Three Methods That Can Help Encourage Your Children To Brush Their Teeth

As soon as a child's baby teeth emerge from the gums, it's time to start caring for them through gentle brushing sessions. In the months and years ahead, your hands-on approach to brushing your children's teeth shifts into a role of reminding them – constantly, sometimes – to head to the bathroom to practice this important oral care task. While you won't have much of a battle with some children, others will resist brushing their teeth every step of the way. As much you might wish to give up, it's your responsibility to keep emphasizing the importance of this job. Here are three ways you can encourage your children to brush.

Promote Some Friendly Competition

If you have two young children, play to the competitive nature of your children by organizing a competition to see which child can brush his or her teeth at least twice per day. Draw a chart on a piece of poster paper with the seven days of the week and two boxes per day to represent each brushing session. Once either child has finished the job to your satisfaction, he or she gets to color in the appropriate box. At the end of the week, the child who has all of his or her boxes colored in can receive a simple prize.

Brush As A Family

Many children will pick up on the importance of certain tasks by observing their parents, so make sure that you and your spouse are blatant about your brushing. If you customarily brush in a separate bathroom than the children, consider moving your brushes and toothpaste into the children's bathroom and brushing together. After breakfast and dinner, you can make a point of all heading to the bathroom and brushing together. You could even put a digital timer in the room that can count down the length of each brushing sessions.

Rely On Technology

If your children are at an age in which they're interested in technology and are constantly reaching for your mobile device, you can use this to your advantage. There are a number of different mobile applications that encourage children to brush through the use of simple games and cartoon videos, as well as functions that allow the child to input his or her brushing session to calculate the total number of brushing sessions per week. You can also use a mobile video app to show children age-appropriate videos about the importance of keeping their teeth clean.

For more advice, consider contacting a dentist in your area.

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