Your kid's teeth?

[prairiemama]

I'm getting kinda berated over at Natural Family for not pinning Robin down and thoroughly brushing her teeth every night. How do you do dental hygiene with your kid? We give Robin her toothbrush with toothpaste on it and she usually brushes them sort of haphazardly, but they do get some attention. Sometimes she'll let me finish up. We don't brush in the morning, and I don't force her to do it or do it for her because I figure later on, I'll want her to have positive associations. But apparently this is dooming her to dental surgery under general anesthesia :P.

Comments

[noelle-k.livejournal.com]

I really hate brushing Riley's teeth because he often struggles against it and I just don't like the fight. However, we do it morning and night - I'll only skip it if he's had a really horrendous day for some reason. Some ideas that have worked with him:
(a) bringing his stuffed animal or one of his little trains, and showing him how the train/animal gets their teeth brushed. He often is more amenable to having his teeth brushed after that, and/or he's more likely to brush his own teeth.
(b) an enthusiastic song whose actions involve the toothbrush flying in the air or one's tongue sticking out. He LOVES it and will open his mouth.
(c) Brush my teeth. Apparently tooth-brushing is much cooler if Mom does it first.

Sigh. I can't wait until he's old enough to bribe.