Check out this article on the 7 Unique Ways to Get Your Kids to Floss!
Dental health needs to be taken as a priority. Inculcating the habit of maintaining good dental hygiene at an early age will make sure you have a healthy and beautiful smile forever.
While we generally teach and discuss how to brush properly the part we tend to miss out is flossing. Using dental floss is necessary to remove food particles or plaque stuck in corners of the mouth that may not be accessible by a toothbrush.
Flossing is a challenge with children, but it’s essential for their dental health. Regular flossing helps to fight against plaque, clean teeth, improve breath, and prevent major dental care problems. Teaching your child to floss can not only be easy, but it can also be fun.
Try to play games to help them learn how flossing works, then teach them to floss their own teeth. Once they start flossing like a pro, encourage them to floss regularly for better oral health.
Take good care of your child’s baby teeth. They do eventually fall out but until they do, baby teeth play an important role in helping your child bite and chew food, and speak clearly.
Here are 7 unique ways in which you can teach and get your kids to floss properly and regularly.
7 Unique Ways to Get Your Kids to Floss!
The Floss Game
You kids are yet to get their permanent teeth. Still teaching them to keep them clean is important. Make a small game out of flossing every day which can be a great way to encourage kids to take up the habit.
Have a small chart where you can give them points or stars or fun stickers after a competition between you and your kid or among the siblings. Winning the game will make it fun for the kids to floss every day.
Make the chart colorful and interactive.
The Time Game
Timers are another way to ensure your kids are having fun while they floss. You can add a timer to watch how long it takes for the dental cleanup routine every day and record the progress.
You can also narrate a small story within this time to make it fun. Keep a certain slot of your day exclusively to floss and make sure you do not miss this time with your kid.
Reward System
Rewards ensure your kids are encouraged to continue the habit. The reward could be a small gift or even a fun outing. The important task is to appreciate their commitment to follow the habit every day. Reward them with something they would love to keep them excited like science experiment kits or puzzle games. Use a floss fairy trick to reward your kids which will make them excited.
Make it a Family Thing
The best way to teach good habits to your kids is to do it with them. It will help them take you as a role model and follow the same.
Sing and dance around and have fun while flossing which will make kids look forward to this time of the day. This is another way to teach them how to floss properly.
Make this a fun routine every day which will make them look forward to it. It should be the family fun time they enjoy every day.
Show and Tell
Small videos or animations or even stories are graphical content that will register better in your kid’s mind. Show them videos where they teach you how to floss and why it is important.
You can make a fun image compilation which shows the benefits of using floss. Spend time while showing this compilation to them and use it to teach them the importance of dental hygiene.
Make sure the video is motivating and positive to get better results. Try to demonstrate the importance of flossing with some simple experiments that you can perform with your kids.
A proper flossing technique by demonstrating how much floss to cut, how to wrap it around your fingers, and move the floss around in between teeth. Make them watch you floss a few times before trying it on themselves.
Fun Products
Kids often love to use products that are appealing to them. They also tend to keep up with habits that involve things of their interest.
So, next time you go shopping for floss, take them with you and stroll around to let them pick their favorite one. This way you know they will enjoy the activity and look forward to it.
Flavored products may be an exciting way to motivate the kids to make flossing a habit. Buy them fruit-flavored floss specially designed for kids, and several other products they’ll want to use to floss their teeth.
The Fun Faces
Making funny faces is an exciting way of showing your kids the benefits of flossing. So, stand before your mirror and make funny faces before floss that will expose their teeth where they get to see the dirt monster.
Now floss and destroy the dirt monsters and make funny faces to make sure teeth are cleaned well. Ask your kids to inspect your mouth and you do the same to them to ensure all the dirt monsters have been destroyed.
Take time to discuss with kids the harms of not flossing regularly. Flossing should be a daily practice, and it should begin as soon as two teeth touch each other.
Once kids learn how to floss teeth on their own, they will have the skills to keep their smiles beautiful for decades. Dental health of your kids should never be handled with a careless attitude.
For cases where certain dental treatments may be required make sure professionals with the training perform them for a pain-free procedure and best results. These ideas will help you teach your kids in a fun way to floss. It will be appealing to them which will make it less of a struggle to ensure they floss regularly.
