Trying to make teeth brushing less of a battle with my 5-year-old, and I keep seeing two main ideas: those flashy toothbrushing apps with songs and timers, or the old-school way with a homemade brushing chart and stickers. We tried one app that had a dancing dinosaur, which was fun for about a week... then she got bored. But I'm not sure if sticker charts would hold her attention any longer (she tends to lose interest in reward systems pretty fast unless there's, like, chocolate involved, which defeats the purpose).
Anyone have luck with either? Do your kids stick with the app routine or do they get more into earning stickers and seeing their progress on paper? Or is there a third option I'm totally missing here? Curious what actually works in real life, not just what sounds good online.
We tried one app that had a dancing dinosaur, which was fun for about a week... then she got bored.
Honestly, I get anxious about keeping up with routines, so I totally get the struggle. My niece lost interest in both apps and charts pretty fast. Has anyone tried just brushing together as a family? I wonder if making it a group thing helps, or if it just makes it more chaotic.
Brushing as a group actually worked for us, at least for a while. It turned into more of a bonding thing than a chore, plus the kids liked seeing us do it too. Sure, sometimes it got a bit silly or messy... but honestly, that seemed to help keep them interested longer than any app did.
I get the whole “brushing as a group” thing, and yeah, it does make it more fun for a bit. But honestly, that never really stuck for us. Once the novelty wore off, everyone just wanted to do their own thing again.
“it turned into more of a bonding thing than a chore, plus the kids liked seeing us do it too.”
Did you ever run into problems when you couldn’t all brush together? Like, if one person was running late or whatever, did it just not happen? That was a big issue for us. The group thing worked on weekends but weekdays were chaos. The apps at least kept the kids brushing even if I wasn’t right there.
I’m curious if your kids ever got bored of the group routine, or if you had to switch it up? For us, the mess and the silliness got old fast... then it was back to nagging.
We’ve seen this a lot in the office—kids will get excited about something new, but it fades fast, whether it’s an app or stickers. Sometimes mixing things up helps: like using the app some nights, chart others, maybe even letting her pick a new toothbrush together. Kids do love having choices, and honestly, sometimes just brushing together and chatting about their day works better than any reward. It’s not perfect every night though… some days you’re just trying to get through it without a meltdown.