For the sake of the baby’s tooth health, what a strong heart a mother needs! Whose baby is not the mother’s heart? Who wants to see a tooth brushing campaign in the bathroom every day?
But the reality is that some babies are not easy to accept things they are not familiar with or like because of their personality.
If the child forms the habit at an early age, the child will naturally accept these arrangements without knowing that there are other options.
Take the safety seat as an example. If the baby starts to sit in the safety chair when he comes home from the hospital after birth and insists on sitting every time, the child will not know that he has other choices.
Habits are formed by guardians. It is the responsibility of parents to let children form good habits as soon as possible.
Let’s talk about how to form a good habit of brushing teeth for children.
Starting from a few days after the baby is born, gauze will be used to clean the baby’s mouth regularly.
It is the key to let children get used to and accept [regular cleaning]. Habits are not formed in a day and need parents’ persistence. Children are accustomed to parents cleaning their oral cavity with gauze. In the future, they will naturally smoothly accept the operation of other tools in the oral cavity.
Parents should start preparing before their children’s teeth grow out. They should gently touch the gums with toothbrushes to let their children know in advance that the toothbrushes do not hurt. When their teeth come out, they will naturally accept the toothbrushes.
Remember, the use of any new tool requires a habitual process:
- Let the child not hate is the first step; Let the children cooperate is the second step; Making children like it is the third step. Emphasizing quality is the last step.
When children are young, habits are easy to form, so the earlier they start, the easier it will be to accept.
However, some mothers said, I just knew that I should brush my children’s teeth. The children are already 1 year old and no longer like brushing their teeth. What should I do? Now, I have summed up some methods used by mothers to make their babies cooperate. We can try them one by one according to the characteristics of our children. We can’t say which method will make the babies suddenly change.
STEP 1 Realize
Tell stories and read picture books to your baby.
Choose books that specifically talk about the importance of brushing your teeth. The baby is smart and will cooperate when the truth is clear.
2. Combining education with fun
Watch a video about brushing your teeth with your baby.
Many children like to watch cartoons and are easy to accept the world of cartoon characters. Educational cartoons have effects that we adults cannot understand.
Step 3 Feel the Crisis
Show the child some photos of children with dental caries so that the child can understand the consequences of not brushing his teeth well.
Visual impact is often easy for children to accept, because they will intuitively understand the consequences of not brushing their teeth well, thus creating a sense of crisis.
4. Encouraging progress
Babies need encouragement, and every improvement they make when brushing their teeth needs encouragement and praise. Appropriate material and spiritual encouragement has an effect, because children like to be affirmed.
5. Self-choice
Let the child choose whether to be forced to brush his teeth by his parents or to brush his teeth obediently with his mouth wide open.
If the child chooses to brush his teeth obediently, Parents need gentle operation, Don’t let the child have bad feelings, let the child know, as long as cooperation, brushing teeth turned out to be an easy and relaxed thing. Children don’t cooperate, mostly because they have had bad brushing experience in the past, so, when brushing their teeth, they need to be especially gentle, especially in the initial habit formation stage, don’t let the child have bad experience, this is very important.
6. Euphemistic Guidance
Guide the baby to open his mouth by telling stories and fairy tales.
For example, my mother said, look, the worm has come out, open your mouth quickly, or the worm will be finished if it enters your stomach! As a result, the child was very cooperative and opened his mouth very wide.
7. Cooperate with props
Prepare some black sesame seeds to pretend to be tooth worms.
One mother said, When my daughter was a child, she sometimes didn’t let herself brush her teeth. My mother secretly hid some black sesame seeds in her palm when brushing her teeth. Before brushing her teeth, she told her daughter that she needed to catch the bugs in her teeth, and she opened her mouth to let her brush a few times. When brushing to 1/4, she showed her a sesame seeds and said: Oh, I caught a black bug, let me continue to catch it? The daughter will say: Yes. As a result, another worm was caught at 1/2 of the time, and a total of 4 worms were caught when all the worms were completed… … …
It is worth noting that in case the child is uncovered, the trust between parents and children will be greatly damaged.
8. Step by step
Brushing your teeth needs to be done step by step, not in one step. It is good to get used to it bit by bit. Brushing your teeth in a pleasant atmosphere is very important.
9. United Front
Parents need to unify their thinking. They can’t say that they need to brush their teeth and that they don’t need to brush their teeth. In this way, children don’t know who to listen to, and some [smart children] will take advantage of the loopholes.
10. Appropriate [coercion]
When there is really no way out, appropriate coercion should be used.
It was a matter of last resort, Need safe operation, don’t let the child get hurt. For parents, cooperation is very important, because it is very difficult for a parent to brush his teeth with forced means. In the process of operation, if the baby expresses his willingness to cooperate, he must immediately remove the forced action to let the child know that it is actually easier to brush his teeth if he actively cooperates.
11. Game Interaction
Can do brushing games, brush each other’s teeth. Let the baby form the habit in the game and fall in love with brushing teeth in the game.
12. Professionals
I often go to the dental hospital with my children.
Let the child be familiar with the process of dental examination, let doctors and nurses reason with the baby, and teach the baby to brush his teeth in person. The baby likes to listen to the words of teachers and doctors.
In short, habit formation is the most critical thing. Once the habit is formed, parents will feel much easier. Before the habit is formed, it is a testing stage for parents. Giving up is a choice, but sticking to it will benefit children for life.
Come on, parents!
Responsible Editor: Fei Fei