We had a similar experience with flavored toothpaste—bubblegum was the winner in our house. Funny how mint is such a turn-off for little ones, isn't it? Another thing that worked for us was letting my daughter pick out her own toothbrush. She got super excited about brushing when she had a sparkly unicorn brush she chose herself. Curious if anyone's tried those toothbrushes with built-in timers or music... do kids actually stick with them, or does the novelty wear off quickly?
We tried one of those musical toothbrushes a while back—honestly, the novelty wore off pretty quickly. At first, my son loved brushing along to the tune, but after about a week, he was back to rushing through it again. What actually worked better for us was turning brushing into a silly competition—like who can make the most foam or funniest face in the mirror. Has anyone else found playful competitions helpful, or does that just lead to chaos in your house?
Haha, competitions definitely worked in our house too...until toothpaste started flying everywhere. Have you tried storytelling? Like brushing away tiny tooth monsters—worked wonders for my niece, but maybe that's just her imagination running wild.
Storytelling can totally be a hit or miss, depending on the kid. My nephew loved the tooth monster battle idea too, at first anyway. But then he got suspicious (smart kid...) and started grilling me about monster biology and habitats—questions I definitely wasn't prepared for, haha. Still, I think you're onto something with imagination-based strategies. Kids love feeling like heroes, right? Maybe tweaking the story to match their interests could help keep things fresh and believable.
"Maybe tweaking the story to match their interests could help keep things fresh and believable."
Totally agree with this. My daughter went through a dinosaur phase, so we turned brushing into a mission to protect her teeth from "cavity-saurus" attacks. Worked great until she started asking detailed questions about dinosaur diets and tooth structures... kids are way smarter than we give them credit for, haha. I found that mixing up the themes every now and then kept her curiosity satisfied and made brushing less of a chore.
