Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Teeth Brushing

We are having a hard time teaching Lucas good teeth brushing habits. Does any mothers have any great things they use or used to get their kids to brush their teeth? He doesn't want me to brush them and he like to chew on the brush rather then moving them. Please tell me what you do to get your kids to properly brush your teeth? Other then that things with Lucas have been good these last couple of days, we seem to be adjusting slowly to having the extra person in the house.

Also wanted to thank Allie for the suggestion about the right arm being for Lucas and the left arm being for Nathan, Lucas really likes that analogy.

Jenn

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't there some kind of Train song??? "...back and forth like a choo-choo train..." That's all I can remember, but you could probably find it on google. And he likes trains....it just might work

LEX

Jenn said...

We have two toothbrushes for Alex. One is for him to "brush" or rather chew on. And after he's done that for a while then it's our turn to brush for him with the second brush. You could choose a number to count to or a song to sing while you're doing it and then he'd know when you'd be done brushing. Or I've heard of people using a little hour glass as the length of time to brush for.

Not Just Any Jen said...

I feel your pain. My son does not like having his teeth brushed, and he does the same when it goes in his mouth. Teeth brushing time is really tough. The only thing I can think is that eventually he will come around. My daughter was hard, but as she became more independent, she does fine. Age thing?

Lori Aitken said...

Jenn,

All of your readers suggestions are great (2 brushes, timers, songs, etc). I used to sing a goofy toothbrushing song with Mackenzie when she was little and it worked great. It probably worked for her because I didn't sing and act silly very often so it was quite a novelty at toothbrushing time. My friend Kim's son prefers the timer though and it gets set twice...once for his toothbrushing time and the second time for the parent to brush.

Persevere until you find the gimmick that works best for Lucas...

Love,
Lori

Allie said...

Oh Jenn, you are so sweet! I am glad the one arm/leg thing is working for you too!! Just today, Kaelen was reprimanding Masyn for encroaching on "his side".

As for teeth brushing, wow. I am really struggling with Masyn right now so am stumped. Kaelen was really easy to brush his teeth until he got to be about 2 1/2 and then we fought. Our of sheer desperation, I used to make a game out of it by trying to "catch the bugs" that were making homes in his teeth. I would remark in surprise that I found one and that he was trying to run to the other side of his mouth. While catching this bug, I would make up a bug song to the tune of Row Your Boat or chant, Get Out Of Kaelen's Mouth You Silly Bug! I was lucky because Kaelen bought into that game and still wants to play it to this day. Masyn however isn't buying it, probably because she is way too young .... and because she is a diva afterall so nothing is going to be easy with her. :)