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brushing teeth @ hair

Hi I'm Grandma of Destiny, who is soon to be 4 years old. I child sit a few days out of the week. I have great difficulty getting her to #1: brush her teeth...I've tried fun toothbrushes, battery and standard...singing while we brush....we all brush together. #2: brush her hair. I don't do this. Only when she's sleeping,(she even struggles then) because she screams so. I wonder if her scalp is highly sensitive.

Re: brushing teeth @ hair

Try giving Destiny the toothbrush and encourage her to do it herself, watch over her and show her how to get to the back teeth etc. she sounds as if she is ready to give it a go and is being stubborn because she wants to do it herself. On the hair thing, again she probably wants to be in control, use conditioner on her hair after shampooing to make it easy to comb/brush through and give her the brush. Keep praising her for her efforts even if they are not up to your standards! Good luck

Re: Re: brushing teeth @ hair

Thanks for the quick reply. We do let her do it herself...she still refuses. She doesn't want to do it. Have you heard of sticker charts...do you think she's too young for this...does it work for brushing teeth.

I will try the conditioner and having her brush her own hair....Thanks again, Karlene

Re: brushing teeth @ hair

Karlene, My friend has four year old twins and they hate doing both brushing their teeth and their hair. First we use a good conditioner on their hair when they are in the bath tub and I bought some kids (leave in) - no tangle spray. We wet their hair with a spray bottle (if they didnt just get out of the bath) and then spray in some of the no tangle conditioner stuff and then brush it, sometimes you have to use quite a bit of the no tangle stuff to get it to be tangle free but at least its good for their hair. One of the girls said that it made her head itch, we figured she maybe had a sensitive scalp so we tried a different kind and she was just fine. Also try using different kinds of brushes. About the teeth, we explain to them that they have to get the sugar bugs out so their teeth dont get cavitys, then if they brush out all of the sugar bugs they get to use the very yummy kids floride mouth wash. They look forward to the bublegum flavored mouth wash.