Teaching Daily Hygiene to Children

If you are a parent, you know and can relate with situations that it's hard to keep our children motivated in doing their daily hygiene; specially when it comes to bathing and brushing their teeth.  In the house, what we usually do is explain things why it is necessary for them so they'll keep encouraged. But this method doesn't work all of the time even when we have said the nicest words, carefully explained things and even gave promises.  It freaking us out!  So, how are they solved?  I wanted to share things that I found to be helpful solving these hygiene issues with my children.

When children refuses doing their daily hygiene, the probable reason is they are tired of it.  Doing things over and over again causes them to get bored.  We have to think of ways to keep their excitement.  I have my children brush their teeth after bathing.  Here are my personal solutions to keep my children excited in bathing and brushing time:

Let them play with toys during bath time.  I let my children play inside the bathroom and allow them to bring some of their toys that they can play with water.  Rubber ducks and water guns are good toys.  My children love playing with bubbles too.  When they are not in mood to take a bath I would blow bubbles and show it to them.  Bubbles will attract them going inside the bathroom.

Try giving your children a new toothbrush.  This will make them very delightful.  Most children love new things.  We try keep new toothbrush as a spare so we can always have a replacement anytime.  I have used this trick twice and it was successful.  (Of course you don't have to change their brushes every week.)  My daughter had a toothbrush that flashes light for one minute.  It made her excited even her brother seeing the lights flashing while brushing their teeth.  When the light stops, it was the signal to rinse their mouth.

Watch videos.  I found this set of Hapee kiddie toothpaste with free Sesame Street Video.  My children loves Elmo.  Elmo and other Sesame Street character serve as a model to keep teeth clean.  This CD is a collection that teaches children how to properly care for their teeth and explains what happens when they visit a dentist.

 Play video games.  There are a lot of free games in the internet.  Naturally children are playful and they easily learn things when they enjoy it.  My children downloaded an app "Talking Ginger".  With this app, they needed to help ginger brush her teeth, take a shower and use the toilet. With  this, it was also helpful to successfully potty train our daughter.

Admit it or not there are also times when we adults find it difficult to brush our teeth and take a bath.  (Bakit nga ba may mga panahon na nakakatamad?)  Like our children we needed motivations to conquer the lazy attitude right?