good so we must be doing something right!
I have been lucky enough to find a pediatric dentist in my area who is a miracle worker. My girls both LOVE going to see him. In fact, my 5 year old “wants another cavity so we can go see Dr. Freeman!”… Not exactly the way to do it, honey, lol…
Brushing their teeth, on the other hand, is a totally different story. My 5 year old puts toothpaste on, puts toothbrush in her mouth, and is finished! I make sure to go behind her at least once every day or two. My 8 year old is starting to get lazy about it, and one night I was messing with her and called her “Butters” (her 2 front teeth were supa yellow), and she immediately high-tailed it to the sink! Now if I think she has skipped a brushing I’ll just say “Butters” & she gets the idea! I’ve done the rotting teeth threat, too… Scare tactics work, mean or not, lol. I STILL won’t cross my eyes for more than a second or two for irrational fears of them sticking that way!
haha. This is so funny! I definitely agree that sometimes a little threatening can do wonders. I am keeping my fingers crossed that Kennedy will jump on board with the brushing, since I worked in a dental office for awhile as an assistant so I am anal about it & Andy has always been very picky about brushing/flossing.. BUT with that being said, if she doesn’t.. I am definitely going to be writing down your tips to go back on! 🙂 Glad P is beginning to enjoy it, maybe it was the shades they let him wear that really broke the ice!
Honestly, we never had problems with the dentist as he was one of our best friends, so both kids were completely comfortable with him. So . . . no confessions here on this, but I may or may not have a few to share with potty training! haha. xoxo
We also have struggles with getting our kids (ages 5 and 2) to let us properly brush their teeth. The rotten teeth “threat” worked like a charm with our daughter. My husband googled pics of rotten teeth and showed her. Now, even if we come home late and she falls asleep in the car, she will always wake up enough to insist her teeth are brushed before we put her in bed! I found some other helpful tips on this Mom’s Guide to Caring for Little Teeth, if you guys are interested in checking it out: (copy and paste- http://www.1dental.com/moms-guide/)