The Process Of Getting BabyOOPS To Brush His Teeth.

Brushing of teeth 🦷 used to be an activity that my little toddler categorised as play and he would jump in excitement to join me at the sink each time I say I’m going to brush my teeth. But as this ‘play’ becomes his everyday routine, he became less cooperative in wanting to do so. And so I've tried so many methods to the point that I can say it is finally conquered... after a good 8 months.

I started with telling him facts about brushing.

"Baby, you need to brush your teeth everyday. Your teeth will be painful if you don't take good care of them. You will have toothaches and your teeth will rot too."

It didn't work at all. These are too difficult concepts for him to comprehend.

I enticed him with the joys of brushing.

"Oh look, Mummy is squeezing the toothpaste. Wow, Mummy is brushing the teeth. Hear the sound, sshish shhish shhish. So cool right? Now I have such clean teeth."

It works occasionally but brushing by itself is not that entertaining by itself.

I brought him to shop for his own toothbrush and toothpaste while talking about the wonders of brushing teeth.

"Baby, this is a toothbrush. We can use this to clean our teeth!"

It works. But how may times can we use this method?

I sing a song about brushing teeth each time it's time to do so.

"This is the way we brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth. This is the way we brush our teeth so early in the morning..."

It works occasionally.

I showed him photos of very dirty yellow teeth and told him that those are the photos of his teeth when he doesn't brush them. 

At the age of 2, they are already developing their concept of self image. 

They get conscious over how they look and what they wear. So I'm riding on that.

Even in story books if we chance upon characters with yellow teeth, I go "EWWWWW... why didn't the person brush his teeth?"

I'm reinforcing the perceptions of how others may feel when they see yellow teeth. He is probably thinking "Seems like yellow teeth is not a nice thing to have since Mummy goes EWWWW..."

I exaggerated my actions of checking his teeth after brushing and gave huge exclamations about the teeth's clean state after brushing.

A bystander looking at me doing that would probably be rolling their eyes. But this is so important to boost the child's motivation to continue with the brushing. He gets so proud of himself that he even flashes his teeth to his father to show off his white teeth.

I hold his hands and the toothbrush and do the brushing together with him together with some chants.

Sometimes he wants more autonomy to hold the toothbrush all by himself. But I am afraid that he doesn't learn the brushing technique. So I came up with this method. And while brushing for him, I go..."Inside, lower teeth, start from the right, brush brush brush, center, brush brush brush, left, brush brush brush. Outside, lower teeth, start from the right, brush brush brush, center, brush brush brush, left, brush brush brush. Inside upper teeth, start from the right, brush brush brush, center, brush brush brush, left, brush brush brush. Outside upper teeth, start from the right, brush brush brush, center, brush brush brush, left, brush brush brush. Clench your teeth together, brush your teeth. Tongue out, brush your tongue. Okay, rinse your mouth 3 times." 

And I sing more songs.

"Brush, Brush, it's time to brush your teeth. Yes Yes Yes I just want to brush my teeth. See, See, Brushing is good for you. One two three almost clean you see"

Sometimes I sing because it helps to entertain me. But I realised he starts to sing along at some instances.

I started a sticker reward system with him when I realised he's into stickers.

In his school, teachers give the children sticker rewards to encourage good behaviours. So to ride onto that, I bought him the sticker reward book from Daiso. Instead of letting him play with the stickers (which spoils the whole purpose of a sticker reward system), stickers are only given to him when he completes the task of brushing his teeth. He enjoys collecting them and showing his achievements to the grandparents when they come to visit.

So this one works.... along with the combination of above.

I tell him his mouth is smelly if he doesn't brush his teeth and that I will not sleep with him if he has a smelly mouth. And I continue with that belief by insisting not to lie down with him during bedtime if he doesn't brush.

Meanwhile, I will ask him if he knows why Mummy doesn't lie down with him for the night and he goes "Because I never brush my teeth". And I go, "Yes, well done. Baby knows that Mummy is not lying down because you never brush your teeth and your mouth is smelly. Mummy wants to sleep with you but Mummy doesn't like children with smelly mouth. So I'm sorry baby, you need to sleep alone today."

After a while, he either chose to go and brush his teeth or he fell asleep alone with an informed choice that Mummy doesn't sleep because his mouth is smelly. He is also assured that Mummy still loves him and is not rejecting co-sleeping because of him being naughty but because of his behaviour of not brushing teeth.

If you ask me now, Babyoops has finally succeeded in making brushing teeth part of his bedtime routine. Was it easy? No. But at least the efforts lead to an outcome since we persisted with it.

There is no remedy which I can give my fellow parents to follow.
Because each child is unique and what works for my child may or may not work for your child.
But I hope this post helps give you an idea on how teaching a child a skill is not a given. It takes lots of patience, persistence and creative juices to finally lead us to reap the fruits of our parenting.

Stay strong everyone.

Mrs OOPS